Cloud computing ‘could revolutionise economy and create 20,000 jobs’

THE cloud computing industry has the ability to revolutionise the economy over the next decade in the same manner as the IFSC did over the past 20 years — with nearly 20,000 new jobs a possibility — according to a new study.

The impact report carried out by Goodbody Economic Consultants for Microsoft Ireland claims that Ireland is perfectly poised to capture “a disproportionately large” share of the global cloud market, which is estimated to be worth around €70bn by 2014.

By that time, according to the report, Ireland could be benefiting from €9.5bn in annual sales from the sector and directly employing 8,600 people in it — while another 11,000 could be employed in some 2,000 new non-IT related SMEs.