A new industry sector continues to gain momentum here in Virginia and we’re not the only ones spreading the word. Southern Business & Development magazine ranked three Virginia data center sites in their winter 2011 “Ten Best Data Sites in the South” list. Scott County Regional Business and Technology Park in Duffield, Quality Technology Services in Richmond and GigaParks in southern Virginia all made the cut.

IT operations are an essential aspect of most companies’ operations today, and maintaining a functional data center is crucial to continuing business success. Virginia’s multiple data center locations offer an array of necessary resources to meet the increasing demand for these sites.  From existing infrastructure to ready-to-develop sites, Virginia has locations across the state- both in close proximity to Washington D.C. as well as throughout rural southern Virginia. In fact, Southern Business & Development said, “Southern Virginia is so wired up that we really couldn’t pick a specific site in that part of the state as one of our best data center sites simply because there are so many of them."

InAugust 2010, Microsoft Corp. announced their plans to open a $499 million next generation data center at one of these sites in southern Virginia. The largest investment in southern Virginia history, this project in Mecklenburg County demonstrates Virginia’s commitment to meeting the needs of businesses through a continual development of state-of-the-art infrastructure.

As data centers continue to be a buzz word across the south, you can count on Virginia to remain a front runner in providing top-notch data center sites in a pro-business environment.