WashPost Profiles Ashburn 'Data Center Alley'

The Washington Post has a story this weekend about the concentration of data centers in Ashburn, Virginia. We have written about Ashburn's "data center alley" on many occasions, but the Post story includes some numbers that will be of interest to DCK readers.

"The county now claims about 40 centers comprising roughly 4 million square feet of space — equivalent to 22 Wal-Mart Supercenters," the Post reports. " Another 800,000 square feet are either planned or being built. Loudoun officials said they expect 6.5 million square feet in data centers by 2021. 'We don’t really see any end in sight,' said Buddy Rizer, a business development officer at Loudoun County’s economic development office."

Ashburn is home to a former UUNet facility that was a key hub in MAE-East, the Internet’s first major interconnection point. Equinix built its first data center n Ashburn in 1998, providing a “carrier-neutral” facility where companies could gain access to Internet backbones operated by UUNet and AT&T. That first Ashburn site, known as DC1, quickly become the Web’s busiest meeting place. Equinix filled DC1 and has built four additional data centers in Ashburn spanning nearly 500,000 square feet of space.

The most recent expansions in Ashburn include projects for Sabey Data Centers and expansions by Equinix and DuPont Fabros Technology.