Data Centers in Orange County

Orange County – Southern California's Edge Hub

Orange County serves as a key edge data center market, providing low-latency connectivity to the massive Southern California economy without the congestion of downtown Los Angeles. It is an ideal location for enterprises in media, gaming, and finance that require high-performance infrastructure close to end-users. This market combines a dense carrier ecosystem with proximity to one of the world's primary subsea cable landing destinations.

Orange County: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

With 18 data centers, Orange County offers a solid foundation for deploying network-centric applications. The ecosystem is defined by its proximity to Los Angeles, a global connectivity gateway.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features access to over 13 carriers as of September 2025. Most colocation facilities provide carrier-neutral environments, offering diverse options for redundancy and competitive pricing.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There are no direct public cloud on-ramps within Orange County data centers as of September 2025. However, dedicated, low-latency connections to all major cloud providers are readily available via private network extensions to the primary hubs in Los Angeles.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): While Orange County itself has limited public peering, most traffic exchange is handled through private interconnects or via the dense ecosystem of IXPs in Los Angeles. This provides efficient routes to national and international networks.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are available from multiple providers in the region, offering dedicated compute for performance-sensitive workloads. Providers like Hivelocity and phoenixNAP can serve deployments in the area.

Power Analysis

California's power landscape presents both challenges and opportunities. The state's focus on renewables is aggressive, but this comes with a higher price tag.

Average Cost Of Power: Expect industrial power rates between $0.17 and $0.21/kWh as of September 2025. This cost is significantly above the U.S. national average and is a critical factor in total cost of ownership calculations for large-scale deployments.

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid supporting Orange County's data center corridors is well-engineered for a major metropolitan area. Enterprise-grade data centers are supplied by redundant substations and feature robust on-site backup generation to ensure uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Orange County provides strategic access to one of the largest economic regions in the world, supported by a business-friendly environment and specific state-level incentives.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in cities like Irvine and Santa Ana are strategically located near major business parks, technology headquarters, and financial service centers. This proximity enables low-latency connections for local enterprise operations.

Regional Market Reach: The market is perfectly positioned to serve the entire Southern California region, a population exceeding 20 million people. It acts as an excellent disaster recovery site for businesses with primary infrastructure in Los Angeles.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: California offers various tax incentives that can benefit data center operators and tenants, although few are specific to Orange County. The primary advantages come from state-wide programs rewarding energy efficiency and investment in alternative energy, which can help offset higher operational costs.

Natural Disaster Risk

Orange County has a high natural disaster risk profile, driven primarily by its location in a seismically active region.

The area has a FEMA National Risk Index score of 89.02, ranking it higher than most U.S. counties as of September 2025. Key risks for data center operators to mitigate include earthquake, wildfire, drought, and heat waves. All modern data centers in the region are constructed to high seismic standards to protect critical infrastructure.