Sarah L. Price
Business Development Manager
Today, as we browse Facebook, search on Google or watch a movie on Netflix, it’s easy to take the internet for granted. The explosion of digital information has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives, transforming industries in ways that we could have never imagined 25 years ago. But nowhere has that impact been felt more than it has in the area of scientific research, where “networked science” has changed the way researchers approach their work. Technology has become the new base on which research is built.
Today, it is estimated that we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, much of which (90 percent) has been created in the last two years alone, according to IBM. This massive volume of information has given rise to the term “big data” and is powering the investment into research and development to over $1 trillion by 2012, an increase of 45 percent since 2002.
This digital revolution has had a major impact on Loudoun County, and has created a whole new category of what is #LoudounPossible. As you have probably heard, more than 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic travels through the county on a daily basis. Loudoun’s digital infrastructure has become an irreplaceable part of the world’s infrastructure and has created a one-of-a-kind business opportunity for data scientists.
In Loudoun’s Data Center Alley, the world’s largest collection of data centers and cloud providers are linked together through a world-class fiber network bringing together the world’s largest computing capability with nearly unlimited scalability. The result is the densest cloud, AI and machine-learning hardware at the world’s fastest speeds combined with the world’s most impressive talent force.
While many industries have and will benefit from this unique infrastructure, there is a special opportunity for those involved in the biotech and pharma sector. In Loudoun, these companies have access to the necessary ultra-high performance computing at an affordable and scalable price of entry. Data scientists can do real-time analysis on massive data sets at over 10 terabits of data per second, and access the highest scale storage and data analytics hardware available. And with this infrastructure, combined with the outstanding quality of life features in our region, companies will be able to attract world-class IT engineers and top experts to design cutting-edge systems.
In the biotech and pharma world, every company, every team and every researcher is racing to leverage multiple sources of data as fully and as quickly as possible, especially with the advent of machine learning and AI. By housing data scientists in Loudoun’s Data Center Alley, companies can leap-frog the competition and gain a step up on creating new, disruptive commercial applications.
If you’re interested in learning more about setting up an office or leasing a satellite research office in Loudoun’s Data Center Alley, I will be attending the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco and would be happy to meet with you. Please contact me at Sarah.Price@Loudoun.gov or 571-316-8190.
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