Governor Bob McDonnell announced last week that Amazon Web Services, Inc., (AWS), an Amazon.com company, will expand in Fairfax County and add 500 new jobs to the county economy.

Launched in 2006, AWS (@awscloud) designs and offers IT infrastructure services to businesses and government customers in the form of cloud computing, including web hosting, application hosting, storage and backup, content delivery and scalable database solutions.

The company plans to establish a new office in the Herndon area of Fairfax County to support IT engineering and services for commercial and government customers of AWS cloud services.

“Amazon Web Services is a perfect example of a company that can take full advantage of the highly skilled workforce and technology community that Fairfax County offers,” said Gerald L. Gordon, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA). “The company will be able to provide its cloud-based services to a wide variety of clients. Fairfax County is proud to be home to such a world-class company.”

“We look forward to putting more than 500 Virginians to work in Fairfax County,” said Teresa Carlson, vice president of Worldwide Public Sector, AWS. “We appreciate the state and local elected officials who have helped us make this exciting investment in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The FCEDA worked with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to secure the project for Virginia. McDonnell approved a $500,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Fairfax County with the project. Through its Virginia Jobs Investment Program, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide funding and services to support company recruitment and training activities.