Data Centers in Philadelphia

Philadelphia – Northeast Corridor Edge & Connectivity Hub

Executive Summary

Philadelphia is a primary edge data center market for businesses requiring low-latency access to the dense Northeast Corridor without the premium costs of New York City or Ashburn. The market provides a strategic balance of robust connectivity, competitive power, and a large consumer base. This combination protects revenue and improves user experience by ensuring resilient, high-speed application delivery to millions.

Philadelphia: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Philadelphia’s network ecosystem provides strong performance and interconnection options for businesses serving the Mid-Atlantic. With 24 data centers, the market offers a good balance of choice and availability.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market is served by over 30 unique network carriers, as of September 2025. This provides ample choice for creating redundant, high-performance network architectures in carrier-neutral facilities.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 2 dedicated on-ramps provide direct, low-latency access to 1 cloud region, as of September 2025. This includes native connectivity to AWS, enabling secure and reliable hybrid cloud deployments.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The market is anchored by the Philadelphia Internet Exchange (PhillyIX). The exchange enables operators to peer directly, reducing latency and transit costs for regional traffic.

Bare Metal: Bare metal solutions are readily available from providers like ColoCrossing and Hivelocity. These services offer dedicated compute for performance-sensitive workloads.

Power Analysis

Philadelphia offers a stable power environment with a diverse generation portfolio, making it a reliable location for critical infrastructure.

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial power rates typically range from $0.11 - $0.14/kWh, as of September 2025. This pricing is competitive for the Northeast, allowing businesses to manage operational expenses while staying close to major financial and population centers.

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid is well-engineered, drawing from a diverse energy mix of natural gas (~55%), nuclear (~30%), and coal (~10%). Major data center facilities are typically fed by redundant substations to ensure high levels of uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

The region’s business climate and strategic location make it an ideal hub for digital infrastructure.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in the Philadelphia market offer low-latency connectivity to the city's central business district. This area is a hub for finance, healthcare, and pharmaceutical companies that require high-performance infrastructure.

Regional Market Reach: Philadelphia's location along the Northeast Corridor provides effective reach to over 50 million people. It serves as a key distribution point for content and applications from New York City to Washington, D.C.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Pennsylvania offers a significant tax advantage through its Computer Data Center Equipment Exemption Program. This incentive eliminates the state's 6% sales and use tax on qualifying equipment, directly reducing the capital expenditure for new deployments or hardware refreshes.

Natural Disaster Risk

Philadelphia has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a National Risk Index score of 84.00, as of September 2025. Key hazards for data center operators to mitigate include hurricanes, severe winter weather, and riverine flooding. Strong winds, heat waves, and lightning are also significant considerations for infrastructure resilience and operational continuity.