PlanNet21 to invest €20m in Dublin headquarters and data centre

Technology firm PlanNet21 Communications is to invest €20 million building a data centre in Dublin, and expanding its employee numbers in Ireland.

The company is building a 930sq m (10,000sq ft) data centre, which will include 465sq m (5,000sq ft) in business continuity or disaster recovery space. This is space for a business to move to in the event of a disaster in their own building. The business can move all their staff to the building, have full office facilities available to them, and have all their systems running direct from the data centre onsite.

The company said the data centre, which is due to open its doors in November this year, will be Ireland’s lowest PUE (power usage effectiveness) data centre.

PlanNet21 is also relocating to a new headquarters at Citywest Business Campus in Dublin this month, to accommodate staff growth. The data centre will be located at a separate location in Blanchardstown.

Creating 30 jobs

As part of the expansion, the company is creating 30 jobs, mainly in the engineering and professional services area. This will bring the business to more than 100 employees by the end of this year.

The company was co-founded by Denise Tormey, who is a finalist in this year's EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition. It has offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast, San Francisco and France, and is Ireland's largest Cisco Gold Partner.

PlanNet21 chief executive Peter Carroll said: "This is going to take us to the next level in the Irish and European market place and we feel the time is right to reinvest in our business."

Founded in 1998, PlanNet21 helps US companies establish or expand their operations in Europe and Asia. It deploys unified communications, data centre, wireless mobility, virtualisation and networking services on behalf of companies such as Dell, Cisco, NetApp, Polycom, VMware, Zendesk, and Palo Alto Networks.