Texas’ Dallas/Fort Worth area is popular with data center developers and IT end users because of its robust power and fiber infrastructure and its attractive economic incentives. The Dallas data center market is very competitive and is the third largest in terms of capacity, led only by Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley.
The region’s healthy economy will continue to drive the data center market as large businesses relocate or expand into the region, generating more demand for digital infrastructure. In light of the recent challenges faced by the ERCOT, the state’s power operator, the reliability of the Texas power grid may present both challenges and opportunities for the data center market.
Dallas/Fort Worth Market Attributes
Data center users find the Dallas/Fort Worth market attractive because of the following five attributes:
- Favorable Business Environment: DFW is home to over 100,000 businesses, with an economy that grows by approximately 6% annually.
- Competitive Colocation/Cloud Environment: A large number of qualified operators deliver facilities, services, and expertise to the region’s many companies who outsource their information technology (IT) infrastructure.
- Reasonable Power Cost: Compared to other primary data center markets, electricity in the DFW area is relatively inexpensive.
- Robust Infrastructure: The region’s electrical and telecommunications infrastructure is both dense and diverse.
- Tax Abatement Incentives: The State of Texas passed legislation in 2013 to grant tax breaks for large colocation and enterprise users.
This report, in conjunction with Digital Realty, continues Data Center Frontier’s market coverage of growing data center hubs. Explore further for a comprehensive overview of the Dallas data center market.