Technology Helps Spanish Recession Hit Economy

While the Spanish economy is hardly out of recession, there is some good news at least for the island of Majorca which has come from Microsoft, who are planning a new 'Centre of Innovation' on the island.

Microsoft currently runs technology centres in over 20 locations worldwide. Microsoft technology Centres for Innovation have been launched in an effort to provide technological solutions and market expertise.

The company has centres devoted to specific areas such as law enforcement, financial services, real estate, business and other industry sectors. Microsoft refers to these centres as collaborative environments where experts come together with business managers to create and implement software systems.

Microsoft has already established a centre in Spain - Manresa, Catalonia in Spain's northeast corner. This particular centre is dedicated to innovation in productivity.

The second centre will be located in Majorca's capital Palma. This centre's focus is on tourism industry technology solutions. It's an important one not just for Majorca but for Spain since tourism makes up a significant portion of the Spanish Gross Domestic Product.

The local tourism indistry has been badly affected by the recession, despite plenty of cheap Majorca flight availability as less people have been taking a holiday.

Maria Garana, the company's president for Spain, referred to this centre as "a worldwide reference for technological applications in the tourism sector." Garana notes that the Majorca centre will provide tourism technological solutions for clients all over the world, not just in Spain. This seems fitting, considering that the country itself is a world leader in tourism promotion and generation.

The Centre for Health Innovation in Manresa is the company's first in the world. Microsoft has always provided health care software technologies. However, the proposed new centre will be the first which will be devoted solely to health care software solutions.

Experts in both industry sectors had suggested possible locations for these centres to be built. Places like Alicante, Benidorm and Elche had been proposed.

No matter where the Centre for Health Innovation eventually ends up, it promises to be a busy one. The Centre will likely be used by clients from all over the world.

Doctors, universities, hospitals and other health care service providers within Spain are excited to anticipate this new resource developing in their own backyard. They will, undoubtedly, be some of the Centre's most enthusiastic users.

Meanwhile, the newest Centre for Cloud Computing will join the ranks of a number of other such centres worldwide. The company is concurrently developing another Centre for Cloud Computing in Taiwan.

These centres will focus on pay-as-you-go cloud computing services, which can translate into substantial savings over traditional cloud computing models. No word has been issued so far on where the Centre for Cloud Computing will be established in Spain.

It may take a few years to see what the impact of these two new Microsoft centres will have on Spain's economy. Officials from many of Spain's industry sectors are excited though at what possibilities may open up once these to centres are fully up and running.