Ireland's leaders in ICT, both public and private, have their heads in the cloud -- and are hoping lots of companies will follow them.
The economic case for the country being a "Center of Excellence" for cloud services is being made daily. IDA Ireland, the state agency that is soliciting cloud providers, touts the country's youthful, well-educated and skilled labor force, attractive tax policy, business-friendly climate and access to markets throughout the European Union.
"It's the four T's -- tax, technology, talent, and track record," says Denis Curran, vice president for ICT at IDA Ireland.
And an S -- for security.
Just this week, Richard Bruton, the nation's minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, announced a $5 million investment in an applied research center in cloud computing. Meanwhile, a recent white paper from Microsoft predicts that by 2014, annual revenue from cloud services in Ireland could reach $9.5 billion, which would help Ireland-based firms collectively cut expenses by a half-billion Euro and create 8,600 new jobs.