Dulles Technology Corridor

Last updated April 10, 2024

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.^[1] 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."^[2]

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.^[3] In his book Tubes, author Andrew Blum calls Ashburn, Virginia —a community within the Dulles Technology Corridor—"the bullseye of America's Internet."^[4] 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,"^[5] described by the Washington Business Journal as "an area that is quickly emerging as a national hub for data storage facilities."^[6] 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.^[7] Wikimedia Foundation has its primary data center in the corridor.^[8] According to U.S. News & World Report , "Northern Virginia remains popular, in part because it has some of the country's cheapest electricity rates."^[3]

Business environment

The Dulles Technology Corridor has access to a highly educated workforce. Of adults aged 25 and over, 58.2% in Fairfax County^[9] and 57.6% in Loudoun County^[10] have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 28.2% for the U.S. as a whole.^[11]

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:

Regional offices

The following companies have major regional offices located in the Dulles Technology Corridor:

Related Research Articles

Loudoun County is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County is part of the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2020, Loudoun County had a median household income of $147,111. Since 2008, the county has been ranked first in the U.S. in median household income among jurisdictions with a population of 65,000 or more.

Herndon is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. In 2020, the population at the census was 24,655, which makes it the largest of three incorporated towns in the county.

The Washington–Baltimore combined metropolitan statistical area is a statistical area including the overlapping metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C. and of Baltimore. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, three counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and one county in south-central Pennsylvania. It is the most educated, highest-income, and third-largest combined statistical area in the United States behind New York City–Newark, NJ and Los Angeles–Long Beach.

Dulles is an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The headquarters of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and ODIN Technologies, as well as the former headquarters of MCI Inc. and AOL are located in Dulles. The National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington forecast office and the National Weather Service's Sterling Field Support Center are also both in Dulles.

Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region radiates westward and southward from Washington, D.C. With 3,257,133 people according to 2023 Census estimates, it is the most populous region of Virginia and the Washington metropolitan area.

Sterling, Virginia, refers most specifically to a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population of the CDP as of the 2020 United States Census was 30,337 The CDP boundaries are confined to a relatively small area between Virginia State Route 28 on the west and Virginia State Route 7 on the northeast, excluding areas near SR 606 and the Dulles Town Center.

Ashburn is a rapidly growing census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. At the 2010 United States census, its population was 43,511, up from 3,393 in 1990. It is 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washington metropolitan area.

South Riding is a census-designated place and planned community in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The South Riding homeowner association was founded in January 1995 to provide services to the community. Neighboring U.S. Route 50 and State Route 28 provide access to the Dulles/Reston/Tysons Corner technology corridor and other major employment centers in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the DC area, Greater Washington, the National Capital Region, or locally as the DMV, is the metropolitan area centered around Washington, D.C., the federal capital of the United States. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is part of the larger Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which is the third-largest combined statistical area in the country.

State Route 28 in the U.S. state of Virginia is a primary state highway that traverses the counties of Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, and Fauquier in the U.S. state of Virginia. The route serves as a major artery in the Northern Virginia region, with it being an important two-lane highway in rural Fauquier and Prince William Counties, the main thoroughfare through Manassas and Manassas Park, and a high-capacity freeway through Fairfax and Loudoun Counties.

The Silver Line is a rapid transit line of the Washington Metro system, consisting of 34 stations in Loudoun County, Fairfax County and Arlington County, Virginia, Washington, D.C., as well as Prince George's County, Maryland. The Silver Line runs from Ashburn in Virginia to Downtown Largo in Maryland. Five stations, from both lines' eastern terminus at Downtown Largo to Benning Road, are shared with the Blue Line alone; thirteen stations, from Stadium–Armory to Rosslyn, with both the Orange Line and Blue Lines; and five stations from Court House to East Falls Church with the Orange Line alone. Only the five stations of Phase 1, which began service on July 26, 2014, and the six stations of Phase 2, which began service on November 15, 2022, are exclusive to the Silver Line.

Reston Town Center station is a rapid transit station on the Silver Line of the Washington Metro in Reston, an unincorporated area in Northern Virginia. It opened on November 15, 2022.

Innovation Center station is a Washington Metro station in Fairfax County, Virginia on the Silver Line. It is located adjacent to the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology at the intersection of the SR 267 and SR 28 in McNair, near the Fairfax / Loudoun county line. Originally planned to begin operation in 2016, the station opened on November 15, 2022.

Broadlands is a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is a 1,500-acre (610 ha) master-planned community started and developed by Van Metre Homes in the 1990s. It is built on wetlands and is certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Willard was an unincorporated community located in what is now a part of Washington Dulles International Airport in the U.S. state of Virginia.

Loudoun County Transit is a public-transportation service provided by the Loudoun County, Virginia government. Loudoun County Transit provides fixed routes and on-demand/paratransit bus service.

Edelman Financial Field was a planned 4,000-seat multisport stadium in Ashburn, Virginia, within the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, that would have hosted the Loudoun Hounds of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and Virginia Cavalry FC of the North American Soccer League.

Dulles Town Center is a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is located about 7 miles (11 km) north of Washington Dulles International Airport. The CDP is the location of the Dulles Town Center shopping mall, for which it is named. The United States Postal Service considers Dulles Town Center to be a subsection of Dulles, which is itself a subsection of Sterling; none of these locations is an incorporated municipality.

The Northern Virginia region is served by numerous mediums of transit. Transportation in the region is overseen by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.

References

↑ Derek Thompson (June 7, 2011). "'The Silicon Valley of the East' Is Washington, D.C." The Atlantic. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
↑ Donnelly, Sally B.; Zagorin, Adam (August 14, 2000), "D.C. Dotcom", Time , archived from the original on October 1, 2007, retrieved 2012-10-12
1 2 Kent Garber (March 24, 2009). "The Internet's Hidden Energy Hogs: Data Servers". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
1 2 Andrew Blum (Jan 16, 2013). "The Bullseye of America's Internet". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
↑ Rich Miller (August 28, 2011). "WashPost Profiles Ashburn 'Data Center Alley'". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
↑ Daniel J. Sernovitz (December 2, 2011). "Equinix plotting massive Ashburn data complex". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
↑ Rich Miller (January 15, 2013). "Amazon Adding Cloud Capacity in Northern Virginia". Data Center Knowledge. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
↑ Guillaume Paumier (January 19, 2013). "Wikimedia sites to move to primary data center in Ashburn, Virginia". Wikimedia.
↑ "Fairfax County, Virginia". State & County QuickFacts. United States Census Bureau. January 10, 2013. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
↑ "Loudoun County, Virginia". State & County QuickFacts. United States Census Bureau. January 10, 2013. Archived from the original on July 28, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
↑ "USA". State & County QuickFacts. United States Census Bureau. January 10, 2013. Archived from the original on March 10, 2001. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
↑ "Locations".