Washington DC Colocation
Ashburn, Loudoun County and Northern Virginia: What It Costs, Who Has Space, and How to Get In
Northern Virginia is the world's largest data center market at 4.5 gigawatts, and at 0.2 percent vacancy the hardest place to find space. We find the capacity that exists and negotiate the terms.
Find Space in Northern VirginiaWashington DC colocation means Northern Virginia colocation, and mostly Ashburn colocation: almost all of the region's data centers sit in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties, clustered around Ashburn in the corridor known as Data Center Alley, with only a handful of carrier facilities inside the District itself. It is the largest data center market in the world. CBRE counted 4,496.5 MW of inventory in the first half of 2026, more than a gigawatt added in a year, with 467.6 MW absorbed in six months and vacancy down to 0.2 percent. Wholesale requirements of 250 to 500 kW price at $190 to $235 per kW per month, and the market's constraint is not demand or land but power: Dominion Energy's process for connecting large new loads has pushed delivery timelines out, and most new capacity is preleased before it is built. For a company that needs space here, the question is less which operator is best than which ones have capacity on your date, in the right building, at a rate that reflects what others are paying.
Figures as of mid-2026. Sources: CBRE North America Data Center Trends H1 2026, CBRE Global Data Center Trends 2026, CBRE H1 2023. The market has doubled in three years and is still effectively full. Free to cite with a link to this page.
In a market this tight, the capacity that exists is often not on any website. Send the requirement to us first and you'll hear back within 24 hours from the person who will run your search, with every operator that has space on your timeline quoted, and benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay. The provider you choose pays us, so it costs you nothing.
Ashburn Colocation and the Rest of the Washington DC Area
| Area | What is there | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Ashburn and Loudoun CountyData Center Alley | The core of the market: the Equinix and Digital Realty campuses, DataBank's Ashburn campus, and hundreds of megawatts of wholesale halls, with the densest interconnection and cloud on-ramps in the region | Anything that needs the networks and clouds; the first place to look for retail space that turns over |
| Sterling and Dulles | Campuses along the Route 28 corridor south of Ashburn, from the national operators and the wholesale developers | Enterprise and wholesale deployments close to Ashburn's interconnection |
| Reston, Herndon and Fairfax County | CoreSite's Reston campus with the Open Cloud Exchange, DataBank in McLean, and enterprise facilities near the federal contracting corridor | Hybrid cloud, government contractors, and companies based in the Dulles tech corridor |
| Manassas and Prince William County | Iron Mountain's Manassas campus and large new wholesale developments | Larger deployments, compliance-heavy enterprise, and capacity when Loudoun is full |
| The District itself | A small number of downtown carrier facilities, including CoreSite's DC1 at 1275 K Street NW | Network presence in the city, low-latency links to downtown offices and agencies |
| The next ringCulpeper, Stafford, Fauquier, Spotsylvania, Caroline, Richmond | Where new campuses are going because power and land are available, including multi-hundred-megawatt projects along the I-95 corridor | Wholesale and AI deployments that can accept distance from Ashburn for a delivery date and a rate |
Northern Virginia Colocation Providers
| Provider | Where | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Equinix | The Ashburn campus, one of the densest interconnection points anywhere | Networks, peering and cloud on-ramps through Equinix Fabric; the place to be when the workload lives on its connections |
| Digital Realty | Large campuses in Ashburn and the surrounding Loudoun corridor | Retail and wholesale at campus scale, ServiceFabric cloud connectivity, and multi-market enterprise footprints |
| CoreSite | The Reston campus, and DC1 at 1275 K Street NW in the District | Hybrid cloud through the Open Cloud Exchange, and a network presence inside the city |
| DataBank | The Ashburn campus (IAD1, IAD3, IAD4) and IAD2 in McLean, with land in Culpeper | Enterprise colocation with compliance documentation, and high-density halls for AI at the value end of the market |
| Iron Mountain | The Manassas campus in Prince William County | Compliance-heavy enterprise and government-adjacent deployments, with wholesale halls |
| Cologix and other retail operators | Newer facilities across Loudoun | Mid-size deployments and interconnection outside the largest campuses |
| The wholesale developers | QTS, CyrusOne, Vantage, STACK, Aligned, Sabey, NTT and others across Loudoun, Prince William and the next ring | Halls and buildings by the megawatt, preleased well ahead of delivery. See wholesale colocation |
Metro Colo Advisory summary, September 2026. The provider comparison covers each operator nationally; Equinix alternatives covers the choice for workloads that do not need the Ashburn ecosystem.
What Northern Virginia Colocation Costs
| Requirement | Asking rate | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| 250 to 500 kW | $190 to $235 per kW per month | The second-highest range among North America's primary markets after Chicago (CBRE, Q1 2026) |
| 10 MW and up | $155 to $185 per kW per month | With almost nothing available, most of this is preleased on buildings not yet delivered (CBRE, end of 2025) |
| Retail cabinets and cages | Priced per cabinet or per kW, above wholesale per kW | The segment where space still turns over; rates depend on the building's connectivity and the density. The colocation pricing guide has the ranges |
| Cross-connects | Typically $200 to $500 a month each in interconnection buildings | Negotiable before signature; a fabric or network-as-a-service port can replace many of them |
| Across primary markets | Asking rates rose for every deployment size in H1 2026 | Led by 3 to 10 MW (up 8.3 percent); 250 to 500 kW rose 4.3 percent (CBRE) |
Sources: CBRE Global Data Center Trends 2026; CBRE, Northern Virginia 2025; CBRE H1 2026. The full cost picture, including power and build costs, is on data center cost.
Site and power feasibility, market studies and acquisition due diligence for developers and investors in this market, in writing at a fixed fee agreed before work starts. See data center consulting, powered land and data center valuation.
How to Get Space in a 0.2 Percent Vacancy Market
Under 250 kW: look for turnover
Retail cabinets, cages and small suites come free in existing buildings as tenants move or consolidate. It is rarely listed; it is found by asking every operator at once, which is what a search does.
250 kW to a few MW: prelease or wait
Most of this range is committed before buildings deliver. The realistic paths are a prelease with a dated delivery obligation, a phased ramp in a building under construction, or a campus in the next ring with an earlier date.
Megawatts: widen the map
Large contiguous blocks of 15 to 20 MW are hard to find in existing and planned facilities. Culpeper, Stafford and the I-95 corridor, or another primary market (Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago), often deliver sooner.
Get the date in writing
In this market, "available Q2" means little without a delivery obligation and a remedy for missing it. The data center lease guide covers the clause.
Separate connectivity from compute
A small footprint in an Ashburn interconnection building for the networks and clouds, with the compute where space and power exist, joined by metro fiber. The structure most larger requirements end up with.
AI and high density
Dense halls exist in Ashburn and at the newer campuses, but liquid-cooled rack-scale capacity is the scarcest thing in the market. See AI and GPU colocation, or rent the compute instead through GPU cluster rental.
CMMC Compliance and Colocation in Ashburn
Northern Virginia hosts more of the defense industrial base's infrastructure than any other region, so CMMC shapes a lot of colocation decisions in Ashburn and Loudoun County. CMMC 2.0, the Defense Department's cybersecurity certification program for contractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information, began Phase 1 on November 10, 2025, with self-assessments required in applicable contracts. Phase 2, which was to require third-party (C3PAO) Level 2 certification from November 10, 2026, was suspended on July 13, 2026 pending a program review, and later milestones were put on hold. The underlying obligations did not change: DFARS 252.204-7012 and the 110 controls of NIST SP 800-171 still apply, and primes still flow them down.
What the colocation facility covers
Physical protection: controlled access, visitor logging, surveillance and environmental controls, the physical protection family of NIST SP 800-171. A facility with current SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 reports gives you evidence to inherit for those controls.
What it does not
Everything inside your cage: access control, logging, configuration, incident response and the rest of your system security plan. The facility provides space and power, not a compliant environment.
What to ask for
A shared responsibility matrix that maps the operator's controls to NIST SP 800-171, the current audit reports for the specific building, cage and cabinet options with their own access logs, and escort and visitor procedures. See compliance colocation.
Lumen vs Equinix vs Megaport for cloud on-ramps from a Northern Virginia colo
Northern Virginia has the densest cloud on-ramp concentration in the world, so the choice is about path and flexibility rather than availability. Equinix sells the building with the on-ramps inside and Fabric to reach them; Megaport sells virtual connections to every major cloud from ports in most Ashburn facilities, useful if your cage is in a building without the on-ramp you need; Lumen sells carrier circuits and managed networking with contracted service levels. Most designs use two of the three, for the primary and the second path. The hybrid cloud colocation guide covers footprint, latency and contract terms in detail.
Moving a data center in or out of Ashburn
Physical moves are handled by specialist data center relocation firms, but the cost and risk are set earlier: the overlap period, the circuits, and whether the new contract includes setup waivers and a ramp. Plan the move into the new lease before signature. See data center migration.
Five Mistakes in Northern Virginia Colocation
Starting too late
At 0.2 percent vacancy, a search that starts three months before the need rarely ends well. For anything over a few hundred kW, start a year ahead.
Treating "coming soon" as capacity
Delivery dates in this market depend on Dominion's schedule. Without a dated obligation and a remedy in the contract, it is a hope.
Paying Ashburn interconnection rates for every rack
Connectivity belongs in the interconnection building; compute can sit a metro circuit away at a lower rate.
Assuming the facility makes you CMMC compliant
It covers physical protection, not your systems. Get the shared responsibility matrix before you sign.
Going to one operator first
Operators price differently when they know others are quoting, and in a tight market the space you need may be with one you had not considered.
How We Find Space in Northern Virginia
You tell us the power, cabinets, density, the networks and clouds you need, compliance scope and the date. We ask every operator in the market at once, including the capacity that is not listed, confirm what actually exists and when, and have the operators that fit quote the same requirement. We benchmark the quotes against what comparable deployments pay and negotiate the rate, the delivery obligation, cross-connects and expansion rights before you sign. If the better answer is the next ring or another market, we say so and price it. The provider you choose pays us from the channel budget it would otherwise spend on its own sales team, so the service costs you nothing and your rate is not marked up. Developers and investors weighing a site in the region can engage our data center consulting and due diligence practice separately. How it works.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does colocation cost in Northern Virginia?
Wholesale requirements of 250 to 500 kW ask $190 to $235 per kW per month, the second-highest range among North America's primary markets, and 10 MW-plus requirements $155 to $185, according to CBRE. Retail cabinets and cages price above wholesale per kW, with cross-connects typically $200 to $500 a month each in interconnection buildings. Asking rates rose for every deployment size in the first half of 2026.
Is there colocation space available in Northern Virginia?
Vacancy was 0.2 percent in the first half of 2026, so very little is listed. Retail space still turns over in existing buildings, and most larger capacity is preleased on buildings under construction, with commitments extending into 2027 and beyond. Space exists; finding it means asking every operator at once rather than reading websites.
Who are the main Ashburn colocation providers?
Equinix and Digital Realty run the largest interconnection campuses; DataBank operates an Ashburn campus and a McLean facility; CoreSite has a Reston campus and DC1 in the District; Iron Mountain runs a campus in Manassas; and QTS, CyrusOne, Vantage, STACK, Aligned, Sabey and NTT lead the wholesale market across Loudoun and Prince William counties.
Are there colocation data centers in Washington DC itself?
A few. The District has a small number of downtown carrier facilities, including CoreSite's DC1 at 1275 K Street NW. Almost all of the region's capacity is in Northern Virginia, 20 to 40 miles west, which is what "Washington DC colocation" usually means.
Why is Northern Virginia the largest data center market?
Early internet exchange points in the region drew networks, networks drew cloud providers, and cloud providers drew everyone who connects to them, on top of available land, relatively low power costs, fiber and proximity to federal customers. The result is 4,496.5 MW of inventory, more than any other market in the world, and still growing by more than a gigawatt a year.
What is Data Center Alley?
The corridor around Ashburn in Loudoun County, Virginia, where the densest concentration of data centers in the world sits, including the Equinix and Digital Realty campuses and hundreds of megawatts of wholesale halls.
How long does it take to get power for a new data center in Northern Virginia?
For new large loads, delivery depends on Dominion Energy's process for connecting them, which has extended timelines well beyond construction schedules. That is why most new capacity is preleased years ahead and why new campuses are moving to Culpeper, Stafford and the I-95 corridor. Retail space in existing buildings can be available in weeks.
Does Loudoun County still allow data centers by right?
No. Loudoun amended its zoning ordinance to require a special exception for new data center developments, ending by-right approval. Existing and approved campuses continue, but new projects face a longer, discretionary process, which pushes new supply to neighboring counties.
Does colocation help with CMMC compliance?
For physical protection, yes: a facility's access controls, visitor logging, surveillance and environmental controls, documented in current SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 reports, provide evidence you can inherit for the physical protection controls of NIST SP 800-171. Everything inside your cage remains your responsibility. Ask the operator for a shared responsibility matrix mapped to NIST SP 800-171.
What is the status of CMMC Phase 2?
Phase 1 began November 10, 2025, with self-assessments in applicable contracts. Phase 2, which would have required third-party Level 2 certification from November 10, 2026, was suspended on July 13, 2026 pending a program review, and later milestones were put on hold. DFARS 252.204-7012 and NIST SP 800-171 still apply. Check the current status before relying on either date.
What are the alternatives to Loudoun County for a data center?
Prince William County around Manassas, Fairfax County around Reston, and the next ring of Culpeper, Stafford, Fauquier, Spotsylvania, Caroline and the Richmond area, where power and land are more available. Outside Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago are the primary markets most often compared.
What does it cost to find space through Metro Colo Advisory?
Nothing. The provider you choose pays us from its channel budget, the same way it pays its own sales team, and your rate is not marked up. If the better answer is another submarket or another market, we say so.
Find Space in Northern Virginia
Tell us the power, cabinets, density, the networks and clouds you need, compliance scope and your date. You'll hear back within 24 hours from the person who will run your search, with every operator that has capacity on your timeline quoted, benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay, and the terms negotiated before you sign. No cost, no obligation, and the provider you choose pays us.
In a market at 0.2 percent vacancy, the space you need is often the space nobody has listed.
Other markets: New York, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Providers: the provider comparison, Equinix alternatives, Digital Realty, CoreSite and DataBank.
Deciding: the pricing guide, data center cost, lease terms, site selection, compliance, data center tiers, hybrid cloud, disaster recovery, migration and cloud repatriation.
Large and AI deployments: wholesale colocation, AI and GPU colocation, GPU rental, GPU cluster rental, powered shell, build to suit, data center consulting and due diligence.
