Data Centers in Richmond

Richmond – Reliable East Coast DR & Edge Computing

Richmond provides a compelling alternative to the primary Northern Virginia data center market, offering a strategic location for disaster recovery and edge deployments. Its lower operational costs and favorable tax climate make it an ideal choice for businesses needing resilient infrastructure to serve the mid-Atlantic region without the congestion of larger hubs.

Richmond: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Richmond's connectivity ecosystem is robust for a secondary market, anchored by its proximity to the world's largest data center hub in Northern Virginia.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features over 14 network providers as of September 2025, offering diverse routing options within multiple carrier-neutral facilities. This provides sufficient choice for building redundant network architectures.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There are no public cloud on-ramps located directly within Richmond. Businesses achieve secure, low-latency cloud access via private network extensions (PNI/wave) to the dense interconnection hubs in Ashburn, Virginia.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): Public peering is limited in Richmond. Most traffic exchange occurs through private peering arrangements or by connecting to the major exchange points in Ashburn, such as DE-CIX and Equinix IX.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are available from providers in the region, offering dedicated compute for performance-sensitive workloads. Service providers like Hivelocity can deliver solutions in nearby markets.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates in the Richmond area range from approximately $0.08 to $0.10 per kWh as of September 2025. These competitive rates can significantly reduce total operating costs for power-dense deployments. The state's power mix is led by natural gas (over 50% in 2020), with nuclear and coal as secondary sources.

Power Grid Reliability: The electrical grid serving the Richmond market is well-engineered for commercial and industrial use. Data centers in the area are typically supported by redundant power feeds from separate substations, ensuring high levels of uptime.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Richmond is the capital of Virginia, and its data centers support state government agencies, financial services firms, and healthcare providers located downtown. The market offers low-latency connections to these key economic centers.

Regional Market Reach: From Richmond, organizations can effectively serve central and southern Virginia as well as parts of North Carolina. It is also an excellent disaster recovery location for companies with a primary footprint in Northern Virginia, providing geographic separation while remaining on the same regional fiber backbone.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Virginia offers a significant sales and use tax exemption on data center equipment, which lowers the capital expense of building or refreshing IT infrastructure. This state-level incentive makes the region financially attractive for large-scale deployments.

Natural Disaster Risk

Richmond has a moderate natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 27.17 out of 100 as of September 2025. The location avoids the primary threats of major seismic zones and the most severe coastal storm surge events.

Key risks for the area include:

• Hurricane wind and rain
• Riverine Flooding
• Hail and Severe Wind (Tornado)
• Winter Weather (ice and snow storms)
• Lightning