Data Center Alley has zoning and power, but New York has the population, and they care about latency
Although some have raised questions over the future of Northern Virginia as the world's largest data center hub, one provider, at least, believes there is plenty of room for expansion, the so-called Data Center Alley around Ashburn.
"People ask if Ashburn can keep growing. I believe it can," said Brian Cox, CEO of wholesale colo provider Stack Infrastructure, in an interview at the recent DCD>New York event. "I believe there's significant capacity in the market place still. That absorption rate is phenomenal."
However, following a panel at the event, he said that other sites with different benefits are also growing. For instance, New York has a dense population, and some applications must be located there: "New York City continues to win eyeballs, to low latency applications will continue to win here," he said. "The value of interconnection will continue to increase, especially in the primary carrier hotels within the city."
Stack, which was formed this year from Infomart and T5's facilities, has data centers in both markets, including the iconic Dulles Technology Center in Ashburn.