Data Centers in Boston

Boston – Northeast Hub for Connectivity & Research

Boston is a primary data center market for organizations in finance, healthcare, education, and biotechnology that require low-latency connectivity to the northeastern United States and Europe. The city’s dense network ecosystem and concentration of research institutions make it a strategic location for performance-sensitive applications and data-intensive computing. Deploying infrastructure here secures a competitive edge for reaching one of the nation's most important economic regions.

Boston: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Boston offers a rich and mature connectivity environment, essential for businesses that depend on speed and uptime. It serves as a major network aggregation point for New England and a key landing spot for transatlantic cables connecting North America to Europe.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality The Boston market features excellent carrier diversity, with over 40 unique network providers available in the region as of September 2025. This competition ensures competitive pricing and provides extensive options for creating redundant, high-performance network architectures in carrier-neutral facilities.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps With over 1 dedicated cloud on-ramp available, Boston provides direct, private connections to major cloud providers, enabling access to 4 cloud regions as of September 2025. Local providers include:

• AWS
• Google Cloud (GCP)

These connections bypass the public internet, offering lower latency, higher security, and more reliable throughput for hybrid cloud workloads.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) The primary public peering point is the Boston Internet Exchange (Boston IX), which facilitates efficient traffic exchange between networks. Access to the IXP allows for improved network performance and reduced transit costs for participants. Most large-scale peering remains private between major carriers.

Bare Metal Bare metal server options are readily available from multiple providers in the Boston area. Companies like Hivelocity and phoenixNAP offer dedicated server solutions for workloads that demand single-tenancy and direct hardware control.

Power Analysis

Power infrastructure in the Boston area is reliable, though costs reflect its position as a major metropolitan hub in the Northeast.

Average Cost Of Power Industrial electricity rates range from $0.10–$0.10/kWh as of October 2025. While not the lowest in the nation, these rates are stable and competitive for a primary East Coast market, allowing for predictable operational expense planning. The regional power grid is primarily fueled by natural gas (~70%) and a growing renewables portfolio (~29%).

Power Grid Reliability The power grid serving Boston's main data center corridors is well-engineered and resilient. Facilities are typically supported by redundant utility feeds from separate substations, ensuring high levels of uptime required for mission-critical operations.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Boston provides a strategic advantage through its combination of a highly educated workforce, a thriving technology sector, and favorable tax policies for data center operators.

Proximity To Key Business Districts Data centers in the Boston area are located near the region’s core economic engines, including the Financial District, the Longwood Medical Area, and the technology and research corridor along Route 128. This proximity provides low-latency connectivity for institutions in finance, healthcare, biotech, and university research.

Regional Market Reach From Boston, organizations can effectively serve the entire New England region, encompassing over 15 million people. Its strategic location also makes it an ideal peering point for traffic between the United States and Europe, offering some of the lowest latency routes across the Atlantic.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers Massachusetts offers a significant tax incentive for data center operators. A sales and use tax exemption is available for qualified equipment purchases, which directly lowers the capital expenditure required to build out or refresh infrastructure. This financial benefit makes large-scale deployments more cost-effective.

Natural Disaster Risk

Boston has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 92.68 out of 100 as of September 2025. This rating is driven almost entirely by the potential for severe weather events rather than seismic activity.

Key risks for the region include:

• Hurricanes & Strong Wind: Coastal proximity brings risk of high winds and storm-related disruptions.
• Winter Weather & Ice Storms: Severe winter storms can impact logistics and place stress on power infrastructure.
• Riverine Flooding: Inland areas near rivers and waterways face moderate flood risk.
• Lightning: A frequent and moderate risk during warmer months.

While the overall score is high, data centers in this market are purpose-built to mitigate these specific weather-related threats with hardened facilities and redundant systems.