Inflow.com, a US-based data management company, is to invest more than $10 million in a managed Internet data centre to be based in Clondalkin.
The centre will initially house 20,000 square feet of co-location or Web-hosting space and 15,000 square feet of office space, with further expansion contingent on customer demand.
The company is hiring between 25-30 people initially and talking to IDA Ireland about further opportunities in the managed services sector.
Inflow is seeking to recruit a number of network and Cisco engineering staff for its facility and held an open night meeting in Dublin earlier this week.
The company offers a suite of value-added managed services as part of its co-location offering. These include services that provide high-performance Internet access, comprehensive application monitoring services and managed firewall services, and enable customers to have realtime access to their accounts
"We try to solve problems that IT and Internet-based companies face when they grow quickly, through our data facilities and our trained staff," said Mr Jim McHose, chief financial officer at Inflow.
"We guarantee 100 per cent uptime for Web-hosting services and will pay compensation if we don't deliver."
Inflow will use Eircom and Esat as its carriers for local connectivity and is still negotiating with Internet backbone providers such as 360 Networks and Global Crossing for transatlantic connectivity.
The Denver-based company has 13 data centres in the US and five more under construction. Its Dublin centre is scheduled to be up and running in the first quarter of 2001.
Mr McHose said the company chose to locate its first European centre in Dublin because of the large investment the Government had made in infrastructure. "We wanted to be somewhere which we think could be the next Silicon Valley," he added.
He said the company would use Dublin as a "laboratory site" and a foothold to spread across Europe. "Dublin is clearly a first step for us and we will make sure our systems are in place and we have developed our skills," he added.
Mr McHose said he could not reveal how much of the facility had been pre-booked by its existing clients. However, he said the company would seek to build a strong customer base in Ireland and Europe.
Inflow, a private company, has raised $220 million in funding and is seeking to list shortly on the NASDAQ. It generated revenues of $3 million in the second quarter of 2000.
An IDA spokesman confirmed the agency was in discussion with Inflow, although he said no firm deals had been struck. He said that the agency was projecting that the Republic would have some 1.2 million square feet of Web-hosting space in the next few years.
Several companies have already established Internet data centres including the Wolfe group, Worldport and Esat.
