Let's leverage, welcome the rise of data centers

February 20, 2023 – The Free Lance-Star

Last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that Amazon Web Services plans to invest $35 billion dollars in Virginia by 2040. This investment, coupled with the 2018 announcement of Amazon’s second headquarters (HQ2) in Arlington, will greatly expand the company’s footprint in Virginia, bringing new jobs and much-needed property tax revenue.

AWS is the largest cloud-computing service in the world, accounting for as much as 34% of the ever-expanding global market. Amazon’s Virginia investment is proof that the demand for cloud computing is not a short-term fad, but a long-term necessity.

But what is “the cloud?”