Software provider Hortonworks has opened up a new ‘centre of excellence’ in Cork, with plans to hire 50 people over the coming 18 months.

Situated beside the Clarion Hotel in Cork City, Hortonworks’ new office will initially be home to technical support staff, sales and back office staff, with plans to expand into other areas of its operations in the future.

With offices in 17 cities around the world, the decision to move to Cork was one that Hortonworks credits to three things: the IDA, available talent and the presence of other major businesses in the area.

“We chose Cork because the IDA showed us what it had to offer,” said Hortonworks’ VP of international relations, Andy Leaver.

“They brought us around Dublin, but also spoke of places outside the capital, so we looked at Limerick and Cork and decided on the latter because we saw what the likes of EMC work with down here.

“We’re delighted with the decision. The talent here appealed to us, of course.”

It’s a good day for Cork overall, with data analytics company Fortuity also announcing today (25 January) that it plans to create 10 new jobs in the city.

With customers like Jaguar, Zurich and Trustev, Hortonworks has seen business outside of its primary market in the US rocket up in recent months, with continued expansion needed to satisfy growing demand for the Hadoop software it provides to enterprise.

“Continued business momentum has led to this latest move,” said Leaver, who is in Cork today for the announcement but spoke to us from the company’s London office last week.

“I’m in London now in what is a primarily a sales office. We needed something else, we needed a centre of excellence.”

Founded in 2012, Hortonworks sells support subscriptions and, when looking at Hadoop – its chief product – it’s pure open source on the Apache software foundation.

Bluemetrix, a Cork-based big data specialist delivering web analytics and data consultancy, recently became the first Hortonworks Silver Certified Partner in Ireland.

With 30 of the 92 Hadoop committers, Leaver wanted to put more technical expertise into Europe, which is good news for Cork.

“The office is now open,” says Leaver, “with around 10 staff already in place. We’re looking to hire a similar number right now.”

With that, Cork joins the likes of Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, London, Paris, Budapest and Seoul in Hortonworks’ international network.

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Cork City image via Shutterstock