Data Centers in Charlotte

Charlotte – Cost-Effective & Low-Risk Colocation Hub

Executive Summary

Charlotte is a primary data center market for enterprises that demand a balance of strong connectivity, competitive power costs, and a very low risk of natural disasters. The city's infrastructure provides reliable, low-latency access to the major population centers of the southeastern United States, supporting critical applications and business continuity. This combination makes it a strategic choice for production and disaster recovery deployments.

Charlotte: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Charlotte offers a mature and resilient connectivity ecosystem, serving as a key network aggregation point for the Carolinas and the greater Southeast.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality The Charlotte market provides access to over 25 unique network carriers, as of September 2025. Most premier colocation facilities operate on a carrier-neutral basis, giving customers a wide choice of providers for redundancy and cost management.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps While Charlotte does not host direct, dedicated on-ramps for public clouds, it offers excellent network paths to the primary North American cloud availability zones. The main hub for direct cloud interconnection is Ashburn, Virginia, which is accessible via low-latency network services like private line and wavelength circuits.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) Public peering in Charlotte is limited, as most interconnection occurs through private peering arrangements within carrier-neutral data centers. The nearest major public exchanges are located in Atlanta and Ashburn, which are readily accessible through the area's dense fiber networks.

Bare Metal Bare metal server options are available from multiple providers in the Charlotte market, offering dedicated compute for performance-sensitive workloads. Providers such as Hivelocity offer services in the region.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power The estimated cost for industrial power in the Charlotte area is between $0.07 and $0.09 per kWh, as of September 2025. This competitive pricing, combined with a diverse energy portfolio of nuclear (33%), natural gas (42%), and renewables (14%), helps control operational expenses for high-density deployments.

Power Grid Reliability The power grid serving the primary data center zones in Charlotte is well-engineered and highly reliable. Facilities are typically supported by redundant substations and robust transmission infrastructure, ensuring high levels of uptime for critical operations.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts Charlotte's data centers are strategically located to serve its large financial services industry, the second-largest in the United States. They provide low-latency connectivity to the city's central business district, supporting banking, investment, and insurance firms.

Regional Market Reach As a central hub in the Southeast, Charlotte provides effective network reach to a large and growing population across North Carolina, South Carolina, and neighboring states. Its location is ideal for content delivery, application acceleration, and regional disaster recovery strategies.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers North Carolina offers significant tax incentives that lower the total cost of ownership for data center operators and tenants. The state provides a sales and use tax exemption on electricity and a range of data center support equipment, directly reducing ongoing operational and capital expenditures.

Natural Disaster Risk

Charlotte has a very low natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 14.70 out of 100, as of September 2025. While no location is entirely without risk, the area is not prone to major seismic or coastal events.

Key environmental risks to consider are primarily weather-related and include:

• Hurricane (primarily wind and rain from inland storms)
• Tornado
• Strong Wind
• Ice Storms
• Riverine Flooding
• Hail