InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc., a national hosting and colocation company, has recently completed an independent study on the best markets to host web applications and virtual platforms. We took into consideration the competitive landscape of hosting or colocation providers, quality of carrier neutral facilities, the level of Tier I carrier connectivity, the cost of real estate and power prices, and latency to popular parts of the United States. Our findings rank the top 4 markets in the United States to start a hosting business and reasons why they are good markets to host.

1. Northern Virginia Regions - Northern Virginia boasts dozens of carrier neutral facilities that includes the likes of top facilities providers such as Equinix, Switch and Data, Coresite, Terramark, Dupont Fabros, DRT, and other enterprise carrier neutral facilities operators. While the economy continues to remain unstable in much of the country, the Northern Virginia region remains in a state of constant economic growth and small to medium size business continues to expand. Power pricing is competitive to smaller markets as well such as Miami, Charlotte, Baltimore, Kansas City, and Philadelphia. The level of Tier I carrier connectivity is also extremely rich and is one of the largest peering points for internet traffic destined to Europe.

2. Los Angeles - While power pricing remains high in Los Angeles, the level of Tier I connectivity and the plethora of carrier neutral data centers is extremely robust. Los Angeles also remains an extremely competitive market place amongst data center and colocation providers throughout the county. Due to the dense real estate market, and lack of space to build exclusive data center facilities, many top tier facilities providers choose to sublease portions of high rise facilities. This also leads to a lack of custom amenities and custom built data center space. Los Angeles is also a major peering point for internet traffic destined to Asia and has a large peering base for major internet traffic exchange.

3. Chicago - Chicago remains the strongest market for web hosting in the midwestern United States. With a large variety of high quality data center providers and colocation companies, competition remains strong in Chicago. The Chicago hosting market has continued to grow despite tough economic conditions. Power and real estate pricing in Chicago is on the higher end compared to other midwestern metropolises, but remains the largest peering point for internet traffic in the region.

4. Dallas - Dallas has an extremely competitive carrier and facilities landscape that allows for some of the lowest colocation costs in the country. While the real estate market and power pricing is extremely low, the competitive nature of colocation companies in Dallas make it even more desirable. While the Tier I carrier presence in Dallas is good, the facilities and peering opportunities are less prevalent than in the ladder 3 markets and brings Dallas in at number 4.

Honorable Mentions
5. Seattle - Fair pricing, top tier facilities, good economy, good connectivity
6. Miami - good power pricing, large internet exchange point to South America, natural disasters
7. Charlotte - Good power pricing and real estate costs, poor Tier I availability, growing economy
8 New York City - Excellent connectivity and quality of facilities, astronomically expensive power and real estate pricing

I guess this is for domestic US

Well we're in 3 of the 8 mentioned (LA, Chicago and Dallas & Houston).

Texas and Chicago have always been high on the list due to their central location to the US. LA seems to have issues with responsive ping times from the east coast, or if the clients are in England etc as the connection comes through East Coast first.

Over the next couple of years, you'll see Omaha on the list. Land is cheap and they have a large IT base and are expanding the carrier lines. Yahoo, PayPal, Google - they all have large datacenters in Omaha area. PayPal's headquarters are in La Vista (about 4 miles from my house, and 8 miles from Downtown Omaha).

Looking forward to more information on this Brandon. Looks great!

I would say Canada

Omaha? Really?? I'm saving this prediction! They report these are the places to be, but I'm fielding calls all the time from prospects wanting to move from there to somewhere less expensive. Money is a strong motivator to move.

You didn't mention Houston in the original post and I'm very surprised why did you miss it. I think the best option is New York, although it is quite expensive there. Northern Virginia is excellent, Texas too. California is probably great choice for north American and Asia but not if you have clients in Europe.

Toronto, Amsterdam and London are 3 more great locations. I'll add also that any place where the quality bandwidth is inexpensive and the infrastructure is good would work great for anyone.

Hello,
Austria is a great European destination that is particularly popular during the winter months. If you love skiing and other winter sports you will find plenty to keep you occupied. There is also a lot more to be found in the country than just snow. Here are a few of the best places to visit in Austria.

Vienna is one of the most visited cities in Europe and most visitors fall in love with the place. It is situated on the river Danube and all around the city is the most beautiful Wachau region and the Vienna woods. The city is packed with historical buildings and museums. It has been the birth place of some important figures including Sigmund Freud and even Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Let's not forget India! it is an upcoming hub for Hosting business, a lot of IT/Software Developing companies have started opting for services from country based Web Hosting companies, even though they would prefer the servers to be located overseas, for a simple fact that the Web Hosting provider would be available at thier local time, easy to communicate & yes would really like to visit them to check out the services.

Thanks!

I'm kind of surprised not to see Atlanta on that list. It's a pretty major hub or at least used to be.

We've always preferred to use northeast locations (mainly in the Chicago area)

If you could list out all the states ranking regarding this, I would appreciate that!!

Kind of interesting, got any benchmark to say you would keep some location in canada over hosting in Texas for average customers?

Dallas is the way to go.

I think it is important to host your website wherever your target market is. For example, most of our clients are in Canada, and so it is important to them to have their websites hosted in Canada.

i would agree with ur list. chicago i think is 1 of the best data centers around. but ya.. depends where ur projected customers are basicly.