DATA CENTRE developer Digital Realty Trust (DLR) has acquired a site in Dublin’s Profile Park and has received planning permission for four linked data-processing facilities.

Google is currently building a €75 million data centre in the same west Dublin business park.

US-quoted DLR builds and acquires data centres and then leases them to clients. Permission was granted for the development last year which would provide 21,090 sq m of data centre and office space.

Last month DLR lodged a revision to its application which, if granted, will extend the life of the planning permission to seven years.

There has been a mini-boom in the construction of data centres in the Dublin area in the last five years, supporting both multinational and indigenous companies who are doing more business online. Microsoft opened a €340 million “mega-data centre” in Grange Castle in 2009, and last October received permission to expand that facility by a third.

In common with Google and Microsoft, DLR executives cited Ireland’s climate as a key factor in building a data centre.

The US firm will use ambient air to cool the densely packed racks of computers in its centre which will give “a substantial reduction from the electrical consumption typically required for cooling a data centre”, said Adam Levine, vice-president of sales for DLR.

Mr Levine said his firm was working with agencies including IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to market the facility as “part of the ecosystem” that makes Ireland an attractive business location. “We think Ireland is a great place to do business.”

Separately, IDA Ireland announced yesterday that US internet security firm Webroot has opened its new international headquarters in Dublin, and has recruited over a dozen staff.