Data Centers in Madison

Madison – Resilient Midwest Digital Hub

Madison offers a stable, low-risk environment for production and disaster recovery workloads. For businesses prioritizing uptime and cost predictability, this Midwest hub provides a compelling alternative to more volatile coastal markets, ensuring reliable application delivery to the greater Chicago and Upper Midwest regions.

Madison: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Madison's connectivity landscape is solid for a market of its size, characterized by good regional carrier access. While not a primary interconnection hub, it provides reliable paths to major peering points.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Madison is served by over 6 providers in its 8 data centers, as of September 2025. This environment provides sufficient options for redundancy and competitive pricing for local and regional network services.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There are no direct public cloud on-ramps within Madison, as of September 2025. Businesses requiring dedicated cloud access must connect to providers in the primary regional hub, Chicago. This is typically achieved through private network interconnects, such as wavelength or Ethernet services, from local data centers.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): Public peering is limited within Madison itself. Most high-volume traffic exchange occurs through private peering arrangements or by connecting to major IXPs in nearby Chicago.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are available through colocation providers. Deployments from providers like Hivelocity or ColoCrossing can be managed within local data centers to support custom hardware requirements.

Power Analysis

Madison presents a stable and cost-effective power environment, which is a significant advantage for compute-intensive operations.

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates typically range from $0.09 to $0.11 per kWh, as of September 2025. These competitive prices help lower the total cost of operation for data center customers, especially those with high-density deployments.

Power Grid Reliability: The electrical grid serving the Madison area is well-engineered and reliable. Data centers in the region benefit from infrastructure designed to support critical loads, often with access to redundant power feeds from multiple substations.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Madison offers a strategic location with a favorable business climate, making it an attractive site for data center investment and operations.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in the Madison area serve the state capital's government, research, and healthcare sectors. The market also provides a viable disaster recovery location for businesses in Milwaukee and the greater Chicago metropolitan area.

Regional Market Reach: From Madison, digital services can effectively reach populations across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Northern Illinois. Its central location makes it a strong option for content delivery and application hosting aimed at the Upper Midwest.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Wisconsin offers a sales and use tax exemption on equipment, software, and construction materials for qualifying data centers. This incentive directly reduces the significant capital expenditure required to build or expand a data center facility.

Natural Disaster Risk

Madison has a moderate natural disaster risk profile, with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 60.48 out of 100, as of September 2025. Its inland location shields it from hurricanes and coastal flooding, making it a stable region for critical IT infrastructure.

Key risks for the area are primarily weather-related and include:

• Tornado
• Severe Wind
• Hail
• Winter Weather
• Lightning
• Riverine Flooding