Data Center By the Ice House

ok, so my hubby and I lurked around the "Data Center" that is being built off Beaumeade and can be seen to the right of the Ashburn Ice House. He's in the biz, and said it is massive. The Silos you see are chilling towers for water used for certain things , massive air cooling units and power units. All this surrounds a concrete bunker like building. There is a smaller one on Rt 28 that has a huge electric grid attached directly to the electric wires on the poles by the road.

Is there anyone in this forum who KNOWS what company this is for? Cuz' nobody he or I know can figure it out...

 

Odds are you are not suppose to know.

 

I really do know. And you're right...I can't tell you.

 

i used to be in that biz, and very rarely will data centers ever put signage out. there are tons of them around here...all "unmarked."

 

Black & Decker? Rockwell?

 

Not Rockwell. Clinton spilled those beans when the NRO facility off rt. 28 was being built.

 

I think it is funny if you all think this data center is supposed to be a secret.

I have had a tour of it a few weeks ago and that is all I can say!! ha ha ha

Now for all you intelligence agents, spies and spooks have they started building the possibly now secret 5 level underground complex under the White House and surrounding grounds with the secret road tunnels???????

Big news in the architecture world before 911.

The only secrets it seems to me our government keeps are the ones no one cares about anyway. Very obvious about the amount of government helicopters that flew over us on 911, what was going on and the type of people (congress gov officials etc.) that were in them. ha ha ha Some secret. Of course the the return trip was obvious also. The amount of them flying at one time and together was also funny. Hmmmm think they went to that secret place just west of us that everyone seems to know about???? ha ha ha

Believe me I don't expect our government to protect me or us, especially how they botched not knowing about 911 when there were so many obvious facts. Personally I believe if there is another attack on our soil it will suprise us all again and how devious these terrorist really are, and how unprotected our borders are and especially our commercial shipping. That is what scares me.

Lee j

 

How true is that! For once I agree with you Lee ;-) It's the commercial shipping, the cruise lines, the trains, etc. And then there's the utilities (i.e. water, power plants, etc.).

 

Man when you say cruise lines (floating cities which are getting bigger all the time) that could be the next attack and how do you protect these floating cities that are all over the world. Could it be these rash of outbreaks of illness on these ships is only a test for future major attack. Like they did test runs on our planes before 911???? Just take out a couple of ships and you have topped what they did on 911. Yes what cruise line represents American the most. You gussed it the Disney Ships. Now they are building two that are 50% bigger then the existing two. Hmmmmm what a statement that would make killing our children and the symbol of entertainment of america.

Scares the hell out of me.

Lee j

 

I won't tell you what scares me most and what would shake middle America the most...

But I do have a question. Forgive my ignorance. Why do they need to build data centers here where the cost of land is so expensive? Is it the proximity to the companies, infrastructure or to labor that they need?

From a strategic point of view, are there a lot of high value targets right here in NOVA that could be targeted?

 

I'm laughing a little bit here over the secrets comments. There are "things we don't talk about" and then there are "secrets". Rest assured, Clinton nor anyone else is telling you about the "secrets" unless you're a guy like Robert Hanson. And then, he only told the Russians for money.

See the difference? But hey, what the heck do I know? LOL... Honestly, if I knew something of importance...do you honestly think I would post here kinda, sorta telling you I knew something?

Time for the disclaimer after pulling your chain: I don't work for the government, I don't work for a company that works for the government and I don't have some super secret clearance and decoder ring. IN fact, I have no knowledge of this or any other event you speak of.

I respect those of you who do...thank you for your service.

 

Ok if that data center over by the embassy suites is some kind of super secret place, then I have lost all respect for who ever decided to put it there, that would be a joke.

There is no security what so ever around it. any one could walk right into it.

I always thought it was odd that the Federal Highway dept is located with the cia. If I was in charge I would be putting anything secret in the middle of a extremely secure military base and way underground way away from major population areas. Jeez I have a secret room in my house and everyone knows where it is or can find it. ha ha ha I aways tell people if they can't find the secret room in less then 30 minutes you have to donate a bottle for the bar. In 4 years I have yet to win one bottle, so much for secrets. Another odd place for a high security buildings is that place on rt 28 within feet of the road. What is that place the NSO?

Then again there are cultures in the world that believe the best security is not closing everything in but opening everything up so you know what is around you. .

Lee j

 

Lee, that would be the National Reconnaissance Office, not the National Symphony Orchestra.

 

Hey dont tell anyone but all the construction east of 28 just on the other side of the Dulles fuel tanks is the CIA. 400,000 square feet of CIA, including a massive electrical support grid.

 

Hey what do I know. I just draw pretty pictures all day long. When my kids were young they told me that was not work and they still don't think it is

Here is a little bit of trivia I was the builder (Classical Homes) of a very large spec home 22,000 sq ft I built on Old Dominion Rd and Tolston back in 1990 and the National Symphony used it as their Decorator Show Home that year and was one of the first new homes they used as well as one of the largest.

We sold it to an Chinese Doctor for one of the highest prices in DC during the beginning of one of the worst recessions on a terrible lot. Then I left for California for 8 or 9 years.
Then one of the princesses of Saudi Arabia bought it when I moved back.
Lee j

 

It's the proximity to basically the backbone of the internet. I'm no network engineer or smart fiber optic techie guy, but I've heard that 80% of the world's internet traffic runs through the UUNET lines across the street from this site (at the VerizonBusiness campus). In fact, an network engineer friend always wondered why "Ashburn, VA" showed up when he was tracing the track of internet traffic in Oklahoma City....

As to whom- Equinix recently bought a bunch of the buildings in Beaumeade. "Equinix is the leading global provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services for enterprises, content companies and network services providers." (from their website)

This property is owned by DuPont Fabros, so who knows if it's related to Equinix or for another user....

 

I am not sure if the UUNET figure is still accurate, but we certainly are in a very concentrated area of bandwidth peering (where the big providers connect to each other) and data centers. This area is home to most of the big internet providers. As far as Equinix, I'd not be surprised if they had some involvement. I've been told their facility in the building next to the post office is at or near capacity. We have some equipment in there and I know asking for any more power is a concern.

 

Thanks for the insight, that helps. Is that why AOL based here, or did AOL come first and then data centers built around it?

So could this be a high value target if someone wanted to disrupt internet traffic?

 

AOL was here first, then UUNet/MCI/Verizon built their campus. AOL, I believe, still has their own data center on their campus.

And, it's true, 80% of the worlds Internet traffic travels on the UUNet backbone. I used to work there, and am pretty certain that this statistic hasn't changed.

 

I am not sure the exact history of AOL, but I do know in the 90s their network (both backbone and dial) was primarily leased from the big network providers like UUNET. At the time, AOL was much more focused on providing data than maintaining a network. I've not really been in touch with AOL in recent years, so I can't speak to their operations today. UUNet (now Verizon Business, after being Worldcom for a while), AOL, Sprint, PSI (now gone), and Cable & Wireless US (at one time) were all either headquartered here or at least had their network operations here (NoVa area, not just Ashburn). With respect to the data centers, these tend to be more populous in locations where the big providers peer with each other, allowing for easy multi-homing. In the early days, the DC area was the prime spot on this coast with San Jose (Silicon Valley) being the West Coast counterpart. Today you'll find huge data centers all over the globe in all the major cities, but certainly DC and San Jose are still huge.

With respect to high value targets, certainly these data centers would be prime targets to disrupt our American lifestyle however I'd tend to guess data centers in more financially-concentrated areas would be targeted first.