JLL says Northern Virginia is one of world’s most important data-center markets

Published November 17, 2014 by Paula C. Squires

Northern Virginia is one of the world’s most important data center markets, offering 2.4 million square feet of data center space with 498.3 megawatts of available power, according to research in JLL's Data Center Outlook for 2014.

By offering the industry's best latency — a measure of network traffic speed — Northern Virginia also has become the country's market leader for enterprise users and cloud computing.

JLL’s outlook says IT spending worldwide will top $3.7 trillion in 2014. Growth is expected to accelerate in 2015, with the trend continuing by companies of putting data on the cloud.

Fueled by the outsourcing of IT infrastructure by businesses and the popularization of cloud computing, growth in the Northern American data center market is expected to drive revenue to $14.8 billion by 2016, a 32 percent increase over 2014, according to JLL.

“Northern Virginia provides enterprise users a strategic advantage over other data center markets: low cost electricity, customer density, enormous bandwidth with low latency, speed to market permitting, geographic neutrality to natural hazards and low total cost of ownership,” Allen Tucker, managing director in JLL's Tysons office, said in a statement. “Power costs in Loudoun County remain steady and very cost competitive compared to other Tier 1 MSAs that enterprise users naturally consider for their technology deployment.”

Loudoun has focused on developing a best-in-class infrastructure to make the data industry its primary economic engine for both data center operators and enterprise users,” added Tucker. “Further, Northern Virginia has exploded as the Silicon Valley of the east with its marquee list of companies establishing a large footprint here for data centers.”

While some markets have seen data center providers pullback on construction projects and have offered discounts and concessions to fill available vacancies, Northern Virginia continues to see new operators entering the market to develop additional product.

More than 107,000 square feet of data center development is underway in Northern Virginia, and an additional 882,150 square feet is planned for the market, said JLL’s report.

“Proximity to the federal government, high quality technology workforce, new 2.0 dot-com enterprises, an affluent population base, growing entrepreneurial community and excellent institutions of higher learning all support the growing demand for market share in Northern Virginia,” said Tucker.

JLL, formerly known as Jones Lang LaSalle, is a professional services and investment management firm offering specialized real estate services. With gross revenue of $4.5 billion, JLL has more than 200 corporate offices, operates in 75 countries and has a global workforce of approximately 53,000.