Data Centers in Milan

Milan – Strategic Interconnection for Southern Europe

Executive Summary

Milan serves as the primary digital crossroads for Italy and the broader Mediterranean basin. It is the mandatory site for enterprises requiring high-speed access to 60 million consumers and reliable low-latency paths into North Africa. Positioning infrastructure here ensures operations are centrally located within the financial and industrial engine of the region.

Milan: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Milan functions as the central nervous system for the Italian digital economy. The market provides a resilient environment for peering and high-bandwidth transit.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Carrier count: over 40. Milan features ~40–50 unique carriers as of September 2025. This carrier-neutral environment allows for competitive pricing and diverse routing options, ensuring no single point of failure for outbound traffic.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 7, enabling access to 20 cloud regions as of September 2025. Local deployments offer direct links to AWS, Google Cloud (GCP), Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. These on-ramps reduce latency and bypass the public internet for sensitive workloads.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The Milan Internet eXchange (MIX) is the primary IXP in the region. It serves as the leading peering point in Italy to improve local traffic flow and reduce transit costs as of September 2025.

Bare Metal: Dedicated hardware performance is widely available through global providers such as Hivelocity. These services allow for hardware isolation with cloud-like flexibility as of September 2025.

Power Analysis

The Milanese power grid is built to support a heavy industrial and financial base, providing the stability required for tier-grade data center operations.

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity in the region typically ranges from €0.18 to €0.24/kWh as of September 2025. While prices are higher than in some Northern European markets, the strategic location often offsets these costs through reduced latency and market proximity.

Power Grid Reliability: The local grid is well-engineered with redundant configurations and multi-substation support. Facilities in major data center corridors benefit from priority utility feeds designed to maintain uptime during peak demand as of September 2025.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Milan is the engine of the Italian economy, offering a professional environment for technology-heavy sectors.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers are located near the Borsa Italiana and the city’s fashion and finance districts. This proximity is vital for high-frequency trading and corporate headquarters that require immediate access to compute resources as of September 2025.

Regional Market Reach: From Milan, service providers can effectively reach a population of over 60 million in Italy. It also serves as a critical bridge for data traveling between Western Europe and the growing digital markets across the Mediterranean as of September 2025.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Italy provides specific tax benefits for companies investing in digital transformation and green infrastructure. These incentives focus on subsidizing the deployment of energy-efficient systems to help operators lower their total cost of ownership as of September 2025.

Natural Disaster Risk

Milan maintains a Low (3.0/10) overall risk rating as of September 2025. The region is inland, making maritime threats a regional concern rather than a direct local hazard.

Hazard Profile as of September 2025:

• Earthquake (7.7): While the overall risk class is low, seismic resilience is a standard requirement for local building codes.
• River Flood (6.2): Specific areas near water basins require standard drainage and elevation planning.
• Drought (2.8): Managed through regional water infrastructure with minor impact on modern closed-loop cooling systems.
• Coastal Flood (6.5) / Tsunami (6.1): These are marked as minor or indirect regional risks due to the inland location of Milan.

Other natural hazards remain minor or were not listed as material threats to the data center corridor as of September 2025.