Data Centers in Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids – Strategic Edge and Resilient Midwestern Infrastructure

Strategic Resilience in the Heart of Iowa

Cedar Rapids serves as a critical secondary market for enterprises that prioritize high uptime and disaster recovery without the overhead of coastal hubs. Its position ensures reliable connectivity for the insurance and manufacturing sectors while leveraging a grid backed by significant renewable energy.

Cedar Rapids: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Carrier count: over 5 carriers as of September 2025. The market provides a reliable mix of local and national fiber providers across core facilities, ensuring competitive options for regional transit.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 0, enabling access to 0 cloud regions as of September 2025. Local facilities do not host direct on-ramps; instead, they utilize private extensions and wavelength services to connect to major cloud hubs in Chicago.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): Most peering occurs privately or via remote connections to major national exchanges in Chicago to optimize pathing and minimize hops.

Bare Metal: General availability exists through providers like Hivelocity and ColoCrossing for enterprises requiring localized compute with high flexibility.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity is approximately $0.08/kWh as of September 2025. This rate offers a clear cost advantage for power-hungry workloads compared to national averages, directly benefiting the bottom line.

Power Grid Reliability: The local grid is well-engineered with a heavy emphasis on wind energy, which accounts for a large portion of the generation mix. Multi-substation support and redundant paths ensure the stability required for 24/7 mission-critical operations.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers are situated near the Cedar Rapids – Iowa City technology corridor. This provides low-latency access for the heavy concentration of manufacturing and financial services companies that drive the local economy.

Regional Market Reach: This location serves as an efficient gateway for the upper Midwest, reaching markets across Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota with ease.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Iowa offers a significant financial benefit through a specialized sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment and utility costs. This program directly lowers the cost of long-term infrastructure maintenance and hardware refreshes.

Natural Disaster Risk

Cedar Rapids maintains a Moderate risk profile with a score of 43.14 as of September 2025. Facilities are purpose-built to address specific regional atmospheric events and maintain continuous uptime.

• Tornado: Identified as a primary risk requiring specific structural reinforcement for external equipment and power feeds.
• River Flood: Managed through specific site selection and elevation protocols for all critical cooling and power infrastructure.
• Ice Storm: Common winter events are addressed via on-site fuel storage and winterization of external cooling systems.
• Strong Wind: Architectural choices protect external cooling towers and utility feeds from seasonal gusts.
• Cold Wave: High-efficiency systems manage extreme temperature swings to maintain internal climate stability during winter months.
• Hail: Protective measures for roof membranes and external utility components are standard for facilities in this region.