AWS

There is an abundance of talent in Ireland which helped us to exceed our talent growth targets ahead of schedule. Ireland is a great place to do business, the country’s creative culture and diverse pool of technical skills make it an ideal location for our rapidly expanding business

Mike Beary

Ireland Country Manager (2017-2023), AWS

Why Ireland for AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud computing services to individuals, businesses and governments. The company launched in the early 2000s and has grown to become one of the largest cloud platforms in the world, with revenues of more than $80 billion and more than 136,000 employees.

Steady expansion in Ireland

After first opening an office in Ireland in September 2004, Amazon opened a Customer Service Centre in Cork in April 2006. The 47,500sq ft site employs people in multiple roles from instructional designers and support engineers, to operations managers and capacity planners. The following year, AWS chose Ireland to launch its first infrastructure region outside of the USA.

Between 2011 and 2018, AWS contributed more than €2 billion in capital expenditure and ongoing operational spend in data centre construction and operation in Ireland. During this time, it hired more than 2,000 employees directly and supported 9,500 jobs indirectly in the construction and sub-supplier sectors.

In July 2020, Amazon announced another 1,000 permanent jobs in Ireland over two years across multiple sites in Cork and Dublin. These highly skilled roles include software and systems development engineers, data centre technicians, solutions architects, security specialists and programme managers. Amazon’s total permanent workforce in Ireland now stands at 5,000 people. Amazon also invested in a new 170,000 sq ft campus in Charlemont Square, Dublin to house its growing AWS cloud computing workforce. 
 

Sustainable presence in a supporting environment

In September 2020, the first of Amazon’s wind farm projects in Ireland came online at Esk in County Cork. This is also the company’s first operational renewable energy project outside the USA. A year later, it supported the development of a wind farm in Meenbog, Co. Donegal, helping Amazon towards powering its global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. In Tallaght, AWS supports a project which redirects waste heat from its data centres to serve South Dublin County Council’s HeatNet Project. It’s the first project of its kind in Ireland. 
 

How Ireland helps AWS

• Ireland was AWS’ first data centre site outside the USA
• €2 billion+ invested in data centre infrastructure between 2011-2018
• 5,000+ employees in Ireland
• Continued commitment to source and support renewable energy projects