Data Centers in Columbus

Columbus – Midwest Connectivity & Resiliency Hub

Columbus is a premier data center market for enterprises requiring low-latency connectivity to the American Midwest and East Coast without the high costs or risks of coastal hubs. Its dense network ecosystem and direct cloud access provide a reliable platform for mission-critical applications, ensuring uptime and performance. The market's low disaster risk profile makes it a superior choice for backup and disaster recovery operations.

Columbus: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Columbus has emerged as a critical network intersection, offering a robust and diverse connectivity landscape. With 24 colocation data centers, as of September 2025, the market provides significant choice and competition.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality The market features excellent carrier diversity with over 15 network providers, as of September 2025. This ensures competitive pricing and resilient connectivity options through a healthy mix of carrier-neutral facilities.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps With 2 dedicated cloud on-ramps and access to 3 distinct cloud regions, Columbus offers direct, low-latency connections to major hyperscalers, as of September 2025. Local on-ramps are available for:

• AWS
• Google Cloud (GCP)

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) The Ohio IX provides a central peering point that reduces latency and improves network performance for traffic within the region. Most large-scale peering is handled privately within carrier-neutral data centers.

Bare Metal Bare metal server options are readily available in Columbus for workloads requiring dedicated physical hardware. Providers like phoenixNAP offer customized server solutions in the market.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power Industrial electricity rates in the Columbus market range from approximately $0.07 to $0.09/kWh, as of September 2025. These competitive power costs provide a significant operational expense advantage compared to many Tier 1 markets on the East and West Coasts.

Power Grid Reliability The power grid serving the Columbus region is well-engineered and reliable, supported by a diverse fuel mix including natural gas (59%), coal (19%), and nuclear (12%), as of 2023. Major data center zones benefit from redundant substation support, ensuring high levels of uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts Columbus data centers serve the state capital's government, education, research, and financial services sectors. The city's central location provides an ideal hub for enterprises operating throughout Ohio and the greater Midwest.

Regional Market Reach Strategically positioned, Columbus can serve a massive population base across the Midwest and Appalachia with very low latency. It is a key aggregation point for content delivery and cloud services aimed at this large economic region.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers Ohio provides tax incentives for qualifying data center projects, which can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership. These negotiated credits are awarded by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority and help make large-scale deployments more financially viable.

Natural Disaster Risk

Columbus has a very low natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 19.50 out of 100, as of September 2025. This makes it an exceptionally safe location for critical IT infrastructure and disaster recovery sites.

The primary environmental risks are limited to regional weather events, including:

• Tornado
• Strong Wind
• Hail
• Winter Weather
• Riverine Flooding