Data Centers in Honolulu

Honolulu – Strategic Mid-Pacific Digital Hub

Honolulu provides a critical digital infrastructure bridge between North America and Asia. For businesses requiring low-latency access to Pacific subsea cable systems and serving the Hawaiian islands, its colocation facilities offer a unique and resilient hosting environment. This market is essential for content delivery networks, research institutions, and multinational corporations managing trans-pacific data flows.

Honolulu: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Honolulu's connectivity is defined by its strategic location at the nexus of numerous trans-pacific submarine cable systems. This makes it a vital interconnection point for traffic flowing between Asia and North America.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features over 6 network providers as of September 2025. Carrier-neutral facilities provide access to this diverse ecosystem, enabling resilient network architectures.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Honolulu has over 1 direct cloud on-ramp, providing access to 1 cloud region as of September 2025.

• AWS

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): While public peering is limited compared to mainland hubs, the DRFortress IX facilitates local traffic exchange. Most peering for international routes occurs privately within colocation facilities or connects back to major IXPs on the US West Coast.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are available in Honolulu, providing dedicated compute for performance-sensitive applications. Providers like Hivelocity offer services from local data centers.

Power Analysis

Honolulu's power infrastructure reflects its island geography, with a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels and a growing but still developing renewable energy sector.

Average Cost Of Power: The industrial electricity cost is unclear but trends significantly higher than the US average due to its reliance on petroleum for generation, as of September 2025. This higher operational expense is a key consideration for large-scale deployments. The energy mix is approximately 70% fossil fuels and 30% renewables.

Power Grid Reliability: The local power grid is well-engineered for an island environment, but it is exposed to risks from tropical storms. Data centers in Honolulu mitigate this with substantial on-site fuel storage, multi-megawatt generator plants, and battery backup systems.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Honolulu offers a unique combination of US legal protections and strategic proximity to Asia-Pacific markets, making it a valuable digital outpost for global business.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers are located near downtown Honolulu, the primary commercial and government center of Hawaii. This supports the state's significant military, tourism, and research sectors, which all require local data processing and storage.

Regional Market Reach: The market provides low-latency digital services to the entire state of Hawaii. More importantly, it serves as a crucial mid-point for content delivery and cloud services connecting the continental United States with Australia, New Zealand, and key markets across Asia.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Hawaii offers compelling tax incentives to attract technology investment. The state's proposed data center tax credit, alongside existing green infrastructure financing, can significantly reduce the capital and operational costs associated with building and running a data center.

Natural Disaster Risk

Honolulu has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 87.69 as of September 2025. The location's geography exposes it to a unique combination of atmospheric and geological threats. Key risks include hurricanes, tsunamis, coastal and riverine flooding, earthquakes, volcanic activity, and wildfires. Data center operators in the region engineer their facilities with specific mitigations for these events.