Data Centers in Manchester

Manchester – Northern UK's Digital Hub

Manchester is a primary UK digital hub outside of London, offering excellent connectivity and a resilient operating environment. For businesses requiring low-latency access to Northern England, Scotland, and Ireland, Manchester provides a strategic location to deploy infrastructure that drives performance and availability.

Manchester: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Manchester has a dense and diverse connectivity ecosystem, making it a key interconnection point for the northern UK and a reliable alternative to London. With 28 data centers from 23 providers, the market offers a wide range of colocation and network services as of September 2025.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features over 20 network carriers, providing competitive and resilient connectivity options. A strong presence of carrier-neutral facilities ensures choice and flexibility for interconnection.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 1 direct on-ramp is available, enabling dedicated access to 1 cloud regions as of September 2025. This includes a local connection to AWS, allowing businesses to build hybrid architectures with guaranteed performance.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The primary exchange is IXManchester, which provides local peering to improve traffic routing and reduce latency for regional users. Most large-scale peering is handled privately or through London's LINX.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are readily available from providers in the market, including solutions from Hivelocity and phoenixNAP, offering dedicated compute for performance-sensitive applications.

Power Analysis

Manchester benefits from a stable and reliable power grid with costs that are competitive for a mature digital market.

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity costs are approximately £0.17/kWh as of September 2025. This pricing enables predictable operational expenses for high-density deployments. The UK's energy mix includes significant contributions from renewables (40–50%) and natural gas.

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid supporting Manchester's primary data center zones is well-engineered, with significant redundancy from multiple substations. This infrastructure is designed to support the high-availability requirements of modern digital services.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Manchester's location and business environment provide strategic advantages for reaching customers and partners across the UK and beyond.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers are located with easy access to MediaCityUK, a hub for digital and creative industries, as well as the city's central business district. This proximity facilitates low-latency connections for financial, media, and enterprise customers.

Regional Market Reach: Manchester serves as an ideal base for reaching the 15 million people in Northern England. Its connectivity also provides an effective gateway to markets in Scotland, Wales, and across the Irish Sea to Dublin.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: The UK does not offer specific tax incentives for data center construction or operation. Businesses should evaluate standard corporate tax structures when planning investments in the region.

Natural Disaster Risk

Manchester's overall natural disaster risk is very low, with an INFORM Risk score of 2.1 out of 10 as of September 2025. This stability is a key advantage for mission-critical operations.

The region's primary environmental hazards are manageable and well understood. Key risks include:

• Coastal Flood: 8.3/10 (regional risk)
• River Flood: 5.7/10
• Drought: 1.6/10
• Epidemic: 2.4/10

Risks from earthquakes and tropical cyclones are negligible. The area's infrastructure and emergency planning are well-equipped to manage these limited exposures.