Cloud CIX the largest commercial data centre outside Dublin, has announced ambitious plans to expand its capabilities by 500%, which will be a game changer for the Cork and Munster region.
The development, located in Hollyhill, will be completed in April 2018 – to coincide with Cloud CIX’s tenth anniversary – and will nearly double the footprint of the site to 32,000 square feet. More significantly this extension allows CIX to extend capability from 500kW to 3 MW, making it a significant facility by international standards. The technical specification for the new build is one of the best in the world, allowing clients achieve both high power density and low and industry leading energy efficiency.
Cloud CIX is the EU data centre with the lowest latency (the transit time for a message to reach its destination) to North America, and the Irish data centre with the lowest latency to London, which arguably makes it the best single data centre in the world from which to serve digital assets. This will provide Cork and the Munster region with a competitive advantage for many sectors including Financial Services.
This €6million investment with an expected follow-on investment of a further €6million in IT infrastructure, is the second major expansion since Cloud CIX was established in 2008, and follows the opening of a second data hall in 2014.
With ISO27001:2013 and ISO 9001:20015 registration, Cloud CIX more than 150 small and large clients including Dell EMC, Masterlink Logistics, Bon Secours Hospital Group, Populo, Viatel, and the PM Group. It continues to enjoy rapid growth due to the expanding service offering and the superb connectivity, low latency and a highly resilient network, which are now essential for modern businesses. With the new expansion plans not only will Cloud CIX have enhanced capacity but its team will be able to provide a one stop shop, full suite of turnkey IT services for clients.
Commenting on the expansion, CEO and owner, Jerry Sweeney said “Since opening the business in 2008, we have seen an amazing increase in the sophistication our customers’ demands from us. Initially we were focused on networking, power and cooling but soon our customers needed managed services. Cyber Security and Cloud Services are the challenges today. At Cloud CIX we anticipate the demands of the marketplace and we continue to invest and deliver capability to match these demands”.
This significant development is big news for Cork and beyond, as it further strengthens the region as an IT power centre, helping to attract even more businesses in the sector to locate here. Jerry Sweeney has also adopted a policy of ‘shopping local’ and has worked with Cork based companies and suppliers wherever possible in the expansion process.
Speaking about Cork, Jerry added “I really believe Cork has the potential to be a major connectivity centre similar to Marseilles. With twelve major subsea cables, Marseilles connects Europe to Africa across the Mediterranean and via the Suez Canal to the Far East. Cork should focus on becoming a switching centre with connections to North and South America, mainland Europe, and the Far East via the Arctic. With Cork’s existing renewables focused power infrastructure and ever improving subsea connectivity, Cork will attract more data centre business. Cloud CIX continues to lead the way on this path for the region.”
CEO of Cork Chamber of Commerce, Conor Healy said “We warmly welcome this announcement as we see the enhanced and expanded facility as being a huge asset to the region. Superb online connectivity is an essential ingredient for all businesses today and Cloud CIX have played a significant role in delivering this to the region. The enhanced offering will make the region even more attractive and we will use this as a key selling point when marketing the region to businesses who looking to open new locations”
For more information about Cloud CIX visit www.cix.ie