Ireland’s competitiveness and jobs opportunity: cloud computing
01 April 2011
A question on a lot on Irish people's minds at the moment is: where next for Ireland? What areas do we need to focus on to restore competitiveness in the country?
It was for this reason that Microsoft Ireland commissioned an economic impact report to quantify the opportunities offered by rapidly creating a cloud computing industry in Ireland and to identify the next steps to deliver on its promise. The findings are contained in the report entitled - ‘Ireland’s Competitiveness and Jobs Opportunity: Cloud Computing’ which was published in January.
And the findings are clear.The cloud computing industry can deliver jobs, help restore competitiveness, create new export markets and attract Foreign Direct Investment. It can deliver massive costs savings to the public sector and Irish businesses of all sizes. It can improve Ireland’s reputation globally as an innovative and dynamic country. In other words, cloud computing is a part of the solutions to the current challenges facing the country. However, this will only happen if we move quickly to implement the right policies, develop the right skills and close the gaps in awareness in the public and private sector. Otherwise, Ireland’s opportunity to capture a large share of the estimated €70 billion global cloud computing industry will be missed.
The key findings of the report include:
- Cloud computing is a major evolving industry that has the potential to create €9.5 billion in annual sales per annum by 2014, providing 8,600 jobs.
- In addition, because cloud computing lowers costs to businesses, by migrating to the cloud the report estimates the establishment of an additional 2,000 new non-IT small and medium businesses employing 11,000 people.
- Early adoption of cloud computing by Irish users will take costs of €0.5 billion per annum out of Irish organisations.
It’s interesting to note that many of the 8,600 jobs will be created by start-up companies developing for the cloud. We firmly believe that Ireland’s economic success in the future will be built on home grown Irish companies. It’s pretty exciting to think that if we put the right infrastructure in place to support the growth of an indigenous cloud sector, that the next Facebook or Salesforce.com could come out of Ireland. Ireland has one of the most successful BizSpark programs in the world – because we’re a nation of entrepreneurs and I believe that we have the creativity and drive required to create a world class cloud computing sector in Ireland with local talent.
As part of our celebrations to mark 25 years investing in Ireland, we wanted to invest in a study which would contribute to the continuing challenge of Ireland’s competitiveness. It is our firm view that cloud computing holds the key to Ireland’s future economic success.
Related content
Irish company uses cloud to give SMEs access to the same HR tools as large firms
Cloud computing: the fast way to bring software to new markets
Leading Irish start-ups to success