James City County supervisors want to regulate data centers– massive warehouses stacked with computers and networking equipment that manage our internet services -- before they come knocking.
They have asked staff to research the issue and look for best practices around the state to avoid some of the headaches that befell Northern Virginia, which has the nation’s largest collection of data centers. As Northern Virginia runs out of room, data centers have been expanding elsewhere in the state.
Somewhere between 65 to 85 percent of internet traffic goes through Virginia, depending on whose estimate you use, Colonial Williamsburg CEO Clifford G. Fleet III told a meeting of the Greater Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce with gubernatorial hopeful Abigail Spanberger last week.
Undersea cables bring traffic ashore at Virginia Beach and it follows routes paralleling Interstates 64 and Interstate 95, he added.
Data centers can…