Data Centers in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh – Resilient Northeast Colocation Hub

Pittsburgh is a strong choice for businesses that need a strategic Northeast presence but want to avoid the higher costs and congestion of primary coastal markets. The city provides a compelling balance of reliable network connectivity, competitive power costs, and a favorable tax environment, making it ideal for disaster recovery, secondary production sites, and latency-sensitive applications serving the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Pittsburgh: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Pittsburgh’s connectivity is built on its history as a major industrial and corporate center. While not a primary interconnection hub like Ashburn, it offers reliable, low-latency routes throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

• Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features over 15 unique network carriers, as of September 2025, with multiple carrier-neutral facilities providing competitive options for transit and transport.

• Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There are no direct public cloud on-ramps within Pittsburgh data centers. Businesses connect to cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud (GCP), and Microsoft Azure via the primary interconnection hub in Ashburn, VA, accessible through private network extensions and wavelength services.

• Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The region is served by the Pittsburgh Internet Exchange (Pitt-IX), which facilitates local traffic exchange and improves network performance by keeping data within the metropolitan area.

• Bare Metal: Bare metal server solutions are available from multiple providers in the Pittsburgh market, offering dedicated compute for performance-intensive workloads. Providers like ColoCrossing have a presence in the region.

Power Analysis

• Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates in the Pittsburgh area typically range from $0.07 to $0.09/kWh, as of September 2025. These competitive costs help lower the total operational expense for significant compute and storage deployments. The grid is supplied by a mix of natural gas (~55%), nuclear (~30%), and coal (~10%).

• Power Grid Reliability: The power grid supporting Pittsburgh's data centers is well-engineered and stable, benefiting from infrastructure built to serve heavy industry. Key data center locations often have access to redundant substations, ensuring high levels of uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

• Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in Pittsburgh serve the region's prominent industries, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and robotics. The city's proximity to world-class research institutions like Carnegie Mellon University fuels a growing technology sector.

• Regional Market Reach: From Pittsburgh, organizations can effectively serve a large population across Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Western New York with low latency. It is a strategic location for disaster recovery sites for businesses operating in East Coast hubs like New York and Northern Virginia.

• Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Pennsylvania offers a specific sales and use tax exemption for computer data center equipment. This program significantly reduces the capital expenditure required to deploy or refresh servers, storage, and networking hardware.

Natural Disaster Risk

Pittsburgh has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Risk Index score of 84.00 out of 100, as of September 2025. The risk is driven almost entirely by weather-related events rather than seismic or coastal threats.

Key risks for the region include:

• Riverine Flooding
• Winter Weather and Ice Storms
• Strong Wind
• Landslides
• Tornadoes