LOS ANGELES—As cloud computing becomes increasingly prevalent,the question for many, if not most, corporate occupiers is notwhether to seek out data center space, but howmuch and where. This leads to what Pat Lynch,managing director for data center solutions at CBREGroup, calls “complex site selection decisions, includingwhether to lease or own a facility.”

In a new report, CBRE identifies Atlanta, Colorado Springs,Northern Virginia, Portland and Seattle as the five most attractivemarkets for leasing a data center from the standpoint of costeffectiveness. These five markets scored in terms of project costs;conversely, Boston, Des Moines, Kansas City, Northern Florida andOmaha had the highest total project costs.

Factors to evaluate differ according to whether an occupierseeks to lease or own data center capacity. “For occupiers seekingto preserve capital or lease a data center, the selection processneeds to carefully consider the primary cost variables of rent,power and taxes, and recognize the variability that exists frommarket to market,” Lynch says. “The site selection process for anowned data center will hinge more on the relative costs of power,real and personal property taxes, sales taxes, available incentivesand construction costs.”