LETTER: Data centers create jobs for electrical contractors. Protect them

April 23, 2024 – Valdosta Daily Times

Letter by Gaël Pirlot, Vice President of Inglett & Stubbs, Cobb County, Ga.

For seven decades, Inglett & Stubbs has worked with American businesses, largely in the metropolitan Atlanta area. We employ a variety of industry professionals, including electricians, technicians, foremen, engineers, project managers, and more, to exceed our customers’ expectations and meet their needs. Our people define our business and our future.

LETTER: Georgia Bill Threatens Thousands of Jobs

March 13, 2024 – Fayette County News

Letter by Stephen Altizer, CEO of Compu Dynamics

To the Editor:

The Georgia Senate is considering House Bill 1192, legislation that will hinder data center growth in Georgia and the ability to create needed jobs. This would put infrastructure providers like my company and the locals we employ at risk.

LETTER: New Bill Will Put Georgia Companies at Risk

March 6, 2024 – The Newnan Times-Herald

Letter by Brandon Sedgwick, Norcross

The Georgia legislature is considering HB 1192, a bill that would negatively impact businesses across the state.

State’s effort to attract data centers starting to pay off

March 1, 2024 – Indianapolis Business Journal

Written by Susan Orr

As digital technology advances, so, too, does the demand for data centers—but until just a few years ago, Indiana was largely sitting on the sidelines while projects went to other states.

Old Dominion, new data

February 29, 2024 – Virginia Business

Written by Katherine Gustafson

As available land for data centers in Loudoun County — home to Data Center Alley, the world’s largest concentration of data centers — has become scarcer and more expensive, the industry has expanded into other Northern Virginia localities and beyond.

(Virginia Business subscriber login required to read full article)

LETTER: Data Centers Support Georgia Manufacturers and Our World

February 22, 2024 – Cherokee Tribune

Letter by Clint Emerson, President, Nehemiah Holdings, LLC

Dear Editor:

When you think about data centers, people don’t often come to mind. They do for me. Our business, Nehemiah Holdings, is a Marketplace Ministry for Thriving Associates. Our three brands specialize in the production of custom cable assemblies and wire harnesses used in various projects and buildings, including data centers. Our mission is to serve and care for our customers and associates.

Virginia's Data Centers and Economic Development

June 2023 – Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Econ Focus

Written by John Mullin

The state's fast-growing data center industry continues to build on its early advantages.

Residents should think carefully when asking for fewer data centers

May 13, 2023 – Loudoun Times-Mirror

Written by Editorial Board

We here at the Loudoun Times-Mirror hear a lot of talk about data centers.

We’re sure you do, too.

Over the past few decades, data centers here in Loudoun County have slowly (or perhaps not so slowly) grown to become one of the largest sources of economic gain for the county, and now the so-called Data Center Alley in the Ashburn area is the single largest concentration of data centers on the planet.

Data centers grow domestic manufacturing

May 18, 2023 – Inside NoVa

Written by Chris Gregory

The average person can probably describe the benefits of a robust manufacturing industry in the United States: It creates good middle-class jobs, develops quality products and reduces supply chain delays and risks.

In fact, a Brookings Institution survey found that 58% of Americans see the manufacturing industry as very important to the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, despite its importance, the industry has faced numerous challenges recently. But a new industry is helping support a “manufacturing renaissance” here at home, and particularly across Virginia: data centers.

Data centers’ job impact is spread out

April 27, 2023 – Virginia Business

Written by Emily Freehling

The Lego Group’s July 2022 announcement that it would build a $1 billion Chesterfield County manufacturing plant came with the promise of 1,760 new jobs. Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc.’s 20-year, $35 billion investment to expand its data center footprint across Virginia is projected to generate only 1,000 direct jobs.

The data center industry ’s jobs-to-investment ratio is far lower than many other economic development categories.

In some ways, this is part of the appeal of the facilities. Not having lots ofworkers driving to and from data centers saves localities from having to payfor roads, emergency services and schools. But industry proponents alsopoint to ancillary economic impact that data center construction has had inVirginia. 

On cloud nine

Virginia is world’s data center capital, reaping billions

April 27, 2023 – Virginia Business

Written by Emily Freehling

In 2007 — the same year that Apple unveiled the iPhone and Netflix introduced the idea of “streaming” movies — Buddy Rizer started aggressively targeting an industry that many of the people he worked for in Loudoun County didn’t yet fully comprehend.

“It was not an easy story to tell at first,” Rizer recalls of his early years pursuing data centers as Loudoun’s executive director of economic development. “I remember a couple of public hearings sweating through my suit as I was getting grilled by our [board of supervisors]. One of the supervisors said, ‘Mr. Rizer, if everything is going to the cloud, why do we need data centers?’”

Sixteen years later, more than 70% of the world’s internet traffic comes through Data Center Alley — six square miles in Loudoun’s Ashburn area. 

Data centers are “mission critical” to NOVA & the economy

April 14, 2023 – Fairfax County Times

Written by Ross Rebraca

“Mission critical” means that a service is so integral to the operation of a business, organization, or government that any malfunction or interruption to that service would cause their operations to be seriously impacted or halted altogether. A reliable electrical grid is mission-critical to keeping your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer. An airplane’s navigational system is mission-critical to allow it to reach its destination safely. And for an increasing number of businesses and consumers, the ability to securely manage, access, and transfer their data is becoming mission-critical to every aspect of what they do.

Data Centers Foster Thriving Communities in Northern Virginia

April 4, 2023 – LoudounNow

Written by Phil Baroody

I have two daughters who are 23 and 25, and like most young people, they are completely addicted to technology. They each have iPhones, smart watches, laptops, smart speakers, smart TVs, and a litany of other devices that help them keep in touch with friends and family, as well as occupy their free time. But it’s important for them (and everyone) to understand that all these technologies—including “the cloud” where the data that powers streaming services and applications is stored—rely on a series of physical, real-world connections to function. These connections are made through data centers, which are the basis for so many of the modern conveniences, and in reality the basic way of life, that most Americans now enjoy. As I often tell my daughters, anything with the word “smart” in front of it has a data center behind it.

Data Centers Made Many Contributions to Prince William Community in 2022

March 8, 2023 – What’s Up Prince William

Written by Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry

In recent years, residents of Prince William County have likely heard me promote the financial benefits data centers bring to our county. The tax revenue they generate and will continue to contribute for years to come is essential to our ability to boost funding for schools, social services and other county priorities while decreasing the tax burden on county homeowners.

What often goes unheralded, however, are the many ways data centers and their employees contribute to and strengthen our community. In 2022 alone, those contributions have had a tremendous impact.

Data centers are a revelation in energy efficiency and are driving the clean energy transition

March 3, 2023 – Virginia Mercury

When it comes to the future of data centers in the commonwealth, some of the recent public conversation has centered on whether and how much the industry impacts the environment. Often, a narrow focus is placed on the amount of electricity consumed by data centers; it is significant, and the industry has never shied away from the fact. 

However, what receives less attention are the energy and climate benefits unlocked by data centers. For a fuller picture of this industry, it’s important to consider what data center energy usage represents (or, what functions it supports in our economy), how efficiently it is consumed and the sources of supply.  

Data Centers Partner with Educators to Blaze New ‘Classroom-to-Career’ Pathways

March 2, 2023 – LoudounNow

It’s not new news that the tech industry has more well-paying jobs than it can fill with qualified workers. In Virginia alone, there are more than 30,000 unfilled computer science positions.

But, on that front, there is a success story in the making.

Let's leverage, welcome the rise of data centers

February 20, 2023 – The Free Lance-Star

Last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that Amazon Web Services plans to invest $35 billion dollars in Virginia by 2040. This investment, coupled with the 2018 announcement of Amazon’s second headquarters (HQ2) in Arlington, will greatly expand the company’s footprint in Virginia, bringing new jobs and much-needed property tax revenue.

AWS is the largest cloud-computing service in the world, accounting for as much as 34% of the ever-expanding global market. Amazon’s Virginia investment is proof that the demand for cloud computing is not a short-term fad, but a long-term necessity.

But what is “the cloud?”

Data centers key to Henrico's global connection

February 19, 2023 – Richmond Times-Dispatch

Everyone knows Silicon Valley, New York, Northern Virginia, Portland and Seattle are world-class technology hubs. Another is emerging — in Henrico County.

Five years ago, none of the East Coast’s internet traffic flowed through Henrico. Today, that number is 18%. As internet traffic jumped, we saw a simultaneous influx of major technology investment in our local area, including at the world’s fourth-largest data center facility at Henrico’s White Oak Technology Park. How did this happen, and what does it mean for the future of our area?

Prince William Chamber Panel Discussion Highlights Contributions of Data Center Industry

February 16, 2023 – Allison M. Gilmore, CAE, Data Center Coalition

On Wednesday, February 15, 2023, three Data Center Coalition members from the Northern Virginia area spoke at a panel as part of the Prince William Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Breakfast Series. The panel “The Business of Data Centers: Impacts and Opportunities in Prince William County,” included panelists Sarah Georgiades, Regional Community Engagement Manager, AWS, Kevin Hughes, Vice President, Policy, STACK Infrastructure, and Rohit Kinra, VP & Global Head of Hyperscale Implementation & Account Management, Iron Mountain. During the discussion, which was moderated by Data Center Coalition President Josh Levi, the panelists shared insights on the data center market in Prince William County as well as the industry's community contributions, workforce efforts, and commitment to sustainability.

Levi kicked off the conversation by asking panelists what makes a data center a data center. Kinra explained that data centers are the physical embodiment of the cloud and that all the data we use and transmit on a daily basis gets processed and stored in data centers. Hughes elaborated with examples of the different types of data centers, including those that house the computer servers of multiple independent tenants who lease only the space they need (multitenant) and others that serve one, often large customer (hyperscale).

Panelists also discussed some of the reasons for the substantial growth of the data center industry in Prince William County, including availability of land, the ecosystem of suppliers, talented workforce, and proximity to fiber cables that run through Ashburn all the way to subsea cables that cross the Atlantic Ocean. The industry’s growth in the County has led to significant local tax revenues. In 2021 alone, the data center industry contributed more than $79 million in taxes to Prince William County, an increase of 24% from the previous year. These funds were enough to pay the county’s full community development budget, including economic development, libraries, parks and recreation, planning & zoning, public works, and transportation.

Kinra explained that while data centers contribute sizable tax revenue, they use relatively few county services. For example, in Prince William County, for every $1.00 in county services used by data centers, they provided approximately $13.50 in tax revenue. Hughes highlighted that data centers also provide long-term construction jobs and have a ripple effect through an ecosystem of vendors and service providers, where each data center job supports 3.4 other jobs in the County.

Data centers also provide tremendous support to the communities where their teams live and work. Georgiades of Amazon shared examples of her company’s community engagement partnerships and initiatives in the County, including programs supporting Prince William County Public Schools. She explained the importance of STEM education and training a technology-savvy workforce.

The panel concluded with a discussion of how the data center industry promotes energy efficiency and sustainability. They explained that data centers already offer more efficient processing than computing that was traditionally dispersed across businesses operating their own independent, on-site servers. By centralizing computing resources under one roof, data centers leverage innovations in design, equipment, and technology to maximize energy efficiency. Georgiades, Hughes, and Kinra all highlighted their companies’ commitments to sustainability, including establishing and pursuing aggressive carbon neutrality goals including powering their operations with 100 percent clean energy. Georgiades indicated that AWS, now the largest purchaser of clean energy globally, will reach its goal of powering their operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of their original 2030 target.

Data centers do more with less (energy)

February 14, 2023 – WTOP News

Just 13 years ago, in 2010, nearly 80% of computing workloads resided in small, on-premise data centers run and managed by individual organizations. That flipped a few years ago with the expansion of cloud technologies. Today, nearly 90% of those data operations now exist in the cloud, supported by far fewer but far larger data centers run by cloud service providers, said Shannon Kellogg, vice president of public policy for the Americas at Amazon Web Services.