Los Angeles Colocation — Independent Guide to Data Centers, Providers, and Pricing in the LA Market
The complete independent review of colocation across the Los Angeles metro market, with focused expertise on One Wilshire interconnection, trans-Pacific network routing, media and entertainment infrastructure, seismic facility evaluation, and cross-provider comparison. For provider comparison across all major operators, see our provider comparison guide.
Los Angeles is the second largest colocation market in the United States and the primary interconnection gateway between North America and the Pacific Rim. The LA colocation market divides across four distinct submarkets: downtown Los Angeles anchored by One Wilshire and 600 West 7th Street, El Segundo and the South Bay, Irvine and Orange County, and the Burbank and San Fernando Valley media corridor. Understanding which submarket fits your workload is the foundation of Los Angeles facility selection.
- Los Angeles Colocation Specialist
- One Wilshire Ecosystem Expert
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Consider this your independent Los Angeles colocation review.
Bottom Line:Los Angeles colocation decisions come down to three questions. How much interconnection do you need, how much latency can you tolerate, and how much are you willing to pay for downtown density. The best Los Angeles data center for interconnection-heavy workloads is One Wilshire at 624 South Grand Avenue, the most carrier dense building on the West Coast outside Silicon Valley and the primary aggregation point for trans-Pacific traffic reaching North America.
Buyers who need dense carrier access and Pacific routing pay a premium for One Wilshire colocation and the surrounding downtown facilities including 600 West 7th Street. Buyers running compute, storage, or disaster recovery workloads get materially better economics twenty to forty miles away in El Segundo or Orange County with no meaningful performance penalty. Among Sandler Partners providers, CoreSite operates LA1 and LA2 with strong interconnection positioning, Digital Realty holds 600 West 7th Street downtown plus additional regional capacity,
Equinix runs a multi facility El Segundo campus spanning LA1 through LA4, and DataBank serves mid market requirements with more flexible commercial terms. For mid-market Los Angeles companies evaluating cloud repatriation, high density colocation, disaster recovery colocation, media infrastructure, and Pacific routing requirements, Los Angeles delivers advantages no other West Coast market replicates. Metro Colo Advisory evaluates the Los Angeles colocation decision for you at no cost.
Why Los Angeles Is a Different Market
The infrastructure decisions Los Angeles companies face differ meaningfully from other US markets. Understanding these differences is the starting point for any facility evaluation.
One Wilshire defines the entire regional ecosystem
One Wilshire at 624 South Grand Avenue operates as the region’s meet-me point, where carriers, content networks, cloud providers, and enterprises interconnect directly rather than routing traffic through intermediate networks. It is the most carrier dense building on the West Coast outside Silicon Valley, and the primary aggregation point for trans-Pacific network traffic reaching North America.
The practical consequence is that network pricing and performance across the entire region reference One Wilshire. Every other facility in Los Angeles is evaluated partly on how well it connects back to this one building. A facility in Orange County with strong, diverse, low latency routes to One Wilshire serves many use cases as effectively as space inside the building itself, at a fraction of the cost.
Buyers frequently overestimate how much direct One Wilshire colocation they need. The building matters enormously. Being physically inside it matters to a much smaller set of organizations than the ones who ask for it. Working out which group you belong to is usually the single highest leverage decision in a Los Angeles deployment, and it is worth resolving before you start comparing providers.
600 West 7th Street is the second downtown interconnection point
600 West 7th Street sits a short distance from One Wilshire and operates as downtown Los Angeles’s second major carrier hotel. Digital Realty holds the building, and its carrier density and cross connect ecosystem make it a genuine alternative rather than an overflow option.
For organizations that need downtown Los Angeles interconnection, 600 West 7th and One Wilshire should be evaluated together rather than sequentially. Availability, power density, and pricing vary between them at any given moment, and the building with the better terms this quarter is not always the one with the greater name recognition. Cross connect economics between the two often make a deployment in one functionally close to a deployment in the other.
Downtown pricing reflects real scarcity
Downtown space commands the highest pricing in the market by a wide margin. Power is constrained, floor loading in older buildings limits deployment density, and expansion space is scarce. Buyers who need to be here typically know exactly why: dense peering requirements, Pacific routing, financial services latency, or content distribution.
Buyers without a specific interconnection requirement usually should not be paying downtown rates.
Los Angeles is the Pacific gateway
Trans-Pacific subsea cables make landfall along the Southern California coast, and the traffic they carry aggregates in downtown Los Angeles. That makes the market the natural termination point for any organization with meaningful traffic to Asia, Australia, or Latin America.
Organizations serving Pacific markets from US infrastructure generally see materially better performance from Los Angeles than from any East Coast or Midwest deployment. The routing is shorter, the interconnection is denser, and the carrier options are broader. This is one of the few cases where a specific market delivers a technical advantage that cannot be replicated elsewhere. If Pacific routing matters to your architecture, Los Angeles is not one option among several.
The utility structure splits the region
Los Angeles has an unusual utility structure that affects colocation decisions directly. The City of Los Angeles is served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a municipal utility, while most of the surrounding region falls under Southern California Edison. Rate structures, interconnection processes, and capacity availability differ between them.
This matters practically. Two facilities twenty miles apart can face different power economics and different timelines for capacity expansion depending on which utility serves them. Enterprises planning multi year growth should understand which utility serves any facility they are evaluating and what that means for expansion capability.
California’s broader energy environment adds further considerations. Rate volatility, regulatory pressure on carbon intensity, and periodic grid stress events shape both facility operations and long term cost predictability. Facilities with strong on site generation, meaningful fuel reserves, and demonstrated performance during grid events carry real value in this market.
Seismic exposure is a real evaluation factor
Seismic risk is a differentiator in Los Angeles colocation and a factor buyers in other markets never have to evaluate.
Facility construction era matters. Buildings designed and built under modern California seismic code perform differently than older structures that have been retrofitted. Specific engineering approaches vary widely: base isolation, seismic bracing on racks and cable trays, flexible connections on mechanical and electrical systems, and restraint systems for equipment.
Questions worth asking any Los Angeles provider include the building’s construction year and seismic design standard, what specific seismic protection is applied to racks and cable management and mechanical systems, whether the facility has experienced a significant seismic event and what happened, and what the disaster recovery and business continuity plan actually specifies.
Organizations with meaningful Los Angeles deployments frequently pair them with capacity in a different seismic zone. Pairing Los Angeles with a Dallas colocation site is a common architecture, and one worth modeling if continuity requirements are strict. Our colocation site selection framework covers how to evaluate paired site architecture.
The geography is unusually spread out
The region sprawls across roughly 4,800 square miles, and capacity has clustered into distinct submarkets separated by significant driving distance. Choosing the wrong submarket is the most common and most expensive mistake enterprise buyers make here, and the distances mean operational staff location matters more than in denser markets.
Los Angeles Colocation Submarkets
El Segundo and the South Bay
El Segundo has become the primary alternative to downtown for enterprises that need Los Angeles presence without downtown pricing. The submarket sits adjacent to LAX, carries good fiber routes back to downtown, and offers purpose built facilities with modern power and cooling design rather than retrofitted office buildings.
The aerospace and defense concentration in the South Bay drives a meaningful share of demand here. Latency to downtown interconnection points runs low enough that most workloads see no practical difference, which makes this submarket the default recommendation for enterprises that need capacity rather than peering. Torrance and the broader South Bay corridor extend the same profile further south.
Irvine and Orange County
Orange County offers the most favorable economics in the greater Los Angeles market. Facilities here typically deliver more space and power per dollar than downtown or El Segundo, with newer construction and fewer power constraints. Irvine anchors the submarket, with additional capacity in Anaheim and the surrounding corridor.
The tradeoff is distance and network topology. Orange County sits roughly forty miles from downtown, which is immaterial for storage, backup, and general compute, but matters for latency sensitive workloads and anything requiring dense carrier interconnection. This submarket works well for disaster recovery colocation paired with a downtown or El Segundo primary site.
Burbank, Glendale, and the San Fernando Valley
The Valley submarket exists largely because of media and entertainment. Studios, post production houses, visual effects shops, and streaming operations cluster here, and capacity has followed. Facilities in this submarket tend to be tuned for media workloads: high bandwidth, large storage volumes, and burst compute for rendering.
Content security requirements add facility level considerations most colocation buyers never encounter, including studio security assessments and chain of custody documentation. Our Our disaster recovery colocation paired with a dow>media and entertainment colocation guide covers what production and post production operations should require from a facility. covers what production and post production operations should require from a facility.
For organizations outside media and entertainment, this submarket rarely offers an advantage over El Segundo or Orange County.
Los Angeles Facility Comparison
Not every LA data center fits every workload profile. Here is how the major facilities compare for buyer decisions.
| Facility | Provider | Best For | Compliance Posture | Density Support | Pricing Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One Wilshire (624 S Grand Ave) | Multiple operators including CoreSite | Maximum carrier density, trans-Pacific routing, peering-heavy workloads, financial services latency | Strong — varies by operator within the building | Standard density typical; high density limited by building age | Premium tier — highest in the Los Angeles market |
| 600 West 7th Street | Digital Realty | Downtown interconnection without One Wilshire pricing, bandwidth-heavy workloads, content distribution | Strong — enterprise compliance program with SOC 2 Type II | Standard density typical; higher on request | Premium tier — competitive against One Wilshire |
| CoreSite LA1 and LA2 | CoreSite | Hybrid cloud architectures, direct cloud on-ramps, carrier hotel adjacency | Strong — SOC 2 Type II with Open Cloud Exchange | Standard to mid-density typical | Mid-to-premium tier |
| Equinix El Segundo Campus (LA1–LA4) | Equinix | Ecosystem access, cloud on-ramps, enterprises wanting Equinix relationship at South Bay economics | Strong — SOC 2 Type II with extensive documentation | Standard to high-density available across the campus | Premium tier — justified for ecosystem access |
| DataBank Los Angeles | DataBank | Mid-market enterprise, compliance-heavy workloads, deployments between five and thirty cabinets | Strong documented compliance — SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA BAA capability | Strong high-density support at select facilities | Value tier — meaningfully below Equinix for comparable base infrastructure |
| Orange County and South Bay facilities | Multiple providers | Storage, backup, disaster recovery, general compute, cost-optimized deployments | Varies by provider | Varies; newer construction often supports higher density | Value tier — best economics in the region |
Additional Los Angeles Market Context
Beyond the Sandler Partners providers we work with directly, the Los Angeles market includes regional operators worth understanding for a complete evaluation.
Colocation America is a Los Angeles based provider serving small and mid sized deployments across the region, including space in downtown carrier hotels. Their model accommodates smaller footprints than most national operators will accept, which makes them relevant for organizations deploying below the thresholds where the major providers engage.
T5 Data Centers maintains Los Angeles area presence serving enterprise and wholesale requirements.
We do not maintain direct channel relationships with these operators, but understanding their market presence matters for any complete Los Angeles infrastructure evaluation. Knowing where the alternatives price also gives negotiations with the major providers a useful reference point. Metro Colo Advisory focuses on Sandler Partners providers where our channel relationships provide competitive advantages for our clients.
Independent. Provider Agnostic. Free to Clients.
What Los Angeles Workloads Actually Need
Los Angeles infrastructure supports specific workload profiles with specific requirements. Understanding what your Los Angeles deployment actually runs is the foundation of facility selection.
Media and entertainment infrastructure
Production, post production, visual effects, and streaming distribution generate substantial infrastructure demand with distinctive characteristics: very large storage volumes, high bandwidth requirements, and burst compute for rendering. Content security requirements add facility level considerations including studio security assessments and chain of custody documentation that most colocation buyers never encounter.
Aerospace and defense infrastructure
The South Bay concentration of aerospace and defense contractors drives demand for facilities capable of supporting controlled unclassified information and, in some cases, more stringent government frameworks. Compliance posture matters more here than in most commercial deployments, and our compliance guide covers how frameworks affect facility selection.
Healthcare and life sciences infrastructure
Large health systems across the region maintain infrastructure supporting electronic health records, imaging archives, and increasingly analytics workloads. Our healthcare and HIPAA colocation guide covers what the coming Security Rule changes will require and how to evaluate whether a facility actually qualifies.
Financial services infrastructure
Banking, asset management, and payments operations maintain Los Angeles presence with latency and compliance requirements that typically push toward downtown interconnection space. See our financial services colocation guide for how these requirements shape facility selection.
Gaming and technology infrastructure
Southern California’s game development concentration generates demand for low latency infrastructure serving West Coast and Pacific users, increasingly with GPU requirements for AI driven features and asset generation.
Trans-Pacific and Asia Pacific routing
Organizations with Asia Pacific operations use Los Angeles specifically for the routing advantage. Trans-Pacific capacity terminating in Southern California aggregates downtown, and the interconnection density there cannot be replicated from any other US market.
AI and GPU infrastructure
Los Angeles supports high density colocation, though availability is limited and concentrated in newer facilities. Traditional enterprise design supporting five to fifteen kilowatts per cabinet cannot serve AI training deployments requiring thirty to one hundred kilowatts or more with liquid cooling. Organizations planning GPU infrastructure should begin provider conversations earlier than they would for traditional workloads.
Cloud repatriation workloads
Los Angeles technology companies at scale increasingly evaluate cloud repatriation as cloud costs grow unsustainable. Successful SaaS platforms, media technology companies, and enterprise technology operations with meaningful monthly cloud spend typically achieve significant cost reduction moving stable workloads from cloud to dedicated infrastructure. See our cloud repatriation analysis for the complete evaluation framework.
Data center migration workloads
Los Angeles companies executing data center migration or data center relocation projects face specific infrastructure planning requirements. See our data center migration guide for the complete framework.
Disaster recovery infrastructure
Los Angeles serves both as a primary market and as a DR site for other markets. For Los Angeles primary deployments, DR planning typically involves a different seismic zone. See our disaster recovery colocation framework for DR architecture guidance.
What Los Angeles Data Center Space Actually Costs
Los Angeles data center pricing varies more by submarket than in almost any other US market. The spread between downtown interconnection space and Orange County capacity is wide enough that submarket selection, not provider negotiation, is usually the largest single lever on total cost.
Directional Los Angeles pricing context
Several factors drive where a given deployment lands in the range.
Power density is the first. Traditional enterprise deployments in the five to fifteen kilowatt per cabinet range price differently than high density colocation requiring thirty kilowatts or more with liquid cooling support. Facilities capable of supporting AI and GPU workloads command premium pricing and have limited availability across the region.
Commitment term is the second. Three year terms price meaningfully better than one year terms. Five year terms improve further. Providers price risk, and longer commitments reduce it.
Deployment size is the third, and the pricing curve is not linear. A twenty cabinet deployment often prices better per cabinet than four separate five cabinet deployments, and crossing certain thresholds unlocks different commercial treatment entirely.
Cross connects and bandwidth are the fourth and the most frequently underestimated. In downtown facilities, interconnection costs frequently exceed space and power costs.
Buyers who model only space and power routinely underestimate total spend by a wide margin.
Timing is the fifth. Provider quarter end and fiscal year end create real negotiating leverage. So does having a credible alternative.
For broader context on modeling total cost of ownership, see our colocation pricing guide.
What we provide instead of specific rates
Specific colocation pricing for your Los Angeles deployment depends on density, cross-connect requirements, contract length, and facility selection. Metro Colo Advisory provides current Los Angeles market rate benchmarks for your specific requirements at no cost, including CoreSite, Digital Realty, Equinix, and DataBank rates for comparative evaluation.
Los Angeles Scenarios We Navigate Regularly
We do not publish client names. But here are the types of Los Angeles infrastructure situations we handle regularly.
Scenario 1
Los Angeles Media Company Consolidating Storage Infrastructure
A 90-person Los Angeles post production company has been running storage infrastructure across a Burbank facility and supplemental cloud services. Their storage volumes have grown substantially with 4K and 8K workflows, cloud egress costs have become unpredictable, and their head of technology wants to understand whether consolidation would improve economics without compromising delivery timelines.
Our Approach
Review current storage utilization and egress patterns against actual production requirements. Evaluate whether the Burbank facility still fits given content security requirements and bandwidth economics, whether workloads could consolidate at a downtown facility with better carrier pricing, and whether a hybrid architecture keeps burst rendering on cloud while dedicated storage moves to colocation. Model the economics across facilities and handle contract negotiation on any renewal or new commitment.
Scenario 2
Los Angeles Technology Company Evaluating Pacific Routing
A 140-person Los Angeles technology company serving customers across Asia Pacific has been running infrastructure at an Orange County facility chosen years ago primarily on price. Latency to Asia Pacific customers has become a competitive issue, and their CTO wants to understand whether downtown interconnection would meaningfully improve performance.
Our Approach
Evaluate current network paths and measure where latency is actually accumulating. Determine whether the issue is facility location, carrier selection, or peering arrangements, since not every latency problem is solved by moving buildings. Model the economics of One Wilshire or 600 West 7th deployment against improved carrier and peering arrangements at the current facility. Facilitate provider introductions for whichever path the analysis supports.
Scenario 3
Los Angeles Healthcare Organization Modernizing Infrastructure
A 250-employee Los Angeles regional healthcare organization operates across multiple facilities and needs to modernize infrastructure while maintaining HIPAA Business Associate coverage across all patient data workloads. Their existing infrastructure runs across mixed on-premise and cloud environments without unified compliance documentation.
Our Approach
Design a unified HIPAA-compliant infrastructure architecture with documented BAA coverage across all patient data workloads. Evaluate providers with facility-level compliance documentation appropriate for enterprise healthcare requirements. Design multi-site DR architecture with meaningful seismic separation from Southern California. Handle audit-focused documentation development for compliance teams.
Common Mistakes Los Angeles Companies Make
Five mistakes we see repeatedly in Los Angeles colocation evaluations.
1. Assuming you need to be inside One Wilshire.
One Wilshire is exceptional and it is expensive. Most organizations that request it need strong routes back to it, not physical presence inside it. Firms that deploy at One Wilshire for general enterprise workloads pay for interconnection density they never use when a South Bay or Orange County facility with good downtown routes would deliver equivalent performance at meaningfully lower cost.
2. Evaluating One Wilshire without evaluating 600 West 7th Street.
The two downtown carrier hotels should be assessed together. Availability, power density, and pricing vary between them at any given moment, and the building with better terms this quarter is not always the one with greater name recognition.
3. Ignoring the utility question.
LADWP and Southern California Edison serve different parts of the region with different rate structures and different expansion timelines. Two facilities twenty miles apart can face materially different power economics. Organizations planning multi year growth that do not ask which utility serves a facility sometimes discover expansion constraints after they have committed.
4. Treating seismic as a checkbox.
Every Los Angeles provider will say their facility is seismically rated. The useful questions are more specific: construction year, design standard, what restraint systems are applied to racks and mechanical systems, and what happened during past events. Organizations that accept general assurances sometimes discover the specifics only during an incident.
5. Underestimating the distances.
Los Angeles spans roughly 4,800 square miles. A facility that looks close on a map may be ninety minutes away in traffic. Organizations that need regular physical access to their equipment should weight operational staff location more heavily here than they would in denser markets.
Five Questions to Answer Before Any Los Angeles Colocation Decision
The right facility depends on getting five foundational questions right.
1. Do you actually need downtown interconnection density?
Downtown Los Angeles serves organizations with dense peering requirements, Pacific routing needs, or latency sensitive financial workloads. If you do not have one of those requirements, you have eliminated the most expensive space in the market and opened up substantially better economics in El Segundo or Orange County.
2. Which submarket fits your workload and your staff?
El Segundo and the South Bay work well for enterprises needing capacity and reasonable latency without downtown pricing. Orange County and Irvine offer the best economics for storage, backup, disaster recovery, and general compute. Burbank and the San Fernando Valley concentrate media and entertainment infrastructure. Given the distances involved, where your operations staff sits matters more here than in most markets.
3. What is your Pacific routing requirement?
Organizations with meaningful Asia Pacific traffic get an advantage from Los Angeles that no other US market provides. Organizations without that requirement should evaluate Los Angeles on the same terms as any other market rather than paying a premium for a capability they do not use.
4. What is your density and power requirement trajectory?
Standard density is supported broadly across the market. High density for modern AI infrastructure requires specific facility capabilities and has limited availability. Understanding your three year density trajectory affects facility selection more than most buyers expect.
5. What is your seismic and continuity posture?
Los Angeles primary infrastructure requires DR planning that accounts for seismic risk. Understanding whether your continuity requirements demand a different seismic zone determines the complete infrastructure architecture across primary and DR sites.
The Independent Advisory Approach to Los Angeles Colocation
Los Angeles colocation evaluations benefit from independent advisory because the submarket structure creates real complexity that provider sales teams have no incentive to explain. A provider with strong downtown capacity will steer you downtown. A provider with Orange County availability will explain why Orange County is sufficient. Neither perspective is dishonest, and neither is complete.
Think of Metro Colo Advisory like a buyer’s agent in real estate. We work exclusively for our clients, not for the colocation providers. Commission comes from the provider you ultimately choose, paid only when a deal closes, so there is no cost to you at any stage of the evaluation. Our independence comes from representing the buyer through every step of the evaluation, negotiation, and contracting process across all major Los Angeles providers, never the seller.
The advantage is competitive. When we bring your requirement to multiple Los Angeles providers simultaneously, they compete for the business. That pressure produces better pricing and better terms than most organizations negotiate going direct, because a single buyer approaching one provider has limited leverage and a broker running a structured process creates real alternatives.
As an independent colocation broker with formal channel partner relationships across Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, CoreSite, Cologix, TierPoint, and Flexential, Metro Colo Advisory provides objective Los Angeles provider comparison at no cost to clients. Our only incentive is placing you at the provider that best fits your specific workload, compliance, and budget requirements. We also maintain working knowledge of the broader Los Angeles market including Colocation America and T5 Data Centers, so our recommendations reflect complete market context rather than limited perspective. Our independent colocation advisor page explains the model in full.
For carrier density evaluation across Los Angeles facilities, our provider comparison guide covers how each operator’s cross connect ecosystem differs. For colocation site selection framework, see our site selection guide. For data center migration of existing infrastructure into Los Angeles facilities, see our migration guide. For contract terms that vary by Los Angeles provider, our colocation contracts guide covers the provisions that matter.
National Coverage — Los Angeles in the Broader US Market
Los Angeles sits within a broader national colocation ecosystem. Understanding how Los Angeles compares to alternatives helps inform whether Los Angeles is the right market for your deployment.
- Los Angeles vs. San Francisco and Silicon Valley: Silicon Valley provides deeper cloud on-ramp density and the technology ecosystem concentration that matters for hybrid architectures. Los Angeles provides trans-Pacific routing advantage, media and entertainment infrastructure, and typically better power availability. Organizations weighing both should review our San Francisco colocation guide, since the two markets serve different requirements despite sitting on the same coast.
- Los Angeles vs. Dallas: Dallas provides substantially better power economics through ERCOT, more available capacity, and Texas tax advantages. Los Angeles provides Pacific routing and West Coast latency that Dallas cannot replicate. The two pair well for organizations needing seismic separation.
- Los Angeles vs. Chicago: Chicago provides central-US network topology and derivatives market ecosystem access. Los Angeles provides Pacific gateway positioning and West Coast market proximity.
Los Angeles vs. Northern Virginia (Ashburn): Ashburn is the largest US colocation market with meaningfully more capacity and cloud on-ramp density. Los Angeles provides Pacific routing that Ashburn cannot match and serves West Coast latency requirements Ashburn cannot serve.
Los Angeles vs. Phoenix and Las Vegas: Both provide substantially better economics and power availability than Los Angeles, and both sit in different seismic zones, making them common DR pairings for Los Angeles primary infrastructure. Neither replicates Los Angeles interconnection or Pacific routing.
For infrastructure decisions spanning multiple markets, Metro Colo Advisory provides comparative analysis across markets at no cost.
Frequently Asked Questions About Los Angeles Colocation
What is One Wilshire and does my deployment need to be there?
One Wilshire at 624 South Grand Avenue is the primary carrier hotel for Los Angeles and the main interconnection point for trans-Pacific network traffic. Hundreds of networks are present in the building, giving it cross-connect density unmatched on the West Coast outside Silicon Valley. Most organizations do not need to be physically inside it. Facilities elsewhere in the region with strong, diverse routes back to One Wilshire serve the majority of use cases at substantially lower cost, and the premium for physical presence is significant. Organizations with dense peering requirements, trans-Pacific routing needs, or latency sensitive financial workloads are the ones that genuinely benefit. Metro Colo Advisory helps clients determine whether One Wilshire colocation is actually required at no cost.
How much does colocation cost in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles colocation pricing varies more by submarket than by provider. Downtown interconnection space near One Wilshire and 600 West 7th Street carries the highest rates in the market, while Orange County and South Bay facilities deliver materially better economics for equivalent space and power. The largest cost drivers are power density, commitment term, deployment size, and interconnection requirements. Cross connects and bandwidth frequently exceed space and power costs in downtown facilities, and buyers who model only space and power routinely underestimate total spend by a wide margin. Metro Colo Advisory compares pricing across Los Angeles providers for clients at no cost.
What is at 600 West 7th Street?
600 West 7th Street is downtown Los Angeles’s second major interconnection point, operated by Digital Realty a short distance from One Wilshire. Its carrier density and cross connect ecosystem make it a genuine alternative to One Wilshire rather than an overflow option. Organizations evaluating downtown Los Angeles should look at both buildings together since availability, power density, and pricing vary between them at any given time, and cross connect economics often make a deployment in one functionally close to a deployment in the other. Metro Colo Advisory evaluates downtown Los Angeles options for clients at no cost.
Which Los Angeles submarket is right for my deployment?
Downtown Los Angeles suits organizations with dense peering requirements, Pacific routing needs, or latency sensitive financial workloads. El Segundo and the South Bay work well for enterprises needing capacity and reasonable latency without downtown pricing. Orange County and Irvine offer the best economics for storage, backup, disaster recovery, and general compute. Burbank and the San Fernando Valley concentrate media and entertainment infrastructure. Submarket selection typically has more impact on total cost than provider selection, and given the distances involved in the region, operational staff location matters more here than in denser markets. Metro Colo Advisory evaluates submarket fit for clients at no cost.
How do earthquakes affect Los Angeles data center selection?
Seismic exposure is a real evaluation factor unique to this market. Construction era and seismic design standard matter, as does the specific engineering applied to racks, cable management, and mechanical and electrical systems. Buyers should ask for the building’s construction year, its seismic design standard, what restraint systems are in place, and what happened during past seismic events. Organizations with strict continuity requirements frequently pair Los Angeles capacity with a site in a different seismic zone such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Dallas. Metro Colo Advisory reviews seismic and continuity considerations for clients at no cost.
Can Los Angeles data centers support AI and GPU workloads?
Some can, but availability is limited and concentrated in newer facilities. Traditional enterprise design supporting five to fifteen kilowatts per cabinet cannot serve AI training deployments requiring thirty to one hundred kilowatts or more with liquid cooling. Facilities capable of supporting high density deployments command premium pricing and often have waiting lists. Organizations planning GPU infrastructure should begin provider conversations earlier than they would for traditional workloads, since lead times on high density capacity run substantially longer. Metro Colo Advisory identifies high density capable Los Angeles facilities for clients at no cost.
Which providers operate data centers in Los Angeles?
The major operators include CoreSite, with LA1 and LA2 facilities and space at One Wilshire, Digital Realty, including the 600 West 7th Street property downtown, Equinix, with a multi facility campus in El Segundo spanning LA1 through LA4, and DataBank serving mid market requirements across the region. Regional providers including Colocation America and T5 Data Centers serve requirements the national operators often will not accommodate, particularly smaller deployments. The right answer depends on whether your priority is interconnection density, scale capacity, ecosystem access, or commercial flexibility. Metro Colo Advisory compares provider fit for clients at no cost.
Why does Los Angeles matter for Asia Pacific connectivity?
Trans-Pacific subsea cables make landfall along the Southern California coast, and that capacity aggregates in downtown Los Angeles. This makes the market the natural point of presence for organizations moving traffic between North America and Asia, Australia, or Latin America. Organizations serving Pacific markets from US infrastructure generally see materially better performance from Los Angeles than from East Coast or Midwest deployments, because the routing is shorter, the interconnection is denser, and the carrier options are broader. This is one of the few cases where a specific market delivers a technical advantage that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Metro Colo Advisory evaluates Pacific routing requirements for clients at no cost.
Does Los Angeles power cost more than other markets?
Yes, meaningfully. California power costs run well above national averages, and the Los Angeles region is served by two different utilities with different rate structures. The City of Los Angeles falls under LADWP, a municipal utility, while most surrounding areas fall under Southern California Edison. Two facilities twenty miles apart can face materially different power economics and different timelines for capacity expansion. Organizations planning multi year growth should understand which utility serves any facility they are evaluating. Metro Colo Advisory evaluates power economics across Los Angeles facilities for clients at no cost.
Does Metro Colo Advisory serve Los Angeles clients?
Yes. Metro Colo Advisory serves Los Angeles mid-market and enterprise companies with the same independent advisory approach we provide to clients in every market we cover. We maintain formal channel partner relationships with all major Los Angeles providers including Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, CoreSite, Cologix, TierPoint, and Flexential. We also maintain working knowledge of the broader Los Angeles market including Colocation America and T5 Data Centers, ensuring our recommendations reflect complete market context. Los Angeles clients receive the same free advisory service, comparative pricing analysis, contract review, and provider negotiation support. Our commission comes from the provider you ultimately choose, paid only when a deal closes, so there is no cost to Los Angeles clients at any stage. Metro Colo Advisory evaluates Los Angeles colocation decisions at no cost.
Ready to Talk About Your Los Angeles Infrastructure Requirements?
Los Angeles colocation is complex, with four distinct submarkets spread across 4,800 square miles, two utilities with different economics, seismic considerations no other major market requires, and an interconnection ecosystem anchored by a single building that shapes pricing region-wide. The right answer for your Los Angeles deployment depends on workload profile, interconnection requirements, compliance needs, budget tier, and continuity strategy. There is no single best facility for all Los Angeles workloads. The right answer depends entirely on what your infrastructure actually needs to deliver.
Metro Colo Advisory has no financial stake in which provider or facility Los Angeles clients ultimately choose. We work with media and entertainment companies, technology companies, healthcare organizations, aerospace and defense contractors, and mid-market enterprise evaluating colocation across Los Angeles and national markets, with channel relationships spanning all major providers and deep expertise in the workload-specific requirements that drive Los Angeles provider selection.
Metro Colo Advisory evaluates the Los Angeles colocation decision for you at no cost. Reach out at contact@metrocoloadvisory.com to start the conversation.
For deep analysis of any specific provider, see our individual provider guides: Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, CoreSite, and Cologix.
For other markets we cover, see our San Francisco colocation guide, Dallas colocation guide, Chicago colocation guide, Atlanta colocation guide, and Washington DC colocation guide.
For NYC-specific analysis, see our NYC Metro Data Centers guide and Manhattan Data Centers guide.
For provider comparison across all major operators, see our provider comparison guide.
For related buyer education, start with what is colocation, then work through our colocation pricing guide, colocation contracts guide, and data center migration planning resources. Organizations weighing infrastructure against public cloud should review our cloud repatriation analysis, hybrid cloud colocation guide, and cloud vs colo calculator.
For vertical-specific analysis applicable to Los Angeles deployments, see our guides for financial services, healthcare and HIPAA, and media and entertainment.
For continuity planning, see our disaster recovery colocation framework.
For developers, investors, and enterprises making larger infrastructure decisions, see our data center consulting practice.
