The “data cloud” spells enormous opportunity for Ireland. “Innovation Ireland” (the three Irish agencies responsible for developing Ireland’s capability in this area – Enterprise Ireland, IDA and Science Foundation Ireland) have teamed together with the Dublin Web Summit to host a major international event in Dublin entitled “Beyond The Cloud” taking place in the RDS on 27th October.
The cloud computing market is projected to grow to $150bn by 2013 (Gartner). It is estimated that over €7bn is spent on designing and building datacentres across Europe per annum (DCD). Demand for data storage is growing at over 40% per annum. A recent report from Goodbody Economic consultants notes that cloud computing sales by Irish based companies could reach €9.5bn per annum by 2014 and provide up to 8,600 jobs.
 Some rights reserved by Gypsy Saskia
Cloud computing is a key strategic focus for the Irish Government, and is a priority area for development and support. The IDA has ensured that Ireland is leading the way in global cloud computing investment as evident by recent investments by global leaders, who are making Ireland the centre for their cloud computing strategies (Amazon, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Google, HP).
Irish companies have been behind the design, build and fit-out of these centres and other major international datacentres. 34 of these and other Enterprise Ireland client companies providing innovative solutions to help in the efficient and secure operation of these centres will meet over 100 international buyers invited by Enterprise Ireland to attend the event. These include global heads of Innovation and Technology at both Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bank, and senior decision makers from Telefonica, BT France, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, H&M and Mail.RU (Russia’s largest Internet Provider).
Key to the development of new cloud computing technologies is the presence of a supportive R&D collaborative environment and the development of innovative technologies underpinning the sector driven by Science Foundation Ireland researchers.
This unique ecosystem of multinational and indigenous expertise combined with significant research spend is helping to position Ireland as a leader in cloud and datacentre capability. “Beyond The Cloud” enables Ireland to further extend international recognition and position Ireland as a centre of excellence in this area: details of topics and speakers are available at http://www.dublinwebsummit.com/schedule#5. For more updates, keep an eye on #beyondthecloud on Twitter.
Amazon, Cloud, Google, Microsoft, Potential Exporters
Group purchasing and discount sites are all the rage among local businesses and their customers. According to recent research by consultancy firm BIA/Kelsey, the US market alone is set to grow from USD873 million in 2010 to USD3.93 billion in 2015.
Naturally, consumers worldwide are rushing to seize on great online deals being offered by SMEs, from restaurants to manicurists. For consumers, the idea is simple: sign up to receive digital coupons (sometimes with strings attached, but more on that later) and then enjoy discounts and savings when you spend money on a selected product or service. (more…)
eBusinesslive, eMarketing, Facebook, Google, Group purchasing, Groupon, LivingSocial, SMEs
Every visitor to your website has a different back-story. Some will have found your site by searching for the products and services you offer. Others will go straight to your site because a friend, colleague or one of your sales team passed them the URL.
Once on your site, each visitor will have different expectations and desires. Some will simply want more information, while others will want to make a purchase. (more…)
Analytics, Behaviour, eBusinesslive, eMarketing, Google, tracking
Have you ever wondered why buying paid apps on the Android Market took so long to make it to Ireland?
I’ve found an interesting perspective from Kyle Baxter on why Google are really in the smartphone OS business. I tried to extract the gist below, the full article is still worth a read as it has an impact on any Irish Software company developing for mobile devices. Note that this is not meant as an argument against Google or Android – but understanding the bigger picture can help people to ride the wave rather than fighting it  What’s your opinion? – Leave a comment below.
“In essence, Since Google’s business is advertising, shifting industries away from paying business models is in their interest. If people are willing to pay for email, mapping and documents, Google’s business model is limited. Thus, using the outsized revenues they make from advertising on search, Google gives away Gmail, Maps, Docs, navigation, translation, et cetera, so no one can compete in those areas—to make free the norm for these services. If Google is giving away a quite good service, it’s hard to compete with them in that area, and so the economics of that business shift away from paid services to advertising-supported. And if a business becomes dependent on advertising for revenue, that’s good for Google, because they’re better at it than everyone else.
Google, Potential Exporters, Smartphone
For many small businesses, the prospect of digging into their web traffic details to extract useful business information can seem highly technical and somewhat daunting.
But without intelligent use of website visitor data, your company will miss out on vital information, such as how many visitors your company website is getting, where they begin and end their visit to your website, and how they found your site in the first place. (more…)
Analytics, Content, eBusinesslive, eMarketing, Google, Keywords, Location, Tools, Traffic
|
 |
|
