| | OCTOBER 20208CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBy Allen C. Tucker, Managing Director, JLL [NYSE: JLL]In 2018, the Northern Virginia data center market share growth continued to outpace the rest of the United States' leading data center markets by more than double. By the close of 2018, Northern Virginia reported its fifth most historic year with 270+ MWs, representing 53 percent national market share. What drives Northern Virginia as the leader today is an unparalleled business ecosystem that has grown from the origins of the internet over the past 20 years and a prototype for which subsequent data center markets strive to achieve. Looking into the crystal ball, 2019 should show no signs of a slowdown for the world's leading data center market in Northern Virginia. In fact, we anticipate growth to expand beyond Loudoun and Fairfax Counties into Prince William County to the south given the surplus of available large land parcels.The Perfect StormVery few enterprises build their own on-premise data centers given its cost prohibited and require considerable time commitment versus the competitive savings enterprises can achieve in leasing collocation `colo' data center space from premier data center providers (landlords) that offer rich, robust critical infrastructure to achieve savings, reduced deployment timing, and skill technical services. The savings enterprises can achieve allow enterprises to focus on their core enterprise services in deploying new technology products to their internal and external customers. Northern Virginia got its start as a leader in this space by developing colo data centers as a pure play for enterprises given Northern Virginia's superior infrastructure ecosystem. The companies who pioneered the movement, like Exodus Communications, PSInet, Global Crossing, and others have been succeeded by today's premier data center REITS (real estate investment trusts) Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreSite, QTS, CyrusOne and private data center providers, have laid the foundation for what Northern Virginia's data center landscape is today. But, it's more than that. A confluence of legislative support, fiber, power, development, deployment of new IT technologies and other partnerships all contribute to what makes Northern Virginia the data center tech superpower.This superpower is largely comprised of six main technology industries: cloud, social media, healthcare, financial, retail marketing and system integrators, with the bulk of the business being done in the cloud (tomorrow's internet), social media and technology buckets. Businesses want to be in Northern Virginia to utilize this superior infrastructure for their enterprise and the ability to monetize their technology for consumers to actively use to improve their lifestyle (Uber, Waze, Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, iTunes, FaceTime, Nest, Netflix, OpenTable, Gaming, Search, e-commerce payment, and many, many more).The Home to Data Center Alley // Where Data and Innovation CollideNorthern Virginia is home to Data Center Alley, now recognized as the Internet Capitol, situated just 35 minutes west from downtown Washington, DC in Loudoun County. More than 70 percent of the world's internet traffic passes through the region each hour of every day and is the only market with five major DC REITs and campuses. What makes NORTHERN VIRGINIA: HOW THE WASHINGTON, DC SUBURB BECAME THE MODEL FOR THE GLOBAL DATA CENTER MARKET
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