IBM Opens Smarter Cities Technology Centre in Ireland

DUBLIN, March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and IDA Ireland today announced IBM's first Smarter Cities Technology Centre.  The centre will be located in Dublin, where IBM will build a highly skilled and cross-disciplinary team to help cities around the world better understand, interconnect and manage their core operational systems such as transport, communication, water and energy.  

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

The new Smarter Cities Technology Centre aims to create as many as 200 new roles in an IDA Ireland -supported investment of up to EUR 66 million over the next three years. The team of subject matter experts will work with city authorities, universities, small and large businesses as well as experts from IBM Research and the company's Software Development Lab in Ireland to research, develop and commercialise new ways of making city systems more connected, sustainable and intelligent.  

Due in large part to the enormous modeling complexity and intensive computing resources required to build truly integrated systems, urban planners and local governments have traditionally evolved separate solutions for areas such as water, traffic and emergency response.  By being able to integrate their core systems and use advanced analytic capabilities offered by IBM's new centre, cities can now enhance decision-making, improve urban planning, and provide better and more cost-effective services to citizens.

"Researchers at the new Centre will investigate how advanced analytics and visualisation techniques coupled with solutions such as Cloud, stream, and high performance computing, can help city authorities make optimal use of resources and so meet the challenges of our increasingly urbanised world," said Dr. Katherine Frase, Vice President, Industry Solutions and Emerging Business at IBM Research.

Speaking at today's announcement, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe TD, said, "I am delighted to welcome the new IBM Smarter Cities Technology Centre to Dublin.  The decision by IBM underscores the Irish Government's commitment to providing an environment where industry and academia can collaborate to create economic growth through innovation and research.  This project illustrates how IDA Ireland working with globally integrated businesses such as IBM can help create the Irish Smart Economy while also assisting highly innovative companies such as IBM to achieve their business goals."  

"In today's rapidly changing world, no company can afford to stand still. IBM has been in Ireland since 1956 and, continues to evolve its presence in Ireland towards higher value, knowledge intensive activity. Today's announcement is yet another step in the evolution and follows on from a number of announcements over the past three years which have ensured that Ireland continues to play a critical role in IBM's success," said Michael Daly, Country General Manager IBM Ireland.  

IDA Ireland CEO, Barry O'Leary said, "Today's announcement by IBM fits neatly with IDA Ireland's recently published strategy, Horizon 2020. Global megatrends, such as demographic changes present business opportunities for companies prepared to research, plan, prepare and innovate. Ireland's ability to act as a test-bed for research and new technology to enable companies develop and internationalise innovative products and services is a decisive factor in winning new investment of this kind."

IBM also welcomed the recent announcement by Dublin City of its intent to collaborate with IBM as a 'Test bed,' positioning Dublin as a Smarter City, embracing technology to stimulate economic activity and meeting the challenges of a globally competitive city for the future.

For additional resources for press on today's news, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/press/smartercities  

About IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency)

For more information about IDA Ireland, please visit: http://www.idaireland.com

SOURCE IBM