• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Site Selection / Aligned Building on History With 180 MW Ashburn Campus

Aligned Building on History With 180 MW Ashburn Campus

By Rich Miller - September 12, 2018 Leave a Comment

Aligned Building on History With 180 MW Ashburn Campus

An illustration of an Aligned Energy data center planned for Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Aligned Energy)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

ASHBURN, Va. – Aligned Energy has made its long-expected entrance into Northern Virginia. And it will be building big.

Aligned said this week that it plans to create a 180-megawatt data center campus on a historic telecom property in “Data Center Alley” in Ashburn. The company says it will build 880,000 square feet of data center space at Quantum Park, the former UUNet site that was a key connectivity hub dating to the early days of the Internet.

Most importantly, the location sits at a major intersection for both power and fiber, less than a mile from the Equinix campus in Ashburn where the world’s major networks meet.

“Data centers are the new engines of innovation for the 21st century,”  said Andrew Schaap, the CEO of Aligned Energy. “We are delighted to provide Northern Virginia with an incredibly efficient and highly reliable colocation data center platform. Our new Ashburn data center campus addresses the needs of cloud providers and hyperscalers that demand a highly dynamic, scalable and future-proof data center solution.”

A Provider In Expansion Mode

The expansion comes just five months after Aligned Energy announced an investment from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners (MIP), which was seen as a key step in enabling a push into new geographic markets.

The push into Northern Virginia continues Aligned’s growth. The company recently announced plans for a 50 megawatt data center in Salt Lake City, and is expanding its Phoenix facility after a series of customer wins filled much of its initial phase. Aligned also has a data center in Plano, Texas,  a northern suburb of Dallas.

A row of cabinets inside a containment system within an Aligned Energy data center. (Image: Aligned Energy)

A row of cabinets inside a containment system within an Aligned Energy data center. (Image: Aligned Energy)

Aligned was founded in 2015 with a focus on solving capacity management challenges, and pursuing innovation in cooling and the supply chain. The company’s flexible data center design seeks to “future proof” customers from evolving trends in rack density and applications. Its design enables tenants to put low-density and high-density racks next to one another in a data hall, a configuration which is often problematic. Aligned says its technology can cool cabinets housing up to 50kW per rack in IT equipment, and that it can support a PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) of 1.15 in any climate.

Schaap, a veteran of Digital Realty who joined Aligned last year as CEO, believes this approach will pay dividends as a series of next-generation technologies begin to drive data center demand.

Entering the Home of the Cloud

Aligned Energy has been seeking an opportunity to enter the Northern Virginia market, a key component of the company’s vision to operate data centers in the largest U.S. markets. The company is targeting its offering to hyperscale cloud companies, as well as cloud service providers.

Northern Virginia is already the world’s largest concentration of cloud computing infrastructure, and has seen new players entering the market in recent months, along with construction and expansion announcements from existing players. Developers in Northern Virginia leased a record 115 megawatts of data center space in 2017, topping the 113 megawatts (MWs) absorbed in 2016.

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

Edge Cloud
The Benefits of Edge Cloud On-Ramps for CSPs & End Users
Download the new report from EdgeConneX to explore the public cloud's performance, security and cost issues and examine what can be done to resolve them. The white paper also explains the cost, performance, security and other benefits of leveraging edge cloud on-ramps access to access the hyper scale public cloud providers, and examines how CSPs can use this local infrastructure to promote their own connectivity infrastructure. 
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

Multiple reports suggest that leasing has accelerated in the first half of 2018, surpassing the 2017 record less than halfway through the new year. The appetite for capacity has prompted a land grab in which data center developers are buying up properties, often at premium prices.

Aligned says its master-planned Ashburn campus will feature three buildings, with two on-site substations, on 26 acres of land. The company will build an initial 370,000-square-foot, 80-megawatt data center that will open in 2019. That will be followed by an additional 510,000 square feet of data center development that will add another 100 megawatts.

Entering the Home of the Cloud

Quantum Park is a business park with a long legacy in the Internet infrastructure business. It was initially the home of UUNet Communications, a pioneer in the early Internet that helped create MAE East, the primary Internet exchange point on the East Coast of the U.S.

The presence of a major MAE-East node helped establish Ashburn as the nexus of network connectivity, and a magnet for data centers – laying the groundwork for the current cloud computing building boom. UUNet was later acquired by MFS and then WorldCom, and became part of Verizon Business.

The historic Quantum Park development in Ashburn, which sits atop a major intersection of both power and fiber. (Photo: Rich Miller)

The historic Quantum Park development in Ashburn, which sits atop a major intersection of both power and fiber. (Photo: Rich Miller)

The 135-acre Quantum Park property features more than 1.9 million square feet of buildings, including office space that continues to be occupied by Verizon Business, multiple parking decks, and data center space. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol recently signed a deal to lease more than 445,000 square feet of space at Quantum Park, bringing 3,700 employees to the site as it consolidates its operations in Northern Virginia.

Quantum Park’s co-owners, American Real Estate Partners, have been marketing several parcels of land near the perimeter of the property for data center use. Aligned didn’t indicate whether it would retrofit an existing building or build a greenfield project on vacant land.

With its entrance into Data Center Alley, Aligned brings another new competitor into the industry’s hottest market. CloudHQ, Iron Mountain and Central Colo entered the Northern Virginia market in 2017, and Vantage Data Centers, Compass Datacenters and QTS Data Centers have all jumped into the market with large new campuses scheduled to open in 2018 and 2019. The incumbents are also adding capacity. Digital Realty is creating an enormous new campus, while RagingWire, CoreSite, Sabey Data Centers, Equinix and CyrusOne are all adding new capacity.

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: Aligned Energy, Ashburn, Northern Virginia

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

EOL & EOSL and Long-Term Hardware Infrastructure Strategy

EOL & EOSL and Long-Term Hardware Infrastructure Strategy With close to 25 years of data center and IT expertise, Chad Peters of Service Express shares insights regarding the equipment life cycle and how IT leaders can better prepare their budget, strategy and future projects.

DCF Spotlight

The COVID-19 Crisis and the Data Center Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic presents strategic challenges for the data center and cloud computing sectors. Data Center Frontier provides a one-stop resource for the latest news and analysis for decision-makers navigating this complex new landscape.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

White Papers

agrotech

Technology Takes on Agriculture — the Role of Agrotech and Data Centers in Farming Success

Data centers have a role in enabling agrotech. And a new white paper from QTS focuses on this role. Small, remotely managed edge data centers will provide the proximity to rural areas to handle latency-sensitive, locally cached data requirements. Get the new report that explores how agrotech can help farmers be successful today and into the future. 

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Peter Kazella and Associates, Inc

  • MEP Superintendent - Data Center - Columbus, OH
  • Navy Electrician / Navy Mechanic - Hillsboro, OR
  • Generator Sales Associate - New York, NY
  • Mechanical Engineer - Shorewood, WI
  • UPS Field Service Technician - Boston, MA

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 15 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • White Paper

Copyright Data Center Frontier LLC © 2021