7
Inmany important ways, the narrative of Digital Realty
parallels that of Loudoun County in Northern Virginia,
home to what is arguably one of the company’s
showcasedatacenter campuses.
Duringa recent conversationwithBuddyRizer, Director
of theLoudounDepartmentofEconomicDevelopment,
I learned that 20 years ago the towns that make up
Loudoun were mostly known for sweet corn,
strawberries and chardonnay. But in 1997, America
Onlinemovedsomeof itsoperationstotheareaandthat
marked the beginning of a trend that survived the
burstingof thedot-combubble in2000.
Tenyearsago, thecounty—likesomanyothers—wasstill
recovering from the dot-com setback, but it was also
ostensibly in the nascent stages of a period of
sustainable growth. Around the same time in 2004,
Digital Realty hadbecome apublicly-traded real estate
investmenttrust focusedonbuildingandmanagingdata
centers. In 2007, the company broke groundon its first
building in Ashburn and, according to Buddy, county
officials felt that “we were really onto something with
thisdatacenter thing.”
70PERCENTOFALL INTERNETTRAFFIC
FLOWSTHROUGHLOUDOUN
Flash forward to todayandLoudoun’sDataCenterAlley
is home to 56 of these mission critical facilities,
occupying 5.2 million square feet. Also according to
Buddy, the data center industry in Loudoun County is
thriving, with an additional 1.3million square feet ready
for delivery in 2014 and an additional 125 acres of land
alreadybought for futuredatacenterexpansion.
And today, Digital Realtyowns andoperatesmore than
120 data centers, including 12 properties held as
investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, in 33
markets across four continents. Our master-planned
campus in Ashburn consists of seven state-of-the-art
buildings, with onemore under construction and room
for two more. We also have two dedicated power
substations on site. In Loudoun County and across our
global portfolio, we are focusedon supporting thedata
center strategies of key verticals, including information
technology and cloud service providers, financial
services, retail, healthcare, energyand thepublic sector.
Remarkably, Buddy informedme, around 70percent of
all Internet trafficglobally flows throughLoudoun’sdata
centers each day. West of Route 15 remains a lush
agricultural patchwork of fruit and vegetable fields and
award-winningwineries, heexplained, andeastofRoute
15has trulybecomea technologyhub for companiesof
all sizes conducting business in the United States and
beyond.
CAPTURINGECONOMIESOFSCALE
Here is a question that Buddy is frequently asked:Why
do top companies choose Loudoun for their data
centers? “Our infrastructure isbuilt for datacenters,” he
answers. “Not only dowe offer direct access to one of
the largest Internet exchange points and a multiple-
source lit fiber infrastructure, we also offer abundant,
affordablepower redundancywith energy rates among
the loweston theeast coast.”
In addition, Virginia is an attractive place to build and
operate data centers because land is available at
relatively moderate prices, construction costs are
reasonable, themarket is supportedbya talented labor
pool and the area has limited exposure to extreme
weather conditionsorweather-relatedevents.
Furthermore, Loudounoffers an arrayof incentives and
financingopportunities, including a special fivepercent
sales and use tax exemption on servers, generators,
chillersand server-relatedequipment.
DIGITALREALTY’S
ASHBURNCAMPUS
EmphasizingOperational Consistency Across aGlobal Portfolio
ByDavidSchirmacher
