Awards Celebrate the Best of Our Region’s Data Center Innovation
McLEAN, Va. – (February 22, 2024) – The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the trade association representing the region’s technology community, marked the record-breaking growth of Virginia’s data center industry at its fifth annual NVTC Data Center Awards.
Over 200 industry professionals, statewide business community representatives and public sector leaders attended last night’s awards ceremony to celebrate the winners and toast to the region’s success as the largest data center market in the world.
The Northern Virginia region is consistently recognized in Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Data Center Market Comparison report as the largest data center market in the world, with more than 447MW of absorption and a 0.9% vacancy rate. While Virginia’s data center market has been highly concentrated in Loudoun County for the past 17 years, development is now expanding to Manassas, Sterling, Herndon, and Prince William and Henrico counties as developers search for more access to available power and larger land sites.
“Data Centers are the lifeblood of the digital economy. The NVTC Data Center Awards celebrate the data center industry and recognize the achievers and leaders advancing digital infrastructure,” said Vinay Nagpal, Chair, NVTC Data Center and Cloud Community of Interest and CEO, InterGlobix. “My heartiest congratulations to all the remarkable nominees and winners. The innovation and achievements of these stalwarts propel our industry forward, reaffirming the crucial role that data centers play in shaping the rapidly growing digital economy.”
The NVTC Data Center Awards recognize the changemakers responsible for cementing Virginia as a dominant player in the data center industry and driving its growth and economic impact. This year, NVTC announced winners in six categories, Community Champion Award, Construction Project Award, Global Data Center Award, Data Center Innovation Award, Rising Star Award and Sustainable Champion Award.
NVTC also presented the 2024 Data Center Icon Award to Christian Belady, former vice president and distinguished engineer at Microsoft. The Icon Award recognizes individuals who have significantly contributed to the Data Center community throughout their careers, playing a crucial role in advancing the industry and supporting the growth, prominence, and success of the world-
leading data center sector. Belady is credited with creating the power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric while at HP.
“Data Centers are the major investment drivers in Virginia, with new and expanding data centers accounting for 92% of all new investments in 2023. This would not be possible without the innovation and collaboration among the full data center ecosystem including data centers themselves, construction companies, energy suppliers, regional EDAs, and more,” said Jennifer Taylor, president and CEO of NVTC. “And now with the gold rush of AI increasing the amount of data generated, our data centers play a vital role in expanding Virginia’s digital economy. Congratulations to all the companies and individuals who received awards this year, enabling Northern Virginia to be the largest data center market in the world.”
An independent panel of business leaders selected the winners in six award categories.
Community Champion Award:
AFCOM Potomac Chapter
Mike Berman, AWS
Construction Project Award:
ABX-1
Global Data Center Award:
Vantage Data Centers
Data Center Innovation Award:
Aligned Data Centers
Rising Star Award:
Caroline Teitelbaum, CBRE
Sustainable Champion Award:
Randy Brouckman, EdgeConneX
Data Center Icon Award:
Christian Belady
This year’s NVTC Data Center Awards are sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Falken Industries, Baldwin Risk Partners, Google, Meta, QTS, Equinix, Digital Realty, HITT, Magnum Economics, Northern Virginia Community College, E.E. Reed, Novec, Prince William County Department of Economic Development, Ricardo, Vantage Data Centers, CoreSite, Loudoun County Economic Development, Reston Limousine, CBRE, and InterGlobix.
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Contact
Tarin Horan
Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC)
thoran@nvtc.org
703.946.0319
About the Northern Virginia Technology Council
NVTC is the trade association representing the Northern Virginia technology community. As one of the nation’s largest technology councils, NVTC serves companies from all sectors of the industry, from small businesses and start-ups to Fortune 100 technology companies, government contractors, as well as service providers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. More than 460 members look to the organization as a resource for networking and educational opportunities, peer-to-peer communities, policy advocacy, industry promotion, fostering of strategic relationships, and branding of the region as a major global technology center. Learn more at www.nvtc.org.