Did you catch this summer’s victory lap by Ohio politicians after CNBC named the Buckeye State #1 for business? With so many folks patting themselves on the back, I’m hoping the orthopedist class did some brisk business.
Several reports, though, overlooked the built environment that makes that ranking possible. Consider four closely related advantages. Ohio, the seventh-most populous state in the US, is home to:
- The fourth-largest freight railroad network.
- The fifth-largest interstate highway system.
- The fifth-highest ranking in warehousing, storage services, and freight.
- The fifth-highest number of data centers. (Whether that’s a good thing is a topic for another article.)
These advantages compounded layer by layer. Rail supported industry. Highways expanded across and beyond Ohio. Logistics demanded storage facilities. Power and fiber created the conditions for large-scale compute.
These resources are the narrative bedrock for how we dream, build, and tolerate risk here in Ohio. It’s the story of how our infrastructure has compounded for 150 years—and the key role the state played in the computational economy. Once we recognize that inheritance, we can build and finance technology with greater ambition, check our Midwestern humility, and stop waiting for permission from the coasts.
The Ohio Stack: 150 Years of Machines on the Ground
Ohio’s computational advantage began long before OpenAI, the cloud, or hyperscalers. Rail corridors created routes for commerce and communication. Telegraph and telephone lines followed. Next up were the highways, power grids, warehouses, fiber, and computing facilities.
Even the marketplace for shared compute has its roots in Ohio. Founded in Columbus, in 1969, as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance, CompuServe built a business selling access to computer capacity that would otherwise sit idle. Here, Midwestern pragmatism reigned: put expensive machinery to work, serve multiple businesses, and deliver real value.
By 1979, CompuServe had opened that connectivity to consumers. Its network carried news, messages, and plenty of data. Eight years later, CompuServe’s Steve Wilhite invented the GIF. Most importantly, CompuServe demonstrated that compute could be shared, metered, and delivered across a network. In other words, it’s a key predecessor of the cloud. And by the way: Columbus averages 200 cloudy days a year. Cupertino: 100.
In 1987, Ohio bet big once again on shared compute. The Ohio General Assembly provided $7.5M to create the Ohio Supercomputer Center. For research universities and private industry alike, our great state assembled powerful machines, network access, technical expertise, and public investment inside a common system. It was akin to another utility: the telephone. The more companies that used it, the more valuable it became. By the time Silicon Valley devised a hazy metaphor for a supposed revolution in virtualization, Ohio had spent decades connecting people to compute on the ground.
Today, Ohio’s legacy of compute is poised to play a critical role in the more than 6,000 manufacturers operating across Northeast Ohio. A few years back, though, Nick Barendt, Executive Director of the Institute for Smart, Secure And Connected Systems (ISSACS) at Case Western Reserve University, connected the data points. Then he helped put together a coalition of more than 70 regional partners and secured the initial chunk of up to $160M from the National Science Foundation.
The Ownership Layer
So, what’s this inheritance worth?
We can admire it, lease it cheaply to outsiders, or use it as the foundation for companies we design, build, and own. For too long, Ohio’s technology ecosystem has judged itself by coastal measures: SaaS multiples, unicorn valuations, and thumbs-up from investors who regard physical infrastructure as somebody else’s problem. Too often, our heads are elsewhere. Let’s think hard about the assets beneath our feet and dream up companies that are uniquely equipped to use them.
About legacy, then: what if founders built companies fit to draw upon the compound value of the Ohio advantage? What if regional investors recognized machinery, logistics, fiber, specialized labor, and industrial data as sources of durable value?
I mean: there’s got to be a flywheel in here somewhere.
The legacy of utilities lives on in Ohio. Since 2011, Westerville has operated WeConnect, which pairs a city-owned fiber network with the nation’s first municipally owned and operated community data center. The arrangement gives schools, hospitals, and businesses access to low-latency infrastructure while keeping revenue and decision-making close to the community.
It also represents a larger possibility: Ohio can participate in the ownership of the computational economy instead of turning its land, water, power, and tax incentives into value that compounds elsewhere.
That’s one of the reasons we’re building dSaaS here. Ohio has deep roots in shared compute. The lineage from CompuServe to OSC to today’s industrial workloads has left us a set of instructions:
- Own the hardware.
- Put idle capacity to work.
- Deliver compute to manufacturers, researchers, and institutions across Ohio.
And keep compounding the value here.
Jace Martin is a Columbus native and the CEO of employee-owned dSaaS. He has spent more than 30 years working across technology, infrastructure, media, and startups. Jace writes about the history, economics, and occasionally strange decisions that shape how technology gets built in the Midwest.
