Summit County currently has seven data centers within its borders. So far, the local versions of these increasingly controversial facilities that can use massive amounts of water and power have largely avoided the spotlight.
Data centers are becoming increasingly common. Ohio has 217 data centers (as of December 2025), the fifth-most of any U.S. state, with a number concentrated in central Ohio.
The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) needs data centers to store, process and analyze information, according to the Brookings Institute. But their development faces a number of barriers along with questions about their geographic distribution, energy demands, community impact and costs.
In October, a proposed 485,000-square-foot data center in Norton was not approved by City Council after many residents strongly disapproved of the plan.
What is a data center?
A data center is a physical facility that houses the information technology (IT) infrastructure needed to process and store data.
Equipment in data centers can include computing machines and related hardware equipment such as servers, data storage drives and other systems, as well as cooling and environmental control and security. Server equipment is typically stored in cabinets that contain multiple racks. Depending on the size of the data center — sometimes called a server farm — there can be multiple rows of cabinets.
Data centers are not a new phenomenon — computers have always needed a physical location where their equipment and hardware is maintained. Larger-scale data centers began to emerge in the late 1990s and early 2000s as use of the Internet became more prevalent.
What are some of the types of data centers?
There are many types of data centers — they’re typically categorized by function, scale and ownership.
They can include:
Enterprise data centers
These are privately owned and operated by an organization that uses the data center for its own internal IT systems.
Colocation data centers
A shared space for businesses that rent space and outsource their IT operations. The data center maintains the security, equipment, power, technical support and other services on-site for those businesses.
Cloud data centers
These centersstore and deliver resources on demand from cloud services. (The cloud is a virtual environment where digital data can be stored and accessed remotely.) These data centers are operated by companies that offer cloud storage services, such as Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Edge data centers
These are smaller facilities located closer to end users in order to offer better connectivity. This type of data center is becoming more prevalent with the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT devices are smart objects that connect to the Internet such as a smart TV or smartwatch.
Hyperscale data centers
This kind of data center is very large and provides data services on a massive scale. They’re typically used by large tech companies such as Meta and Google.
Who uses data centers?
Data centers are used by practically every company or government entity. Some organizations build and maintain their own data centers in-house, while others utilize colocation data centers or public cloud-based servers.
Any time someone checks their email or uses a video streaming service, they are utilizing a data center.
Why are data centers controversial?
Data centers — particularly large-scale ones — have become controversial for environmental, political and economic reasons.
Data centers use a lot of energy and resources. The International Energy Agency says that a typical data center can use as much electricity as 10,000 to 25,000 homes. And a mid-sized data center consumes as much water as a small town, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.
This high use of resources has required utility companies to increase and improve current infrastructure. As a result, price increases are typically passed on to all utility customers near the data centers.
Additionally, some states offer tax incentives for data centers to build there — in Ohio, state and local leaders offered huge tax breaks to attract billions of dollars in investment from big tech companies like Amazon, Google and Meta. But increasingly, local officials are reassessing the projects in the face of growing public opposition.
Many argue that data centers don’t offer much benefit to the local economy. Data centers tend to only generate temporary construction jobs and very few jobs for their ongoing operations, according to an article from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Are there any data centers in Summit County?
Summit County currently has seven data centers:
- ark data centers Akron I (Akron)
- ark data centers Akron II (Akron)
- Cogent Data Center (Akron)
- FairlawnGig Service Center (Fairlawn)
- Lumen Technologies Data Center (Akron)
- The Karcher Group (TKG) Data Center (North Canton)
- Viking Data Centers (Akron)
Where are the data centers located and what are they used for?
ark data centers
Both of ark data centers’ Akron facilities are located at 191 E. Miller Road in South Akron. The company — known as Involta until it rebranded in 2024 — is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and has 10 data centers in seven states. Akron is the only city that has two of its centers, and Ohio is the only state with multiple data centers.
Together, the two Akron data centers total more than 52,000 square feet and offer colocation services, according to ark data centers’ website. Each facility contains 300 racks for private or shared colocation.
Cogent
Cogent’s data center is located at 120 N. Broadway St. in Akron’s Cascade Valley neighborhood. Cogent is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 101 data centers across North America and Europe, according to the company’s website. The Akron data center is 50,747 square feet and offers colocation services.
FairlawnGig
FairlawnGig’s data center is operated by the City of Fairlawn’s service department. Fairlawn Service Director Ernie Staten said the data center was built inside the service department’s building in 2017 to offer FairlawnGig, a municipal broadband utility, to Fairlawn and nearby residents and businesses.
In 2020, the data center began offering colocation services for businesses. Staten said seven businesses currently rent cabinets in the data center, which is now undergoing a $2 million remodel that will triple the space and add 16 more cabinets.
Lumen Technologies
Lumen Technologies’ Akron data center is located at 110 S. Arlington St. in Middlebury. The company is headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, and has more than 200 data centers across North America, according to a data sheet from the company.
Akron’s data center offers colocation services. The data center’s profile on Data Center Map says it offers 6,000 square feet of colocation space.
The Karcher Group (TKG)
TKG is a digital marketing and IT services agency headquartered at 5590 Lauby Road #8 adjacent to the Akron-Canton Airport in the City of Green.
The company’s website says it offers web hosting services and cloud services and has maintained its own data center for more than 20 years.
Viking Data Centers
Viking Data Centers is a crypto-mining and AI data center located at 428 Seiberling St. in East Akron.
Formerly Goodyear’s largest tire factory, the 380,000 square foot facility houses Viking Data Centers’ headquarters and uses 150 megawatts of energy 24/7, according to the company’s website. A Nov. 30, 2023, Akron Beacon Journal article about the company’s acquisition of the building noted that it is enough electricity to power 63,000 homes.