Northern Virginia Data Center Market

Northern Virginia (otherwise known as NoVa) is the largest data center market in the United States. The region is also one of the best-connected metros in the United States, particularly around Ashburn, VA.

What is Northern Virginia?

Northern Virginia (also known as NoVa) includes Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William Counties. In addition, we added Washington DC to the region as it offers an alternative fiber path.

Data Center Alley is in Loudoun

• Data Center Alley is a concentration of data centers in Loudoun County along the Dulles Greenway (267), which (includes Ashburn, Sterling, and Leesburg.)
• Ashburn is the heart of the Data Center Alley and the Equinix campus in Ashburn is the driver of the area’s connectivity and data center boom. Many providers cluster around the Equinix Ashburn campus to provide access to to the network ecosystem.
• Digital Realty acquired Dupont Fabros in 2017 which gave it Dupont's multi-building campus that is adjacent to Equinix Ashburn.
• There is a land rush and building boom in Loudoun County as companies scoop up the last remaining land around Ashburn.
• Sterling is adjacent to Ashburn and hosts a number of providers: QTS, Infomart, and Cyxtera, and CyrusOne.
• As land becomes expensive and scarce in Ashburn, data center developers are looking West to the Leesburg area. Two new Leesburg data center projects are in process. 
  • Google (acquired 58 acres to build a data center near the Dulles Greenway)
  • Compass is building on 105 acres on the South side of Dulles Greenway.

Fairfax County

• Fairfax County (which includes Herndon, Reston, Vienna, and Tysons) typically has older data centers. For example, the original MAE-East was located at 8100 Boone Blvd in Vienna.
• CoreSite is an active developer of new floor space in Reston. CoreSite as recently announced the development of VA3 near their existing campus in Reston