By providing the infrastructure required to store, process, and transport enormous amounts of data, supporting a wide range of applications and services, data centers in general play a crucial role in the digital economy. The "Data Center Capital of the World" title sometimes makes reference to Loudoun County in Virginia, which is a popular location for data centers. The county has become a desirable location for data center development due to its close proximity to Washington, D.C., its dependable power system, strong fiber-optic network, and its advantageous tax incentives.

The Executive Director of Loudoun County, Virginia Economic Development, Buddy Rizer, was the guest on this edition of the "Not Your Father's Center Data Podcast," hosted by Raymond Hawkins, CEO of Compass Datacenters.

According to Buddy, “Data centers allowed us to cut our tax rate to 89 cents last year, which means less pressure on homeowners to pay their loans. Additionally, we were able to construct a variety of schools, invest up to a billion dollars in road infrastructure, and extend the Washington D.C. Metro to Loudoun which in turn provides great jobs and services.”

Buddy Rizer is the Executive Director for the Department of Economic Development in Loudoun County, Virginia, which was named the 2021 Economic Development Organization of the Year by the International Economic Development Council. He leads the agency responsible for encouraging growth and developing relationships with Loudoun’s business community in both the commercial and agricultural-based business sectors.  During his tenure, Rizer and his team have attracted more than $40 billion in new commercial investment and more than 50 thousand new jobs.