The ‘stress test’ for data centers
The internet hasn’t blown up — yet. But the primary data center hub of the world — Loudoun County — where more than 70% of all internet traffic passes through the county’s Ashburn area, has seen a 50% spike in daytime broadband consumption since the coronavirus crisis began, says Buddy Rizer, Loudoun County’s e[...]
Va. Beach-based DroneUp acquires AeroVista Innovations
Virginia Beach-based end-to-end drone pilot service company DroneUp LLC announced Thursday it has acquired Glenview, Illinois-based AeroVista Innovations LLC (AVI). The merged company will rebrand as The DroneUp Training Academy. DroneUp acquired AVI’s assets, employees and customer contracts. Financial terms of the transa[...]
Reston-based IT company names new CFO
Reston-based information technology company Contegix announced Thursday that it has named Mike Dunn as its new chief financial officer. Dunn was most recently the CFO of systems integrator and managed hosting provider NeoSystems LLC. He has also previously been CFO of Siteworx and Recovery Point Systems. In his new role, he will[...]
Booz Allen Hamilton pledges job security for employees through July 1
McLean-based global IT consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has pledged to keep its 27,000 workers employed at least through July 1 during the COVID-19 crisis, and has also pledged funding to support employees dealing with health care and child care issues. The company announced Thursday it will redirect $100 million to a “pandemic resilience program” […]
Arlington tech company names COO
Arlington-based tech company Excella Consulting Inc. announced Tuesday it has named Sandy Gillespie as its chief operating officer. Gillespie was most recently COO and executive vice president for Reston-based NCI Information Systems Inc. since April 2018. In her new role at Excella, she will oversee client delivery and growth s[...]
A woman of science
Beakers and chemicals. Sparkles and high heels. An uncommon pairing for most is Miss America’s reality— something she’s working to normalize for young women. When Miss America 2020 Camille Schrier jumped back into the pageant world last year, she was initially stumped as to what she could do for the talent competition. A m[...]
Amazon scoops up more NoVa land
Another quarter, another Amazon.com Inc. buying spree in Northern Virginia. In January, the company bought 6.2 acres in Arlington County, the location of HQ2, for $154.95 million. According to county records, Acorn Development LLC, an Amazon subsidiary, bought the land from JBG Smith Properties, from which it leases its current [...]
VCU Health physician runs COVID-19 drug trial
A VCU Health liver specialist and gastroenterologist is leading clinical trials for a possible drug treatment for COVID-19 patients. This week, Dr. Arun Sanyal began testing remdesivir, an antiviral medication previously used experimentally to treat the Ebola virus, on several VCU Health System patients with moderate to severe c[...]
An aerial view of drone industry during COVID-19
Virginia Business virtually sat down with Tom Walker, founder and CEO of DroneUp, a Virginia Beach-based company that provides end-to-end aerial data services to the commercial sector, government and pilots to get a feel for how his drone company has adapted to doing business during the coronavirus crisis. This is part of an ong[...]
Instacart hiring 12,000 Va. shoppers to meet rising demand
San Francisco-based online grocery delivery company Instacart announced Tuesday it would hire 300,000 more full-time shoppers, including 12,000 in Virginia, to meet the increase in demand caused by the COVID-19 crisis. “The last few weeks have been the busiest in Instacart’s history,” said founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta in a statement. “We expect to see […]
Sterling biotech firm launches COVID-19 test
Sterling-based biotech company Aperiomics has launched a COVID-19 test available for to medical providers nationwide for $250 per sample. Aperiomics says it has the capacity to process and deliver results on 1,000 tests per week. The company says it can turn around results from its Xplore-COVID-19 tests within 48 to 72 hours of receiving a […]
Amazon warehouse worker in New York tests positive for COVID-19
Only two days after Amazon.com Inc. announced it would add 100,000 warehouse and delivery jobs — 1,400 of which are earmarked for Virginia — to combat coronavirus-related unemployment, a warehouse worker in its Queens, New York City, facility has tested positive for the virus. Amazon has a total of 10 fulfillment and sortation facilities in […]