Colocation requirement review and managed introductions
Data Centre Axis reviews stated colocation requirements against its facility research to produce an individually scoped capacity brief. When requirements align with an operator, private introductions are arranged where both parties agree. Commercial negotiations and contracts remain strictly between the buyer and the operator.
Buyers submit requirements through capacity sourcing. Operators register sites through asset submission.
Initial intake requires a full name, work email, target market, and a capacity choice selected from rack ranges, MW ranges, or ‘Not fixed yet’. Country is optional and separate from the target market. Target timing, rack density, and a short non-sensitive message may also be included, but are not required. Candidate-site screening is available through a focused manual review. Engineering appraisals, structural reviews and legal drafting require a separate scope with independent specialists.
Technical evaluation and rack density
Digital Edge, quoting Uptime Institute’s 2025 Global Data Centre Survey, reports most deployments in the 10–30 kW per rack range, while a single modern GPU training rack can consume 40–130 kW. The European Data Centre Association reports AI-cluster rack densities in Europe frequently exceeding 30–80 kW per rack. Digital Edge, citing Uptime Institute guidance, notes that air cooling becomes insufficient above roughly 30–40 kW per rack. Technical teams evaluating dense deployments must therefore review heat rejection and power distribution limits.
Diligence questions for technical buyers include:
- Does the facility support direct-to-chip connections or facility-water loops, as examined in liquid cooling?
- What slab floor-loading limits apply for dense server enclosures and battery cabinets?
- How does the operator manage containment between enterprise rows and higher-density pods?
- Does the electrical topology provide dedicated uninterruptible power supply reserves for accelerated compute?
- What chilled-water supply temperatures, flow rates and heat exchanger redundancies exist at the row level?
- What physical security layers and access controls protect dedicated cabinet or cage space?
- What documented uptime commitments, power topologies and cooling redundancies does the colocation provider evidence?
- What network connectivity options, meet-me rooms and carrier routes serve the facility?
Procurement models and commercial terms
Enterprise buyers assessing dedicated technical space should evaluate wholesale data centres alongside retail cages. Contract models vary; review leasing structures to assess powered shell, fitted hall and turnkey agreements.
Buyers should examine colocation pricing structures, including power usage effectiveness multipliers, metered power pass-through terms and cross-connect costs. For teams moving workloads on-premises, our analysis of cloud repatriation addresses capital allocation, network latency and egress expenses.
Where projects involve greenfield construction, teams can assess data centre land or explore data centre investment structures. Specialist reviews are available through individually scoped advisory services.
Market research and geographic scope
Data Centre Axis publishes market research to support capacity identification. Profiles cover the Australian data centre directory and UK data centre directory. Colocation research covers United States colocation and Canadian colocation, supported by selected operating facility index records in the US data centre directory and Canadian data centre directory. These entries represent focused research records rather than an exhaustive census or capacity list.
Requirements are reviewed against available research. Introductions to operators are facilitated through our private deal network when requirements align and both parties agree to connect. Principals agree commercial terms directly, and advisory support is scoped separately.