Data Centers in Philadelphia

Philadelphia – Strategic Hub for Northeast Corridor Connectivity

Philadelphia is a primary colocation and interconnection market for enterprises requiring low-latency access to the densely populated Northeast Corridor of the United States. Its strategic position between New York City and Washington, D.C., offers a compelling blend of robust connectivity, significant tax advantages, and lower operational costs. This makes it an ideal location for disaster recovery, content delivery, and hybrid cloud deployments serving major financial and metropolitan hubs.

Philadelphia: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Philadelphia hosts a rich ecosystem with over 30 unique network providers, as of September 2025. The market is defined by numerous carrier-neutral facilities, ensuring competitive pricing and redundant connectivity options for enterprise and service provider customers.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: The market provides over 2 direct on-ramps, enabling access to 1 cloud region as of September 2025. This includes dedicated, private connections to AWS. Access to other major cloud providers like Google Cloud (GCP) and Microsoft Azure is readily available via network extensions from nearby hubs in Northern Virginia.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The primary exchange is the Philadelphia Internet Exchange (PHLIX), which facilitates local peering and reduces latency for traffic within the metropolitan area. For broader peering, most providers maintain high-capacity connections to major exchanges in New York City and Ashburn, Virginia.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are widely available from multiple providers in the Philadelphia market. Service providers such as phoenixNAP offer dedicated server solutions for workloads requiring direct hardware access and consistent performance.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates in Philadelphia typically range from $0.09 to $0.12/kWh, as of September 2025. These competitive costs, relative to other major Northeast markets, can produce significant operational savings for power-dense deployments. The state's power mix is dominated by natural gas (~55%) and nuclear (~30%).

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid supporting Philadelphia's main data center clusters is well-engineered and reliable. Facilities commonly offer multi-substation support and N+1 or 2N redundancy configurations to ensure high levels of uptime for critical infrastructure.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in Philadelphia are strategically located to serve the city's large financial, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries. This proximity enables low-latency connections essential for real-time data processing, research, and financial trading applications.

Regional Market Reach: Philadelphia is an exceptional digital hub for reaching the ~50 million people living between New York City and Washington, D.C. Its location ensures minimal latency to these major population centers, making it a prime spot for content delivery networks and application hosting.

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

Natural Disaster Risk

Philadelphia has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 83.99, as of September 2025. The primary environmental threats are driven by severe weather events rather than seismic activity.

Key risks for data center planning include winter storms, riverine flooding, strong winds associated with hurricanes, and heat waves. Other notable risks include tornadoes and lightning. Facility selection and hardening are critical to mitigate the impact of these regional weather patterns.