It's funny how real something gets when you name it. Silicon Valley is a bunch of southern California highways and corporate parks around hyper-expensive real estate, but it's as real as places can be in terms of business concentration.

A far less complex place, the RTP area near North Carolina's capital, Raleigh, is roughly a triangle connecting three major research universities and the dozens of technology businesses that have spun off from them, thus "research triangle," and a huge research park planned there in the late 1950s, which claims to be the world's largest.

Learning how to do business in the RTP is, quite naturally, easy to do online. Here's a look at the best starting points.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get a look at the RTP's online backgrounder

Some basic facts: Across 7,000 acres you'll find 145 organizations, 119 of them doing research and 82% of multinational companies. Thirty-nine thousand people work in the park area, earning on average $56,000 a year.

I recommend: The Research Triangle Foundation runs its backgrounder site at RTP.org, The three major universities feeding the ecosystem are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and private Duke University.

Find partners, vendors and suppliers

The triangle has hundreds of companies, but as a small business it helps to get deep into the largest ones for early contracts.

I recommend: The largest employers in the area include IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks. Business software giant SAS is in nearby Cary. A longer list by sector is at the RTP.org site. The Council for Entrepreneurial Development works to bring high-growth companies to the area. The big trade group is the MCNC, which operates the North Carolina Research and Education Network, a consortium of research universities. The Small Business and Technology Development Center fosters newcomers and startups.

Keep track of the movers and shakers

As might be expected, a busy place like RTP attracts a lot of boosters. Most talk a lot on the Web about what's going on, who's going where and what matters.

I recommend: Venture capitalist Jason Caplain's blog is plenty busy. TechJournalSouth has an "NC" channel, and the major local daily is Raleigh's News and Observer, one of the first traditional newspapers to go online.

Relocating to Raleigh

The area actively recruits new businesses, particularly in tech and biotech, but many people move there as much for the lifestyle as the typical corporate tour.

I recommend: Money magazine rated Raleigh and nearby Cary highly in its annual "best places to live" ranking, and Forbes named them among the best for careers and business. The Raleigh Convention and Visitor's Bureau obviously would agree with the magazine, as would the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Much of the Raleigh area is almost aggressively suburban but should grow dramatically over the coming few decades. Depending on your business, that can be good (more customers) or bad (rising costs of living).
• •  Getting in and out of Raleigh is a breeze thanks to a good-sized local airport, Raleigh-Durham International. Locals, though, say economic growth is creating some havoc as a ring highway is being widened or improved. Expect delays.
• •  Downtown Raleigh is comparatively sleepy compared to bustling RTP. But it's enjoying a renaissance and city boosters help companies with financing and assistance reclaiming older buildings in the city center.