Data Centers in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania – Keystone of East Coast Connectivity

Pennsylvania is a primary hub for digital infrastructure, offering a strategic balance of connectivity, power stability, and favorable tax laws. The state's location provides low-latency access to major population centers from New York City to Washington D.C., making it an excellent choice for disaster recovery, business continuity, and primary production workloads serving the Mid-Atlantic region.

Pennsylvania: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Pennsylvania has a dense and competitive connectivity market, with over 35 unique network providers operating within the state as of September 2025. This environment provides extensive options for network redundancy and competitive pricing in carrier-neutral facilities.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: The state features 2 dedicated cloud on-ramps, enabling high-performance, low-latency connections to 1 cloud region as of September 2025. Direct access is available to AWS. Other major cloud providers are accessible via private network extensions from facilities throughout the state.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): While smaller regional exchanges exist, the majority of high-volume peering for Pennsylvania data centers occurs privately or through the major national IXPs in nearby Ashburn, Virginia, and New York City. This proximity ensures efficient traffic exchange with global networks.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server solutions are readily available from multiple providers in Pennsylvania. Companies like Hivelocity and ColoCrossing offer dedicated server infrastructure for performance-intensive applications.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates in Pennsylvania typically range from $0.08 to $0.11/kWh as of September 2025. These competitive power costs, combined with a stable grid, provide a predictable operating expense model for high-density deployments.

Power Grid Reliability: The state's power grid is well-engineered and benefits from a diverse generation mix heavily weighted towards natural gas and nuclear power. Major data center corridors are supported by redundant feeds from multiple substations, ensuring high levels of uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in Pennsylvania are strategically located to serve the major business districts of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. This proximity supports financial services, healthcare, research, and manufacturing sectors that require reliable, low-latency infrastructure.

Regional Market Reach: From its central location, Pennsylvania can effectively serve a massive population base across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States. It is an ideal location for reaching consumers and business partners in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington D.C. with minimal delay.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Pennsylvania offers a significant sales and use tax exemption on computer data center equipment. This program directly reduces the capital expenditure required for building out or refreshing IT infrastructure, making the state a financially attractive option for large-scale deployments.

Natural Disaster Risk

Pennsylvania has a high natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 84.00 as of September 2025. The primary threats are overwhelmingly weather-related and manageable with industry-standard infrastructure designs.

Key risks include winter weather, river flooding, severe thunderstorms with lightning and strong winds, and residual effects from tropical cyclones (hurricanes). Other notable risks include drought and landslide events. Seismic and wildfire risks are present but are not primary drivers of infrastructure risk in the state's main data center markets.