Dulles Technology Corridor
{{short description|US business cluster of defense and technology companies}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
File:Dulles Technology Corridor.png
The Dulles Technology Corridor is a business cluster containing many defense and technology companies, located in Northern Virginia near Washington Dulles International Airport. The area was called "The Silicon Valley of the East" by Atlantic magazine.{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/the-silicon-valley-of-the-east-is-washington-dc/240055/ | title='The Silicon Valley of the East' Is Washington, D.C. | author=Derek Thompson | work=The Atlantic | date=June 7, 2011 | accessdate=December 13, 2014}} It was dubbed the "Netplex" in a 1993 article by Fortune magazine. Another article in 2000 claimed that the area contained "vital electronic pathways that carry more than half of all traffic on the Internet. The region is home to more telecom and satellite companies than any other place on earth."{{citation |last1= Donnelly |first1= Sally B. |last2= Zagorin |first2= Adam |date= August 14, 2000 |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997688-1,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004238/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997688-1,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= October 1, 2007 |title= D.C. Dotcom |magazine= Time |accessdate= 2012-10-12 }}
The Dulles Technology Corridor is a descriptive term for a string of communities that lie along and between Virginia State Route 267 (the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway), and Virginia State Route 7 (Leesburg Pike and Harry Byrd Highway). It especially includes the communities, from east to west, of Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn. These communities are in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, which are the second-highest and highest income counties in the U.S. as of 2011, coinciding with the national technology and local internet boom of the 1990s and local technology spending after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Internet infrastructure and data centers
As of 2009, more than 50% of all U.S. Internet traffic travelled through Northern Virginia. In his book Tubes, author Andrew Blum calls Ashburn, Virginia—a community within the Dulles Technology Corridor—"the bullseye of America's Internet."{{cite web | url=https://gizmodo.com/5913934/the-bullseye-of-americas-internet | title=The Bullseye of America's Internet | author=Andrew Blum | work=Gizmodo | date=Jan 16, 2013 | accessdate=February 23, 2014}} The Dulles Technology Corridor serves as headquarters for domain name registrar Network Solutions and network infrastructure company Verisign. The region contains the Internet Society, and used to contain the mainframe that houses the master list of all Internet domain names.
The Dulles Technology Corridor includes Ashburn, Virginia's "Data Center Alley,"{{cite web | url=http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/28/washpost-profiles-ashburn-data-center-alley/ | title=WashPost Profiles Ashburn 'Data Center Alley' | author=Rich Miller | work=Data Center Knowledge | date=August 28, 2011 | accessdate=February 15, 2013}} described by the Washington Business Journal as "an area that is quickly emerging as a national hub for data storage facilities."{{cite web | url=http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/print-edition/2011/12/02/equinix-plotting-massive-ashburn-data.html | title=Equinix plotting massive Ashburn data complex | work=Washington Business Journal | author=Daniel J. Sernovitz | date=December 2, 2011 | accessdate=February 15, 2013}} The corridor also has data centers in Sterling, Herndon, Reston, and Tysons Corner. The area is a growing home for major data centers including those of Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s US East region, where an estimated 70% of AWS IP addresses are housed.{{cite web | url=http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/01/15/amazon-to-add-capacity-to-us-east-region/ | title=Amazon Adding Cloud Capacity in Northern Virginia | work=Data Center Knowledge | author=Rich Miller | date=January 15, 2013 | accessdate=February 15, 2013}} Wikimedia Foundation has its primary data center in the corridor.{{cite web | url = https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/01/19/wikimedia-sites-move-to-primary-data-center-in-ashburn-virginia/ | title = Wikimedia sites to move to primary data center in Ashburn, Virginia | author=Guillaume Paumier | publisher = Wikimedia | date = January 19, 2013}} According to U.S. News & World Report, "Northern Virginia remains popular, in part because it has some of the country's cheapest electricity rates."{{cite web | url=https://www.usnews.com/news/energy/articles/2009/03/24/the-internets-hidden-energy-hogs-data-servers | title=The Internet's Hidden Energy Hogs: Data Servers | author=Kent Garber | work=U.S. News & World Report | date=March 24, 2009 | accessdate=February 15, 2013}} According to Data Center Map, Northern Virginia is home to more than 300 data centers.{{Cite web |title=Data Center Alley & Northern Virginia - The World's Densest Data Center Hub |url=https://www.datacentermap.com/content/nova/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.datacentermap.com |language=en}}
Business environment
The Dulles Technology Corridor has access to a highly educated workforce. Of adults aged 25 and over, 58.2% in Fairfax County{{cite web | url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51059.html | title=Fairfax County, Virginia | work=State & County QuickFacts | publisher=United States Census Bureau | date=January 10, 2013 | accessdate=February 15, 2013 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713081312/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51059.html | archivedate=July 13, 2011 }} and 57.6% in Loudoun County{{cite web | url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51107.html | title=Loudoun County, Virginia | work=State & County QuickFacts | publisher=United States Census Bureau | date=January 10, 2013 | accessdate=February 15, 2013 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728023038/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51107.html | archivedate=July 28, 2011 }} have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 28.2% for the U.S. as a whole.{{cite web | url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html | title=USA | work=State & County QuickFacts | publisher=United States Census Bureau | date=January 10, 2013 | accessdate=February 15, 2013 | archive-date=March 10, 2001 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010310062036/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html | url-status=dead }}
The George Washington University's Virginia Science and Technology Campus and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus are located in the corridor.
=Company headquarters=
The following companies are headquartered in the Dulles Technology Corridor:
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
- Aerovironment
- Amazon (Amazon has two headquarters, the other being in Seattle, WA)
- Alarm.com
- Appian Corporation
- Boeing
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- CACI
- Capital One
- Carahsoft
- DXC Technology
- DLT Solutions
- DynCorp
- ePlus{{Cite web|url=https://eplus.com/about-us/locations/|title = Locations}}
- General Dynamics
- GeoEye
- Freddie Mac
- ICF International
- ID.me
- Iridium Communications
- ITT Exelis
- Leidos
- Mandiant
- ManTech
- MicroStrategy
- Mitre Corporation
- Network Solutions
- NeuStar
- Northrop Grumman
- Orbital ATK
- Peraton
- Raytheon
- Rolls-Royce
- SAIC
- The Sovereign Group
- VeriSign
- Volkswagen
- X-Mode social
- XO Communications
{{div col end}}
=Regional offices=
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2009}}
The following companies have major regional offices located in the Dulles Technology Corridor:
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- Accenture
- Adobe Systems
- AgustaWestland
- Amazon Web Services
- Amdocs
- Airbus
- Oath (AOL/Yahoo!)
- Apple
- AT&T
- BAE Systems
- Broadcom
- Capgemini
- CDW
- Charter Communications
- Cisco Systems
- Cox Communications
- Dell
- Deloitte
- EMC Corporation
- Equinix
- ESRI
- ExxonMobil
- Fairchild Dornier
- FireEye
- Harris Corporation
- Hewlett-Packard
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Juniper Networks
- IBM
- L-3 Communications
- Lockheed Martin
- Microsoft
- NEC
- NetApp
- Nissan Motors
- Nutanix
- Oracle Corporation
- Palo Alto Networks
- Perot Systems
- Red Hat
- Rockwell Collins
- Rolls-Royce North America
- Salesforce.com
- SAP
- ServiceNow
- Siemens
- Sprint Nextel
- Symantec
- Tata Communications
- Terremark
- Time Warner Cable
- Unisys
- Visa Inc.
- Verizon
- VMware
{{div col end}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite web |url=http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/1994/07/14/defining-the-netplex.aspx |title=Defining the Netplex |date=July 14, 1994 |author=Randy Barrett, Andrew Jenks |work=Washington Technology |accessdate=July 16, 2011}}
- {{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/after-dramatic-growth-ashburn-expects-even-more-data-centers/2011/06/09/gIQAZduLjJ_story.html | title=After dramatic growth, Ashburn expects even more data centers | date=August 27, 2011 | author= Marjorie Censer | newspaper=The Washington Post | accessdate=February 15, 2013}}
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Category:High-technology business districts in the United States
Category:Dulles International Airport
Category:Edge cities in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area