Daily Digest 17 September

17-09-2008

by Emmet Cole

IBM opens EUR30m data centre in Dublin | USD21m venture funding for Cork firm

Got data? Dublin 15 certainly does, with news on Wednesday that IBM has announced an investment of EUR30 million in a next-generation data centre at IBM's Technology Campus in Mulhuddart, Dublin. The new facility is fully owned and operated by IBM and will provide a range of IT services for the Irish and global marketplace. The centre will also serve as a hub for delivering IBM software to clients in 84 countries. The investment is expected to create 34 jobs in data centre services and supply chain delivery. Interested applicants -- especially those with supply chain logistics skills -- have been invited to apply online at IBM's Irish website.

PCH International has announced it has received USD21 million in venture funding from three venture capital firms based in Silicon Valley. The funding, from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Focus Ventures, will be used to expand the company's operations in Europe, China and South-East Asia. Founded in Cork in 1996, PCH International provides supply chain management services to the consumer electronics, personal computer, medical devices, telecom and other technology industries.

Smart Telecom, a provider of communication services based on local loop unbundling (LLU), has sent an open letter to EU Commissioner Viviane Reding and Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, outlining what it describes as failures in the unbundling process that could impact the development of next-generation network and services. According to Smart, the unbundling of the Irish telecoms sector has completely failed and urgent intervention by the Government and the EU is needed. LLU is a regulatory process that enables multiple telecoms operators to use connections from a telephone exchange to customer's premises. There are approximately 19,000 unbundled paths currently established in the Irish market.

Tullamore and Mullingar Hospitals boast new Radiology Information and Picture Archiving and Communication (RIS/PACS) systems with in-built voice recognition technology, thanks to the successful rollout of a solution developed by Carestream Health, it was announced Wednesday. The new systems offer voice recognition, remote management, diagnostic reporting, patient referrals, scheduling, e-ordering, image viewing, capture and archival.

The greening of the IT world increased a little on Wednesday with notebook manufacturer Lenovo announcing that it has joined international non-profit The Climate Group. The PC maker also launched a US-centred customer-reward scheme based on recycling, as well as fresh incentives to power computers with renewable energy. Lenovo is aiming to improve its carbon efficiency by 10 percent between 2007 and 2012.

Finally, Apple fans are scratching their heads after rumours (and photographs) started circulating online of a new 4GB model of the iPod Nano. Although the company has made no announcement of a 4GB Nano, the device is apparently already available in Holland for EUR119. No one seems to know yet whether these are limited editions, or just a gaffe by Apple. One thing is for sure: Apple collectors will be on to this like paparazzi after a (reduced capacity) supermodel.