Data Centers in Rouen

Rouen – Strategic Diversity for Northern France

Rouen serves as a premier secondary market for enterprises requiring geographical diversity and disaster recovery sites outside the Paris metropolitan area. It leverages the Seine corridor to provide a sturdy balance between cost-effective colocation and high-speed connectivity to the capital. This market is a resilient choice for businesses that prioritize regional presence without the overhead of Tier 1 hubs.

Rouen: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Carrier count: over 2 as of September 2025. The market features a focused ecosystem of regional and national operators that ensure neutrality across major facilities, supporting approximately 4–6 distinct fiber providers.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 0, enabling access to 0 cloud regions as of September 2025. There are no native cloud on-ramps in Rouen. Connectivity to AWS, Google Cloud (GCP), and Microsoft Azure is typically achieved through backhaul to Paris, which offers latency below 5ms via dedicated fiber paths.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): Local peering is primarily managed through private interconnects or by connecting to national exchanges in Paris as of September 2025. This ensures efficient traffic routing for regional users without the need for complex global routing.

Bare Metal: Services are available through regional providers and European players like OVHcloud as of September 2025. These provide flexible compute options for workloads that require physical hardware without long-term commitments.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity prices in France remain competitive due to a heavy reliance on nuclear power and increasing renewables. As of September 2025, costs typically range between €0.18/kWh and €0.22/kWh. This pricing structure offers significant predictability compared to markets heavily reliant on volatile energy imports.

Power Grid Reliability: The local grid is reliable, supported by a redundant transmission network and multi-substation architecture as of September 2025. These configurations support the uptime requirements of enterprise-grade facilities and provide stable power for high-density racks.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in the area are located near the Madrillet Innovation Pole and the port industrial zones as of September 2025. These hubs house logistics and technology firms that require local processing to maintain operational efficiency.

Regional Market Reach: Rouen is the gateway to Normandy, serving a regional population of over 3 million people as of September 2025. It acts as a critical link between Atlantic maritime trade routes and the Paris metropolitan area, making it a key site for logistics-heavy businesses.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Specialized financing options, such as EIB loans for significant data center projects, help offset initial capital expenditure as of September 2025. These incentives support the expansion of sovereign infrastructure and high-performance computing projects within the region.

Natural Disaster Risk

Rouen maintains a Low (2.7/10) overall risk profile as of September 2025. The region is geologically stable, though its location along the Seine necessitates careful site selection regarding hydrology and flood management.

• River Flood: 7.5 (Significant local risk requiring facility-level mitigation as of September 2025)
• Coastal Flood: 7.4 (Regional risk influenced by tidal movements in the Seine estuary as of September 2025)
• Earthquake: 2.8 (Minor risk with no history of major damage as of September 2025)
• Tsunami: 2.5 (Minimal indirect regional risk as of September 2025)
• Drought: 1.6 (Negligible risk to infrastructure as of September 2025)

Natural hazards not listed are considered minor or not material to the data center market in this location as of September 2025.