Ireland is well-known for its 40 shades of green. The technology space may be able to add to its 
41st shade as it is estimated that the cloud computing industry will be worth $82.9 billion by 2016.
Cloud computing’s humble beginnings date back to 1996 when an Ireland-based entrepreneur, Sean O’Sullivan, coined the phrase. Since then the term has been embraced by the industry to describe delivery of computer services through the internet infrastructure, and has been credited with transforming the media, computing and telecommunications industries.
Services such as Skype, Apple’s iCloud for content and data, and well-known computing applications like MSN Hotmail and Salesforce.com are all applications of cloud computing.
Ireland hasn’t stopped at simply naming the service; the country has become a major area of innovation for the evolution of the cloud. According to a recent study, in Ireland, the industry has the potential to create $9.5 billion in annual sales per annum by 2014, providing 8,600 jobs.
The economic impact study prepared for Microsoft in Ireland by Goodbody Economic Consultants revealed that Ireland has many of the necessary attributes to become a global cloud computing center of excellence, and could capture a disproportionately large share of the cloud computing industry.
The study also projected that the cost savings for small business from migrating to the cloud could result in some 2,000 new non-IT small and medium-sized firms being created that would in turn employ 11,000 people. Early adoption of cloud computing by Irish users could take costs of $500 million a year out of Irish businesses, it concluded.
