Originally published to Data Center POST.
The current manufacturing boom taking place in the southeastern U.S. promises to keep the data center and IT networking infrastructure industry on their toes. Lured by the promise of lower tax rates and real estate prices, expanding companies are edging away from costlier markets like California and New York, and moving south.
In their piece The Large Cities Where Manufacturing Is Thriving 2018, Forbes pulled statistical data from 373 cities based on manufacturing employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor and statistics. In the top 15 alone, they list Raleigh, NC (13), Atlanta, GA (11), and three Florida cities, including Orlando Kissimmee, FL (1), roughly one-third of the top cities for growth.
Living up to its nickname as the Gate City to the South, Atlanta offers a corporate tax rate of six percent. This city has long boasted a thriving range of Fortune 500 companies. SunTrust, First Data, Home Depot, UPS, Coca-Cola, Mercedes Benz, and Delta Airlines, as well as, some of the region’s premier healthcare companies base their operations here. SAP and Sprint, also, find their home nestled among the half a million residents living in the metro area. These organizations and a coming wave of technology startups, financial services, and other business eco-related industries are driving the demand for world-class network connectivity.
In 2017, Atlanta was named #17 as one of the nation’s top 25 cities for technology by Cushman Wakefield. With nearby Georgia Tech as a source for bright-minded employees, Atlanta shows no signs of slowing down.
Other cities in the south driving the need for high-performance data center infrastructure are Chattanooga, Memphis, and Huntsville.
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