Expanding digital infrastructure in Virginia includes a major data center expansion in Henrico

Anthony Romanello has been the executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority since March 2019. Before that, he served as assistant to the city manager in Richmond, town manager of West Point, county administrator and deputy county administrator of Stafford, and deputy county manager in Henrico.

Data centers are the engines of the digital economy, and Virginia has become one of the prime locations.

Virginia hosts the largest data center market in the world, mostly in Loudoun County, but an increasing amount of that activity is taking place in the I-64 Innovation Corridor.

Henrico County, for instance, is home to the QTS data center, the world’s fourth largest data center. The company purchased 200 more acres next to its existing property in the White Oak Technology Park to more than double its campus with a 1.5 million-square-foot addition.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, operates what eventually will become a 2.5 million-square-foot data center. The first phase of that data center opened in 2020. The investment is about $2 billion.

“The digital infrastructure in the RVA and 757 region is to Virginia's 21st century economy what I-64 and I-95 were to Virginia's 20th century economy. It is that important,” Anthony Romanello, the executive director of the Henrico Economic Development Authority.

Romanello spoke during the Virtual Innovation Spotlight on expanding digital infrastructure in Virginia including the expansion of the QTS data center. The webinar, presented by RVA757 Connects, was held Tuesday Sept. 6.

The QTS data center is a vital part in global digital connectivity, Romanello said. The facility provides access to more than 20 network providers and connects three transcontinental subsea cables that come ashore in Virginia Beach to converge with terrestrial fiber optics to create the Richmond Network Access Point.

Five years ago, zero amount of the East Coast internet traffic came through Henrico or Virginia Beach. Now it is 18% and growing, Romanello said.

“Then you can see the power of these cables,” said Romanello, who has been executive director since March 2019. “That is connecting us to South America, to Europe to ultimately to Africa and then onto Asia.”

Speed is critical in the industry.

In blink of an eye, he said, you can transmit data back and forth twice from Henrico to Spain or just under three milliseconds back and forth to Sao Paulo, Brazil. In two milliseconds, or about the time for a normal flash of a camera, people can send data to about 8% of the U.S. population.

For area businesses, Romanello said leveraging the subsea cables along with the Richmond Network Access Point means heightened visibility on an international stage by having data hub in their backyard.

“Anybody who's moving data wants to be able to move it quickly, wants to be able to move it safely, and that's really the power in what's happening with this,” he said. “Particularly if your business does any business across the Atlantic, whether it's Europe, Africa or South America, you're not going to get faster connectivity than what you'll have through the QTS Network Access Point going through those subsea cables. This is about how all businesses can do business a whole lot faster and a lot more effectively with this technology at their fingertips.”

Data centers are an important part of the global digital network. Data centers use about 3% of the world's electricity, he said. In Virginia, data centers consume about 20% of the electricity largely because of the massive concentration of these centers in Loudoun County.

Meta is supporting its data centers with 100% renewable energy, the company said. Meta worked with Dominion Energy to meet its renewable energy goals by contracting projects that will add 850 MW of new renewable energy in Virginia, the company said.

Construction continues on Phase Two of the Meta data center. That second phase should be ready in 2023.

At the QTS data center, the first phase of the expansion project is underway now. A 200,000-square-foot building under construction is the first of five buildings planned for the site.

Work also is underway at the current building to continue to outfit that facility for additional data center space within the existing 1.4 million-square-foot complex.  QTS acquired the building, which had been a former semiconductor plant, in 2010 and turned it into a mega data center.

Another major milestone in evolution of the megaregion’s internet Infrastructure is the location of a DE-CIX data-center-neutral internet exchange point in the Richmond region.

German-based technology company DE-CIX established three locations in Richmond area (two in Henrico and one in Hanover) for the exchange point, which Romanello said highlights the emergence of the region in the global internet connectivity arena.

The DE-CIX operates similar exchange points in only four other U.S. markets - New York, Dallas, Chicago, and Phoenix.

“I would just ask you this question: When have you heard a conversation where Richmond comes up with cities like New York, Chicago, Dallas and Phoenix,” Romanello said. “We're now on the map with all cities that have NFL teams. And we're going to see some real benefit from having this internet exchange.”

The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the DE-CIX Richmond Internet Exchange platform will take place during the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee’s second IEIC/NAP Summit in November. The event will feature speeches and panel discussions on topics such as the growth of the internet infrastructure and its implications for the economy, subsea cables, and the economic growth driven by digital infrastructure.

Vinton Cerf, the computer scientist widely known as the “father of the internet,” will be the keynote speaker.

The summit will be held Nov. 8 at the Hilton Richmond Hotel & Spa/Short Pump in western Henrico County.

“What this all means is not just for the data center world, not just for the technology world, but for all businesses because everybody is moving data,” Romanello said. “Whether you're a small business, or the largest business in the world, everybody's moving data and this is meaningful for anybody who's been in the business.”

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