Data centers are the fastest growing industry in Virginia, and that means plenty of opportunity for businesses to find ways to work together.
The data center industry was born in Northern Virginia over 30 years ago, but its rapid growth in the last few years has led to unique opportunities as they look to build outside the DC exurbs.
My Lan Tran is with the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce, a trade group that grew out of Virginia’s expanding tech industry. The VACC held a trade show in Richmond recently with the hopes of informing and linking Virginia’s small and medium businesses with the folks building data centers.
“To come and shed light on the industry and potential for growth and if small businesses capture that opportunity, they can better that advance themselves, we open the door, that’s all we can do,” Tran told Radio IQ.
Among those pitching their services was Corey Wagner with Hourigan. The general contracting company has done some smaller data center work, but they want to get into the hyper scale game. He said the big data center players rely on new businesses like his to help innovate.
“They’ll come to you and say how do you do this; how do you do this safely? Do you do anything different?" Wagner said. "They are looking for that diversity of thought.”
And the conference appeared to be a success; among attendees was David Wagner - no relation to Corey - with hyper scale builders Centra. He said the day had already led to some good conversations.
“Really getting connected to local businesses, understanding how we can work with them and understanding how we can engage the local workforce here in Richmond,” Wagner said.
Among Centra projects is one in Eastern Henrico County where data center growth allowed the localities to fund raises for teachers and cuts to local property taxes.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
