Enterprise Ireland Stages Event in Seattle Showcasing Irish Wireless Technologies & Cloud Computing Innovation

Ireland's Ambassador to the US Presides over Event and Launches the Seattle Irish Network

News provided by

Jun 08, 2010, 11:00 ET

SEATTLE, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Ireland's growing influence on Seattle's technology landscape is on display here today at an Enterprise Ireland-sponsored event that gathers Irish software experts and executives from Seattle's leading technology companies to discuss next-generation wireless infrastructure/mobile applications and cloud computing innovations. Ireland's Ambassador to the US, His Excellency, Michael Collins, will preside over the event. Separately, Ambassador Collins will also launch Seattle's Irish Network, marking an expansion of this Diaspora-led organization that is already entrenched in New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, San Diego and San Francisco.

"Today's events reflect Ireland's increasing contribution to information technology (IT) innovation in the region," said John McIntyre, west coast manager and senior vice president of software and services at Enterprise Ireland. "Companies like Newbay, a leader in the converged digital lifestyle services sector, and InishTech, which provides Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services, are planting their US roots in Seattle for proximity to the world's software giants and to tap into the City's culture of innovation and entrepreneurship."

Newbay and InishTech join a group of Ireland-based companies in Washington State that employ more than 2100 Americans. The regional investment is part of a broader trend that makes Ireland the 13th largest investor in the US. Currently, more than 82,000 Americans across all 50 States are employed by 220 Ireland-based companies. Top sectors include: technology, life sciences, international services, industrial and consumer products, and educational services.

Ireland's IT industry benefits from ambitious initiatives that combine the efforts of universities, entrepreneurs, Government organizations and international corporations. Such initiatives are enabling innovations on a global scale. In the wireless sector, for example, the Test and Trial Licensing Program, the brainchild of Ireland's Commission for Communications Regulation, provides wireless technology leaders with a novel way to speed their next-generation products from R&D to market by offering a staging area to develop, test and trial product functionality across Ireland's wide range of radio frequencies. Just last week, Swedish mobile giant, Ericsson, successfully trialed a new mobile technology that may be used to support services like high-definition TV, videoconferencing and more.

Along with advances in wireless innovation, Irish entrepreneurs are also leveraging their IT edge to pioneer technologies that enable, secure and protect data that is increasingly being stored remotely—or "virtualized" in the cloud. To advance the opportunity, the country is fast establishing itself as a haven for energy-efficient data centers, providing international companies with a sophisticated platform to "virtualize" their offshore business models and services. Within the space, new opportunities are emerging for Ireland's IT innovators. These include: infrastructure (VoIP, security and storage), software (email, directory services and business applications) and information (data warehousing, knowledge repository and management).

For more information on Enterprise Ireland, please visit www.enterprise-ireland.com or www.americas.enterprise-ireland.com

SOURCE Enterprise Ireland