Colocation locations across the United States
Published operator capabilities below help narrow a United States requirement. Buyers must obtain a dated offer confirming the actual space, power, connectivity and delivery date directly from the operator.
- Northern Virginia: Digital Realty describes dense interconnection at its Northern Virginia sites (Digital Realty, 2026); ask which carriers and cloud connections serve the offered hall.
- Dallas: At its operating Dallas - Plano data centre, Flexential advertises designs supporting up to 80+ kW/cabinet and liquid cooling (Flexential, 2026), representing a published design capability rather than contracted available capacity or a universal city specification; buyers should specify rack heat and cooling methods to confirm the offered hall supports them.
- Chicago: Across its operating Chicago campus, CoreSite lists on-site cloud on-ramps for Amazon, Azure, Google and Oracle, while its CH1 facility supports deployments from cabinets and cages to private suites (CoreSite, 2026); buyers should match deployment formats to the facility and confirm required cloud endpoints across the campus rather than assuming each hall connects directly.
- Silicon Valley: Digital Realty offers colocation and connectivity across its Bay Area campuses (Digital Realty, 2026); ask whether required connections terminate in the offered building.
- Atlanta: Validate downtown versus suburban facility addresses, verify whether cloud on-ramps require local cross-connects or off-site carrier transport, and audit contracted IT load schedules against operational cooling limits.
- Phoenix: Independent advisory across Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa and Tempe. Verify exact building addresses, physical carrier presence, contracted IT load versus day-one draw, and high-density heat rejection.
When comparing multiple markets, evaluate target end-user latency, native cloud gateways, carrier diversity and physical separation between primary and backup sites.
Cloud connections and carrier access
Specify your cloud endpoints during procurement and ask the provider for the exact physical connection path between your deployment and each platform.
A cross-connect is a physical cable within the data centre linking customer hardware to a network carrier, another customer or a cloud gateway. When resources are deployed in the same facility as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect location, the facility can provide a physical cross-connect between Direct Connect equipment and your resources (AWS, 2026).
Ask whether the facility houses native cloud on-ramps directly on site, or relies on transport across an external partner network. In carrier-neutral facilities, confirm which providers operate in the meet-me room, the dedicated space where carriers connect, and check recurring cross-connect fees that influence colocation pricing.
Rack power, cooling and resilience requirements
Technical briefs must verify mechanical and electrical specifications before commercial negotiation:
- Contracted power and draw: Establish day-one operational draw alongside total contracted kilowatt (kW) capacity reserved for expansion.
- Rack power density: Determine whether standard cabinet densities suffice or whether workloads require specialised heat rejection.
- Cooling deployment: Confirm whether advanced systems like liquid cooling are operational in the offered data hall rather than planned as future campus capabilities.
- Electrical resilience: Ask how the facility configures uninterruptible power supply (UPS) backup battery power, backup generators and electrical paths during equipment maintenance.
- Service commitments: Check uptime commitments, operating temperature limits and scheduled maintenance windows within the service-level agreement (SLA), the provider’s contracted service commitments.
Large footprints should also evaluate private cages versus dedicated wholesale colocation halls.
Colocation pricing and contract comparison
Request an itemised quote that separates one-off installation charges from recurring monthly costs for space, power and network access.
Key commercial items to review in colocation pricing include:
- Power billing models: Ask whether power is billed as an allocated flat rate or metered on actual consumption, whether cooling overhead is added, and what infrastructure is included.
- Price escalation: Review annual escalation clauses, identifying whether adjustments are fixed percentages or tied to economic indexes.
- Expansion terms: Ask what future power and cabinet space the operator can contract, and on what schedule additional capacity can be delivered.
- Contract terms: Assess multi-year commitments against renewal rights and contracted service commitments.
US capacity requirements and manual review
Our team conducts an initial manual review of your requirement and contacts you directly to clarify geographic and technical constraints using non-sensitive information, leaving detailed engineering and commercial documents for discussions under an agreed scope. Requirements are discussed with potential counterparties in a non-identifying format, and personal contact details are shared after you provide explicit agreement to an introduction, in line with our privacy notice, while operator proposals and contracts are negotiated directly between buyer and operator. A useful non-sensitive brief outlines target metropolitan markets, required power scale, footprint and operational timing:
- Target metros and acceptable alternative regional markets.
- Day-one power draw, reserved capacity and planned expansion stages.
- Space format (individual racks, private cage, or dedicated suite).
- Workload characteristics and thermal management requirements.
- Essential carriers, cloud on-ramps and cross-connect needs.
- Target delivery schedule and confidentiality parameters.
USA colocation questions
Which US colocation provider should I choose?
Selecting a provider depends on workload architecture, power density, cooling and network requirements. Evaluate each facility on its specific power availability, cooling infrastructure, cloud and carrier routes, physical access and proximity to your users.
Is cloud connectivity included in colocation?
Check what network connectivity is included in the contract and confirm whether your cloud platform connects on site or via a partner route. Where a facility lacks an on-site on-ramp, ask which carrier or network partner routes traffic to your target cloud region.
Does a facility specification confirm available capacity?
Public technical specifications outline engineering design, but they do not confirm that capacity is currently available to contract. Request a dated, facility-specific offer confirming reserved power, designated space, delivery schedules and commercial service conditions.