250 jobs created at IT firm
Richard Bruton was speaking in Ballincollig, Co Cork, as the Silicon Valley-headquartered virtualisation and cloud technology firm announced a major expansion of its Irish operations.
It follows a string of devastating job losses, including almost 600 jobs at Talk Talk in Waterford, and the release yesterday of CSO figures showing the number of people at work here in the second quarter was down 37,800 (2%) compared with the same period last year
“Today’s announcement is great news for Cork and shows that we are on the right track,” Mr Bruton said.
“But I understand also that every day is a struggle in this job. We are seeking to rebuild an economy that has had a real hard hammering in recent years.
“But days like this show that the underlying trends are positive. Many of the most dynamic and ambitious companies in the world regard Ireland as a location of choice… and that gives us confidence for the future. But there are also problems, and they will continue to be with us. We won’t solve the problems of the last seven or eight years very quickly — it’s going to be a tough grind.”
VMware, one of the world’s leading technology companies, has more than 10,000 employees globally, revenues of almost $3 billion (€2.16bn), and 250,000 customers.
Staff at its Irish operation develop software which helps companies use cloud computing to reduce costs and transform their IT business.
It opened its Ballincollig base in 2006, employing 190 within three years. Today it has 550 employees at two sites in the town.
Yesterday’s expansion will support the increasing demand for its services across the globe as companies continually seek to cut costs. The new jobs will be in technical support, sales and finance areas and will come on stream over the next three years.
Maurizio Carli, VMware’s senior vice-president and general manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “The availability of the required skill-sets and languages in Ireland, along with the strong work ethic and solutions-orientated approach of the campus, has proved to be invaluable for our business.”
Meanwhile, Education Minister Ruairí Quinn met the first students to undertake the world’s first industry-led Master’s degree programme in cloud computing, which was jointly developed by Cork Institute of Technology and technology giant EMC, based just outside Ballincollig.
Speaking in EMC’s Centre of Excellence, where he met four of the 64 students, Mr Quinn said the programme would help Ireland position itself “as a global hub for cloud computing”.
“The new students will play a key role in that effort, taking their places as the IT leaders of the future.”
It is estimated that cloud computing will be a $150bn industry by 2015 and that 8,600 cloud-computing related jobs could be created in Ireland by 2014.
VMware will have a stand at an International Careers Fair in Cork’s Clarion Hotel tomorrow.
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