Data Centers in Charlotte

Charlotte – Resilient Hub for East Coast Workloads

Charlotte, North Carolina is a strong choice for businesses prioritizing cost-effective, low-risk infrastructure to serve the Southeastern United States. The market combines significant tax incentives, a reliable power grid, and a low natural disaster risk profile, making it ideal for production and disaster recovery workloads that demand high uptime without the premium costs of other major hubs.

Charlotte: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Charlotte's connectivity is solid, supporting demanding enterprise applications for the entire region.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features access to over 25 unique network providers as of September 2025. Carrier-neutral facilities are common, allowing customers to interconnect with the provider that best fits their performance and cost requirements.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 1 on-ramp is available in the market, providing direct, low-latency connections to 1 cloud region as of September 2025. This includes access to Cloudflare.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): While major public peering is often routed through nearby hubs like Atlanta, the Charlotte market supports significant private peering within its colocation facilities. This allows for efficient traffic exchange between networks without traversing the public internet.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are available from providers like Hivelocity, offering dedicated compute resources for performance-sensitive applications.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates in Charlotte are competitive for the region, typically ranging from $0.07 to $0.09 per kWh as of September 2025. These favorable rates directly reduce the total cost of ownership for high-density deployments. The state's power mix includes significant contributions from nuclear (33%) and natural gas (42%).

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid serving Charlotte's primary data center zones is well-engineered and supported by multiple substations. The infrastructure is designed to provide the stable, redundant power critical for maintaining uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Charlotte’s data centers are strategically located to serve its large banking and financial services industry, as well as healthcare and technology sectors. This proximity enables low-latency connections for time-sensitive transactions and data processing.

Regional Market Reach: From Charlotte, organizations can effectively serve a large population across North Carolina, South Carolina, and into Tennessee and Virginia. Its location makes it an excellent East Coast alternative to more congested and expensive markets.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: North Carolina provides substantial tax incentives that significantly lower the cost of building and operating a data center. The state offers sales and use tax exemptions on electricity and critical data center equipment, directly reducing both initial capital investment and ongoing operational expenses.

Natural Disaster Risk

Charlotte has a very low natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 14.70 as of September 2025. This minimizes environmental threats to infrastructure uptime and business continuity. The primary risks to consider are severe storms and their associated effects, including tornadoes, hail, strong winds, and lightning. Other monitored risks for the area include drought and wildfire.