Data Centers in Bologna

Bologna – Strategic Digital Hub for Northern Italy

Bologna is an emerging data center market ideal for organizations requiring resilient infrastructure to serve Northern Italy and Southern Europe. Its strategic location, combined with a low natural disaster risk profile, makes it a reliable choice for production workloads and disaster recovery sites, ensuring high uptime and effective market reach.

Bologna: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality With 4 data centers operated by 2 providers as of September 2025, Bologna offers a focused but growing connectivity environment. The market benefits from carrier-neutral facilities that provide access to a variety of national and regional fiber optic networks.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps As of September 2025, Bologna does not have dedicated public cloud on-ramps. Businesses connect to major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure through the primary interconnection hub in Milan. Secure, low-latency connections are established using private network interconnects (PNI) or high-speed wavelength services.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) Public peering is not a major feature of the Bologna market. Most traffic exchange occurs through private peering arrangements within local data centers or is routed through national IXPs located in Milan, which serves as Italy's primary peering point.

Bare Metal Bare metal server options are available in Bologna, providing dedicated, high-performance computing resources. Providers such as phoenixNAP and OVHcloud offer solutions suitable for compute-intensive workloads that require direct hardware access.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power Industrial electricity prices in the Bologna region typically range from €0.18 to €0.23/kWh as of September 2025. This cost structure, influenced by a national grid mix of approximately 60% fossil fuels and 40% renewables, is a key operational expense for any significant deployment.

Power Grid Reliability The power grid serving Bologna's primary industrial and data center zones is well-engineered. Facilities are supported by redundant power feeds from separate substations, ensuring high levels of uptime consistent with modern data center standards.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts Bologna's data centers are strategically positioned to serve the Emilia-Romagna region, a hub for automotive manufacturing, mechanical engineering, and food production. This proximity provides low-latency connectivity for local enterprises and industrial IoT applications.

Regional Market Reach From Bologna, organizations can effectively serve a large consumer and business population across Northern Italy. The location acts as a valuable secondary site to Milan, offering geographic diversity for disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers Italy provides tax incentives that benefit data center operators and tenants. The primary advantage is a general subsidy for investments in energy-efficient systems and related infrastructure upgrades, which helps lower the total cost of ownership.

Natural Disaster Risk

Bologna has a low overall risk profile for natural disasters, with an INFORM Risk score of 3 out of 10 as of September 2025. This rating indicates a stable environment for critical IT infrastructure.

The most significant environmental risks for the region are:

• Earthquake: The highest individual risk factor, reflecting the seismic activity common to the Apennine mountain range.
• Coastal & River Flood: Moderate risk from river systems, though modern data centers are built above flood plains.
• Drought: A secondary concern that can impact water resources for cooling but is manageable with modern facility design.

Risks from tropical cyclones are non-existent. The region's low vulnerability and strong coping capacity further reduce the potential impact of any natural event.