Data Centers in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City – Low-Cost Power & Western US Reach

Executive Summary

Salt Lake City is a primary data center market for enterprises that require a cost-effective, disaster-resilient hub for Western United States operations. The region's extremely competitive power pricing and significant tax incentives provide a compelling financial advantage for large-scale deployments. This combination delivers low total cost of ownership without sacrificing connectivity to major cloud and network providers.

Salt Lake City: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Salt Lake City offers a solid connectivity profile, serving as a key intersection for long-haul fiber routes connecting the West Coast to the rest of the country.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality The market is served by over 15 network carriers as of September 2025, with strong representation in the 29 carrier-neutral data centers. This provides ample choice for building redundant, high-performance network architectures.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps The market features over 1 on-ramp, enabling dedicated, low-latency access to 1 major cloud region as of September 2025. Direct connectivity is available for Google Cloud (GCP). Private connections to other cloud providers can be established via network partners.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) The Salt Lake Internet eXchange (SLIX) is the primary IXP in the region. It facilitates efficient local traffic peering, reducing latency and transit costs for businesses serving local and regional users.

Bare Metal Bare metal server options are readily available from providers in the area. Companies like phoenixNAP offer dedicated server solutions for workloads requiring direct hardware access and consistent performance.

Power Analysis

Utah's power infrastructure is a significant advantage for data center operators, characterized by low costs and a reliable supply.

Average Cost Of Power Industrial electricity costs are approximately $0.07/kWh as of September 2025. This rate is substantially lower than most major US markets, especially those on the West Coast, leading to major operational savings. The grid mix is predominantly fossil fuels (82.6%), with a growing renewable component (15.2%).

Power Grid Reliability The power grid serving the main data center zones in Salt Lake City is well-engineered, with facilities typically supported by redundant substations. This design ensures high levels of uptime required for mission-critical operations.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Salt Lake City combines strategic location with a pro-business environment, making it an attractive site for digital infrastructure.

Proximity To Key Business Districts Data centers are located with easy access to downtown Salt Lake City and the "Silicon Slopes" technology corridor running between Salt Lake City and Provo. This proximity serves the region's rapidly growing tech, finance, and healthcare sectors.

Regional Market Reach The city is an excellent location for serving the Intermountain West, including Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming. It is also a popular disaster recovery and secondary site for enterprises with primary operations in California, offering geographic separation from seismic and other coastal risks.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers Utah offers substantial data center-specific tax incentives that significantly reduce both initial and ongoing costs. These programs provide sales and use tax exemptions on equipment purchases and may include long-term property tax abatements for qualifying projects.

Natural Disaster Risk

Salt Lake City has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 94.21 out of 100 as of September 2025.

While the overall score is high, the risks are well-understood and can be mitigated with modern data center engineering and site selection. The primary hazards for the region include earthquake, drought, wildfire, and strong wind events. Facility designs in this market account for seismic bracing and other structural hardening to ensure operational resilience.