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Ireland’s government is making a concerted move to the Cloud. It has commissioned EMC, with Cisco, VMware, VCE and IDA Ireland to build a cloud computing innovation center that will be used to help Irish small and medium-sized businesses and the public sector test solutions in the Cloud.

The Cloud4Gov center is part of the Irish Government’s plans to boost its economy using new technologies.

Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte TD said Ireland has the right infrastructure to cater for cloud computing and could easily sell itself as a new cloud location.

“Ireland’s strong international telecoms connectivity and energy infrastructure, together with an environment that is conducive to hosting data centers gives Ireland a unique selling point as a hub for cloud computing,” Rabbitte aid.

“We are already leading the way in the global cloud computing investment as evidenced by recent investments by global leaders who are making Ireland the center for their cloud computing strategies.”

Google, Amazon, Zynga and Facebook all have data center in Ireland, and just last week Digital Realty Trust announced it had purchased 10 acres in a data center park just outside of the city to build out 193,000 sq ft of colocation data center space.

Irish-based telco Eircom’s data center Principal Jason O’Conaill said the Dublin region already has one of the densest data center clusters in Europe with companies largely attracted by Ireland’s strong skills base, built up during the dot-com boom, and its cool climate.

Climate is integral for data centers wanting to build cost efficient facilities using free-air cooling.

He said it also said companies are attracted to Ireland because of its favourable tax environment.

“If the moment can be maintained, Ireland’s cloud strategy has real potential to steer the country through the current economic challenges,” O’Conaill said.

EMC, parallel to the center, will focus on testing and engineering solutions for cloud computing.

EMC Executive VP of Human Resources Jack Mollen said the project is also designed to create jobs in the field of ICT and help boost the overall.

“EMC has created an initiative that places cloud at the heart of the delivery of public services, enabling transformation through innovation and new services,” Mollen said.

“It will put Ireland on the world stage in respect of cloud and big data - the biggest agenda items in the IT industry today.”