Vole expands in Ireland

MICROSOFT SAID IT intends to build a big data centre in Ireland.

The outfit will spend $500 million on a 51,000-square-foot development and cram it full servers and assciated wizardry.

John Mangelaars, vice president of the Microsoft Online Services Group, said the centre, in Dublin, would be the Vole's first 'mega-data centre' outside the United States. He said it "specifically targeted at the growth and performance of Windows Live services."

The centre which is due to come online in 2009 will support customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Despite its size and complexity the building will only employ around a dozen people.

The Irish government's Investment and Development Agency bunged the Vole a few Punt (er, Euro) as an inducement to set up there, but wouldn't say how much. The software firm already has some 1,200 irish employees. µ