DUBLIN, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- Draws on Skilled Workforce to Grow Intelligent Software

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new investments for its Ireland
Development Lab to produce intelligent software, which help lower cost of
operations; generate intelligence for quick growth; and build closer business
relationships with customers, partners and colleagues. New jobs will be
created for high value software engineering work at the lab, which addresses
real-world issues such as environment protection projects and maritime
affairs.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

IBM will have up to 100 new roles in Dublin, Cork and Galway -- including
new opportunities for technology graduates -- in an Industrial Development
Agency (IDA) Ireland supported investment of up to euro 25 million over the
next three years. These software engineers will focus on designing enterprise
cloud computing software, as well as Service Management and database software
with business analytic capabilities.

"Today's announcement highlights Ireland as an important place to help
fulfill our global research, development and business strategy," said Michael
Daly, General Manager, IBM Ireland. "The software will be standardized and
customized by customer demands."

Welcoming today's announcement, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan T.D.
said, "This is wonderful news coming from the largest information technology
company in the world. This knowledge-driven investment is highly significant
for Ireland. The benefits are tremendous in terms of the highly sophisticated
software technology that will be developed, the highly skilled positions that
will be created and the endorsement by a world industry leader that Ireland
is helping to fulfill IBM's global research, development and business
strategy."

"The Ireland Lab is one of more than 80 IBM research and development
laboratories around the world, providing intelligent software that serve
business purposes in many industries such as healthcare, energy,
telecommunications, transportation, retail and public services," said Dennis
King, Vice President for Advanced Collaboration Development at IBM. "We are
committed to extending our collaboration and database technologies to meet 
the growing need in the market."

Today, enterprise computing software is commonly used as a service.
Earlier in the year, IBM and the Marine Institute Ireland announced a
SmartBay program using an ensemble of cloud computing software to monitor
wave conditions, marine life and pollution levels in Galway Bay. It turns
mountains of data into intelligence and helps with fishermen activities and
future development of the bay.

IBM will expand the lab in three main areas including information
development, database and cloud computing software:

-- establishing a new software development team in Dublin to work on the
creation and testing of the next generation of IBM's DB2 database software,
which is used to gather and analyze information about their business and
subsequently make informed business decisions. This new team builds on the
existing capabilities in the Ireland Lab in DB2 Database development, and
will deliver industry specific data warehouse architectures for banking,
insurance, telecommunications, retail and healthcare.

-- creating a new cloud computing software development team to work on
IBM LotusLive offerings, which is a suite of cloud-delivered online
technologies for business. LotusLive provides essential collaboration
services to simplify and improve daily business interactions with customers,
partners and colleagues. Designed with security in mind, LotusLive
Connections and LotusLive Engage provide social networking capabilities such
as Web conferencing, file storing and sharing, content management, live chat,
and business forms.

-- creating a Centre of Excellence for Information Development to support
a number of software products across IBM Tivoli software which delivers
solutions to multiple industries such as telecommunications, banking,
pharmaceuticals and aerospace.

About IBM

For more information about IBM lab in Ireland, please visit:
www.ibm.com/ie/ibm/swg.html

About IDA Ireland
For more information about IDA Ireland, please visit www.idaireland.com

Contact information

    Jim O'Keeffe
    Media Relations, IBM Ireland
    okeeffej@ie.ibm.com
    +353-1-815-4124
    +353-86-8542054

    Trevor Holmes
    Head of Communications,
    IDA Ireland
    01-6034023/087-2425560