Microsoft set to fire up Dublin data center

24.09.2009
Microsoft has opened up for business its new Dublin data center, a massive 550,000-square-foot facility dedicated to serving primarily European customers.

Construction isn't quite done yet, with about 303,000 square feet finished, but Microsoft is accepting clients. The company will run "cloud" services from the center for consumers, businesses and developers, said Steve Clayton, who works in cloud-computing strategy for Microsoft International.

On the consumer side, the data center will run applications such as Windows Live Mail, formerly Hotmail, as well as Microsoft's other Live-branded services. Businesses will be able to subscribe to a range of hosted applications, including Exchange e-mail, the Sharepoint collaboration software and Office Communication Server, among others, Clayton said.

The Dublin facility will also host Microsoft's Azure platform, which will be made available in November. Azure is a platform that developers can use to host and manage Web-based applications.

Dublin was chosen for the data center due to the local talent pool, robust Internet connectivity and cool climate, Clayton said.

Microsoft is using outside air to cool the data center. One of the predominant costs for running a data center is electricity in order to keep servers cool. The data center's operating temperature can be maintained 95 percent of the time without mechanical or refrigerated cooling, such as chilled water systems.