Taoiseach Enda Kenny will today open Hewlett-Packard's new 87,000sq ft innovation centre at Ballybrit, Co Galway.
The new innovation centre will house 700 engineers, consultants and support teams currently employed by HP in Galway. Over 100 construction workers were involved in the construction of the new facility for the US technology company on its site at Ballybrit.
The company said the state-of-the-art facility would confirm Galway’s status as a “centre of excellence within HP globally” focusing on software research and development, cloud technology and business service innovation.
HP executive vice-president of global technology and operations John Hinshaw said the opening coincided with HP's 44th year in Ireland this year, tracing its history back to the site of the original Digital manufacturing facility in Ballybrit.
He said the company’s Irish operations have evolved from a predominantly manufacturing base into a diverse organisation that now boasted next-generation research development, financial services, customer services, sales and marketing, adding that HP had invested over $1 billion in Ireland over the last 20 years.
HP Ireland managing director Martin Murphy said there were currently 40 open positions in Galway and Leixlip in roles such as software development, engineering and operations support.
Last June HP announced 100 additional jobs in Galway. The new positions were created to assist HP’s enterprise customers with cloud planning, implementation and operational needs. The investment was part of the company’s plans to expand the global reach of the HP Helion portfolio of cloud products and services. The HP Cloud Research and Development team in Galway played a large role in delivering HP’s public cloud – one of the largest OpenStack-based public clouds in the world.
“The technologies being developed here in our Galway R&D facility are at the forefront of HP’s OpenStack-based Helion program, and will play a key role in future development of global cloud services from HP,” said Mark Gantly of HP.
HP Ireland employs about 4,000 in Ireland, with facilities in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast.
