The market has tripled over the past four years, bringing the ever growing average annual spend to €1.3 billion ($1.45 billion).
Host In Ireland's report reveals the sector will have brought over €10 billion ($11.2 billion) in investment by 2022, underpinning more than 100,000 jobs in the ICT sector.
With 16 new data halls coming online in 2018, Ireland’s active data centres now number 53 with 29 currently in development.
Dublin, currently Europe’s largest data centre market, is now home to four of the leading five hyperscales active in the European market including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook.
The Q1 report also highlights the positive impact investment in data centre infrastructure has brought to Ireland in attracting leading tech companies.
Led by Garry Connolly, President and Founder of Host in Ireland, the organisation consists of 22 data hosting partners that collaborate to promote Ireland as the data hosting centre of Europe.
Host in Ireland’s Executive Committee consists of 22 C-level executives from Host in Ireland’s partner companies including Equinix, Interxion, Siemens and Schneider Electric.
Connolly said: “The enormity of this investment has been transformational for Ireland over the past 10 years.
“Our ability to provide the data infrastructure required by some of the largest companies in the world has meant that computer service related exports now top €69.3 billion [$77.6 million] making it the largest export sector in the economy beating pharmaceuticals and the agrifood sector.”
Host In Ireland also reported that increased levels of investment are expected to continue as demand for ICT services and data surges globally.
Connolly added: “The ability to send, receive and store vast amounts of information as quickly and efficiently as possible all being energised by green and renewable sources is key to Ireland retaining its competitive advantage in the tech industry.
“The demand for data globally only continues to grow and investment will continue so far as that trend lasts.”
Figures from construction consultants Mitchell McDermott reveal over half of the spend in data centre construction over the past twelve months was spent on equipment used to provide power and cooling, with one fifth spent on creating the building shell and architectural services.
Commenting on the typical spending breakdown of data centre construction investment, Anthony McDermott, Director of Mitchell McDermott said: “We find that typically 55% of spend in the sector is on equipment including generators and other large items such as air conditioning units.
“A further 20% is spent on civil, structural and architectural services, 15% is spent on mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and 10% on preliminary construction costs.”
Digital Realty is one of the companies that has seen Ireland's potential as it recently opened the doors to its second data centre at its Profile Park campus in Dublin.
