By Eoin English, Irish Examiner
Cork City Council will bring key business groups together for a think-tank event on Friday to ensure the region capitalises on new Tier 1 connectivity following its link to a new transatlantic high-speed internet cable, a spur of which was brought ashore in Cork in August.
Ireland is fast becoming a global centre of excellence for data storage business, with some of the biggest tech companies locating here.
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Cork hopes to capitalise on its link to Hibernia Express’s 4,600km ultra-low latency submarine cable, linking New York to England.
With a capacity for speeds of up to 100Gbps, tests have shown the state-of-the-art fibre-optic cable system can transfer data across the Atlantic in under 58.95 milliseconds — half a millisecond off the original projected speed.
When a spur was brought ashore in Cork, the IDA said it would make the city and county more attractive to foreign and domestic tech businesses, and would significantly enhance Ireland’s and Cork’s position as an optimum location for data-intensive tech companies.
Cork is already home to data-hungry tech giants such as Apple, EMC, and IBM. But with recent reports suggesting that demand from global businesses is expected to at least triple Ireland’s data centre capacity within the next three years, a major drive is being launched to ensure Cork gets a slice of the action.
Cork City Council, in association with CorkBIC, IDA, and Cork Chamber, as well as local, national, and international businesses, will host a stakeholder engagement event on Friday to discuss the region’s potential in this growth area.
