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Hyperscale · Ashburn, Virginia, United States

AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD)

Historic founding site of AWS us-east-1, the single largest concentration of global cloud traffic

AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD)
AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD) on the mapmap: Natural Earth (public domain)

The story

When Amazon launched Amazon S3 and EC2 in 2006, the foundational cloud instances lived in leased colocation along Smith Switch Road in Ashburn. That cluster evolved into AWS us-east-1 (N. Virginia), the undisputed center of gravity for the modern internet. Carrying a substantial fraction of all global cloud traffic, Smith Switch operates under extreme operational scrutiny. Whenever us-east-1 experiences a hiccup, major portions of the global consumer internet feel the impact.

Notable

  • The founding epicenter and flagship availability zone of Amazon Web Services us-east-1 (N. Virginia).
  • Routes the highest volume of global cloud computing traffic of any single region on Earth.
  • Houses custom AWS Nitro system hardware, Graviton processors, and Trainium AI accelerators.
  • Catalyzed Northern Virginia's evolution into the world's preeminent data center capital.

Expansions

  • 2014: Continuous multi-building campus buildout across Smith Switch and Broaddus corridors
  • 2023: Retrofits with custom AWS Graviton and Trainium high-density AI rack deployments

Sources

  1. AWS Global Infrastructure: Northern Virginia Region · Amazon Web Services · 2024-01-10
  2. When AWS goes down: Inside the Northern Virginia cloud hub powering the internet · The Washington Post · 2021-12-08
  3. The Cloud Runs Through Loudoun County: How AWS Built Northern Virginia · Data Center Frontier · 2022-06-15

Part of the open famous data centers dataset (CC BY 4.0). Updated 2026-10-15. A correction? da@mustardseedmt.com

Questions people ask
What is AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD) famous for?

Historic founding site of AWS us-east-1, the single largest concentration of global cloud traffic

Where is AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD)?

AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD) is in Ashburn, Virginia, United States (39.035, -77.456). It is operated by Amazon Web Services.

How much power does AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD) use?

About 120 MW of IT load and 160 MW in total, according to the sources listed on this page.

What is the PUE of AWS us-east-1 Smith Switch (IAD)?

1.18, reported.