Data Centers in Houston

Houston – Resilient Gulf Coast Connectivity Hub

Executive Summary

Houston is a primary colocation market for businesses in the energy, logistics, and healthcare sectors requiring low-latency infrastructure on the Gulf Coast. Its dense connectivity ecosystem and strategic location provide a critical gateway to serve the southern United States and Latin American markets. Deploying in Houston ensures high-speed access to a massive economic region while diversifying risk from other major Texas data center hubs.

Houston: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Houston’s digital infrastructure is extensive, built to support its status as a global commercial hub. The market features a healthy mix of global and regional providers, ensuring competitive pricing and redundant connectivity paths.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality Houston data centers provide access to nearly 40 unique network carriers, as of September 2025. The market is dominated by carrier-neutral facilities, giving customers the flexibility to choose providers and optimize for cost and performance without being locked into a single vendor.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps With over 2 dedicated cloud on-ramps enabling access to 2 cloud regions, Houston offers direct, low-latency connections to major platforms, as of September 2025. Private connections to AWS are available locally, allowing for secure and high-performance hybrid cloud architectures.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) The metro is served by multiple Internet Exchanges, including the Houston Internet Exchange (HOU-IX). These IXPs facilitate efficient, low-cost traffic exchange between networks, improving performance for local users.

Bare Metal Bare metal server capacity is readily available from multiple providers in Houston. Companies like Hivelocity offer dedicated server solutions for workloads that demand the highest levels of performance and security.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power Industrial electricity rates in Houston typically range from $0.07 to $0.09/kWh, as of September 2025. This competitive pricing makes the market attractive for power-intensive applications. The Texas energy mix is primarily composed of natural gas (~50%), with a significant and growing renewables segment from wind (~25%) and solar (~3%).

Power Grid Reliability While the Texas grid operates independently, major data center corridors in Houston are supported by well-engineered, redundant infrastructure. Colocation facilities feature multi-substation support, N+1 or 2N UPS systems, and backup generators to deliver reliable uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts Houston's data centers are strategically located to serve key commercial zones, including the Energy Corridor, the Texas Medical Center, and the Downtown financial district. This proximity enables low-latency performance for critical applications in the region's dominant industries.

Regional Market Reach As the fourth-largest city in the United States, Houston is a vital hub for the entire Gulf Coast region. Its location and robust network infrastructure make it an ideal point of presence for serving customers across Texas, Louisiana, and as a primary network gateway to Mexico and Latin America.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers Texas offers a significant sales and use tax exemption on equipment, software, and electricity for qualifying data center projects. This incentive directly reduces the total cost of ownership and lowers the capital expenditure required for large-scale deployments.

Natural Disaster Risk

Houston has a Moderate natural disaster risk profile with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 43.46, as of September 2025. The primary environmental threats are weather-related, and modern, purpose-built data centers in the region are engineered to mitigate these specific risks.

Key risks for the region include:

• Hurricane
• Riverine Flooding
• Winter Weather & Ice Storms
• Hail
• Drought
• Lightning