Combatting Growing Data Gravity in Atlanta

Claude Brown, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions
May 3, 2022

Atlanta is leading the way in technological innovation. For the second consecutive year, this tech-savvy city was voted the number one tech hub in the United States by Business Facilities Magazine and its booming $113.1 billion innovation industry is drawing in even more organizations than ever before.

Affordable living, a strong talent pool from top-name universities, and impactful tax incentives are powerful motivators for companies to put down roots in the Greater Atlanta Area. However these are only some of the reasons that this CBRE “brain gain” market is one of the best areas to hire exceptional tech talent. Easy access to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport makes Atlanta even more attractive to national and global organizations.

Most of all, enterprises are discovering that the tight-knit, relationship-based business community is one of the cornerstones that makes Atlanta such an appealing place to establish a business presence.

Strong business community and connectivity make Atlanta a business destination

As cybersecurity, health IT, transportation/logistics, and FinTech organizations choose Atlanta for their headquarters alongside 26 Fortune 1000 mainstays like Home Depot, Delta, and Coca Cola, it’s clear that Atlanta is solidifying its position as the Southeast’s financial and business capital.

Microsoft recently opened their Atlanta Yards campus, demonstrating Atlanta’s desirability in the tech industry. Microsoft’s growing investment in Atlanta, alongside investments from other industry leaders like Apple and Facebook, play a major role in boosting Atlanta’s status as the Crown of the South. Meanwhile, venture-funded startups are also leveraging Atlanta’s entrepreneur-friendly practices to bring billions of dollars into the region.

Talented, educated workers from the area’s many notable colleges offer companies a growing workforce interested in tech and innovation. Investment in local tech education supports the 15.2% five year growth rate of Atlanta’s tech industry. The low cost of living is also a major attraction drawing both companies and their tech employees to the area. Additionally, with access to the “busiest airport in the world”, global travel from Atlanta is made easy.
Part of the strength behind Atlanta’s tech-friendly environment is its accessibility and connectivity to other major cities. Atlanta’s dense, fiber-rich environment offers exceptional connectivity to public and private cloud platforms as well as network redundancy for organizations searching for a location to accommodate their growing data needs. Their regulated utility market offer some of the lowest rates in the country, making the cost of supporting increased data storage and management affordable for companies with heavy data transmission needs, while a low risk of natural disaster keeps data centers safe.

Enabling digital transformation despite data gravity challenges

As more companies discover the economic viability of Atlanta, the city will continue to experience the explosive growth in data creation, common for similar tech hubs. These trends will continue to impact the Atlanta business community:

• Data volumes are growing by 63% each month according to IDG reports
• The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, 463+ exabytes of data will be created daily
• By 2025, 80% of data worldwide will live in enterprises, according to IDC

As data volumes continue to explode, Data Gravity will make transferring data between data centers, cloud services, networks, and content providers more difficult. Data accumulation will continue to attract additional services and applications, becoming a problem for cities like Atlanta as more data is created, stored, exchanged, and analyzed. These challenges demand an evolution in data architecture to deliver data to users, applications, and networks consistently and securely.

Leveraging data-centric architecture in Atlanta

Digital Realty’s Data Gravity Index 2.0 measures Data Gravity intensity based on data creation, aggregation, and private exchange of data. The most recent Data Gravity Index identifies Atlanta as one of the top 6 metropolitan areas in the world with the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR). This carrier-dense area is expected to see a CAGR of 173% through 2024.

For businesses in the Atlanta area to combat the impact of Data Gravity, they need data-centric architecture with real-time intelligence to optimize data exchange across channels. PlatformDIGITAL®, the largest global data center platform, provides customers a trusted foundation and proven Pervasive Data Center Architecture (PDx™) solution methodology for scaling digital business and efficiently managing data gravity challenges. Locations like Digital Realty’s carrier hotel in downtown Atlanta and campus offer a scalable and flexible choice for businesses seeking a Gateway to the Southeast.

This data center is designed to enable enterprise hybrid IT architecture by providing direct access to the leading public cloud providers via the Service Exchange. Plus, the robust, connected data communities supported by PlatformDIGITAL make this colocation service a powerful option to reduce the impact of data gravity and discover new business opportunities in Atlanta.

Digital Realty gives us the ability to turn up the cross-connects to get the connectivity for customers inside of 48 hours. We picked 250 Williams Street for a Digital Realty site because it’s a new site, a bigger size, and I had my pick of whatever connectivity size occasion I wanted in the area, with the ability to continue growth when I needed to.
-Casey Fann, Vice President of Operations, MOBITV

Atlanta’s PlatformDIGITAL ecosystem includes access to:

• A 150+ network, cloud, IT, financial, and content partners, as well as thousands of customers
• Internet connectivity, including dedicated internet access and exchange
• A purpose-built data center and colocation that enables customers to rapidly deploy with scale and flexible design options

PlatformDIGITAL makes lowering capital and operations costs in Atlanta possible – while significantly reducing financial risk. Digital Realty owns and operates each facility, unburdening customers of the headaches and adverse business impacts of having to relocate when an operator’s lease ends. At the same time, organizations can use Digital’s expansive global digital infrastructure to greatly accelerate digital transformation through secure, resilient digital ecosystems and connectivity gateways.

More Information on PlatformDIGITAL in Atlanta

Please visit Digital Realty’s website for more information on the Atlanta campus. You can also email us to schedule a consultation.

Optimize Global Data Exchange with a PlatformDIGITAL® Map Kit. Request your physical map kit here.