Colocation Providers Compared
Who the Major Colocation Providers Are, What Each Is Built For, Which Are Tier Certified, and Which to Shortlist
No colocation provider is the best for everything. This page compares the North American operators on what actually differs, so you find the right fit before anyone quotes. We place with all of them.
Get Quotes From the Providers That FitColocation providers in North America fall into five groups, and the group tells you more than the brand: the global interconnection operators (Equinix and Digital Realty) whose buildings host the exchanges, carriers and cloud on-ramps; the national mid-market operators (DataBank, CoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint, Cologix, Iron Mountain, 365 Data Centers and others) that serve most enterprise deployments; the wholesale developers (QTS, Vantage, Aligned, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Switch) that lease halls and buildings by the megawatt; regional operators with one or two markets and often the best local pricing; and the neoclouds that rent GPUs rather than space. Every one of the major operators publishes SOC 2 Type II reports and will quote a mid-market requirement. What differs is the ecosystem a building hosts, the density it can serve, the markets it covers, whether its facilities are tier certified or designed to tier standards, and what it costs, which is set more by the zone and the building than by the operator's name.
The Five Kinds of Colocation Provider, and Who Is in Each
Global interconnection operators
Equinix, Digital Realty. Their buildings are where networks, exchanges and clouds physically meet: the trading campuses, the carrier hotels, the cloud on-ramps. Priced at the top of each market for that ecosystem, with the widest global footprints for companies that want one operator everywhere.
National mid-market operators
DataBank, CoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint, Cologix, Iron Mountain, 365 Data Centers, Evocative, Element Critical. Retail colocation from a cabinet to a few hundred kW across many US markets, with compliance documentation, managed services and, at several, high-density halls. Where most enterprise deployments land.
Wholesale developers
QTS, Vantage, Aligned, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Switch, NTT. Halls and buildings leased by the megawatt to hyperscalers, AI companies and large enterprises, often built to suit and increasingly liquid-cooled. The market for requirements of 1 MW and up. See wholesale colocation.
Regional operators
One or two markets, often the local carrier hotel or the newest building in town: Netrality in the Midwest carrier hotels, TRG in Houston, Sabey in the Northwest and New York, and many more. Frequently the best local price and the most flexible terms, and the operators national buyers most often miss.
GPU neoclouds
CoreWeave, Lambda, Nebius, Crusoe and dozens more. Not colocation at all: they rent GPUs by the hour or the term, hosted in wholesale halls they lease from the developers above. The right answer when you need compute, not space. See neocloud providers and GPU rental.
How to use the groups
Decide which group your requirement belongs to first. A 5 kW cabinet does not need a wholesale developer; a 5 MW AI deployment does not fit a carrier hotel; a company that needs an H100 cluster for six months needs a neocloud, not a lease. Then compare the operators within the group on your requirement, with the quotes benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay.
Once you have asked a provider for pricing directly, it will only work with you on its own terms. Send it to us first and you'll hear back within 24 hours from the person who will run your search, with every provider that fits quoted and benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay. The provider you choose pays us, so it costs you nothing.
The Major Providers Side by Side
| Provider | Footprint | Built for | Cloud on-ramps | High density | Price position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equinixinterconnection | More than 260 facilities worldwide; every primary US market, with the trading campuses in Secaucus (NY4, NY5) and Chicago | Interconnection: exchanges, carriers, clouds and counterparties in the same buildings | Equinix Fabric to every major cloud | Yes at newer campus buildings; confirm per hall | Premium, in line with the ecosystem |
| Digital Realtyinterconnection and scale | More than 300 facilities worldwide, from Manhattan's carrier hotels (60 Hudson, 111 8th, 32 Avenue of the Americas) to Ashburn and Chicago campuses | Carrier-hotel connectivity, multi-market enterprise footprints, and wholesale halls for large tenants | ServiceFabric | Yes at the campuses; limited in the older carrier hotels | Premium in the carrier hotels; competitive at the campuses |
| DataBanknational mid-market | About 65 facilities in 27-plus US markets, including Orangeburg (LGA3), Newark (165 Halsey), Dallas, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Phoenix | Compliance-documented enterprise colocation and high-density and AI halls at the value end of each market | On-ramps at several markets; cross-connects elsewhere | Yes at the newer halls; LGA3 is a reference site | Value end of the range |
| CoreSitecloud on-ramps | About 30 facilities in 11 US markets: New York, Northern Virginia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Denver, Boston, Miami and more | Hybrid cloud through the Open Cloud Exchange, and carrier-dense sites (One Wilshire in Los Angeles) | Open Cloud Exchange: AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle, IBM | Moderate; higher on request at newer sites | Mid-range |
| Flexentialnational mid-market | About 40 facilities in 19 US markets, strongest in the Southeast, Texas, Colorado and the Northwest | Enterprise colocation with managed and hybrid services and a growing set of dense AI halls | FlexAnywhere fabric to the major clouds | Yes at newer halls | Mid-range |
| TierPointnational mid-market | About 40 facilities across 20 US markets, many secondary: St. Louis, Kansas City, Raleigh, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia | Colocation plus managed, cloud and disaster recovery services for mid-market and regional enterprises | On-ramps in larger markets | Standard to moderate | Value to mid-range |
| Cologixregional interconnection | About 45 facilities in 12 North American markets, including Dallas, Columbus, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, northern New Jersey and Toronto | Interconnection hubs and edge campuses in mid-size markets, with flexible terms | On-ramps at its hub markets | Standard to moderate; dense halls at newer campuses | Value to mid-range |
| Iron Mountainnational and international | Campuses in Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Chicago, New Jersey, Boston, Denver and abroad | Compliance-heavy enterprise and government deployments, with wholesale halls at the larger campuses | On-ramps at the campuses | Yes at the campuses | Mid-range |
| 365 Data CentersNortheast and Southeast | About 20 facilities in secondary and edge markets from Buffalo and Boston to Tampa and Nashville | Network-dense colocation and connectivity in markets the larger operators skip | Cross-connects and regional carriers | Standard | Value end of the range |
| QTS, Vantage, Aligned, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Switchwholesale | Multi-hundred-megawatt campuses in Northern Virginia, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, Ohio and the new markets | Halls and buildings for hyperscalers, AI clusters and enterprises at 1 MW and up, increasingly liquid-cooled | Where the clouds are the tenants | Yes; the home of rack-scale AI | Wholesale per-kW rates; see wholesale colocation |
Metro Colo Advisory summary, September 2026. Facility counts are approximate and change with acquisitions and new builds; price positions are relative, not quotes. We confirm current availability, density and certifications for each building at the time of a search.
Which Providers to Shortlist, by Workload
| Workload | Shortlist from | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Trading, market data, exchange connectivity | Equinix (Secaucus NY4 and NY5, the Chicago campus); CyrusOne Aurora for CME proximity; Digital Realty's exchange-adjacent sites | The matching engines and counterparties are physically there. See financial services colocation |
| Hybrid cloud | CoreSite (Open Cloud Exchange), Equinix (Fabric), Digital Realty (ServiceFabric), Flexential (FlexAnywhere) | All offer private on-ramps; compare which clouds, from which building, at what port price. See hybrid cloud colocation |
| AI and high density, under 1 MW | DataBank, Flexential, Iron Mountain and the newer Equinix and Digital Realty campus halls; regional operators with new builds (TRG in Houston, for example) | Only halls built or retrofitted for 40 kW-plus air-cooled or liquid-cooled racks qualify. See AI and GPU colocation |
| AI and wholesale, 1 MW and up | QTS, Vantage, Aligned, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Switch, plus the interconnection operators' wholesale arms | Halls by the megawatt, liquid cooling, and delivery dates that depend on power. See wholesale colocation |
| Regulated: healthcare, legal, financial back office | DataBank, Iron Mountain, Flexential, TierPoint, Equinix, CoreSite; scope the documentation per building | All publish SOC 2 Type II reports and support HIPAA business associate agreements; what differs is scope per facility and how fast audit evidence arrives. See HIPAA colocation |
| Media, content, bandwidth-heavy | The carrier hotels: 60 Hudson (Digital Realty), One Wilshire (CoreSite), 350 East Cermak (Digital Realty), 56 Marietta and the Netrality buildings; Telehouse for NYIIX peering | Peering and carrier density cut the bandwidth bill, which for these businesses is the bill. See Manhattan data centers for the carrier hotel list by market |
| Enterprise without an ecosystem need | The national mid-market operators and the best regional operator in the market | Same performance over a private circuit at 20 to 40 percent less than a carrier hotel or trading campus on the rate, and far less on cross-connects |
| Disaster recovery and warm standby | A different zone or market from the primary, at a value operator: TierPoint, DataBank, Flexential, Cologix, 365 | Real separation at a lower rate; a DR site rarely needs the primary's ecosystem. See disaster recovery colocation |
| Secondary US markets | TierPoint, Flexential, 365 Data Centers, Cologix, DataBank and the local regional operator | The national mid-market operators cover the markets the interconnection giants skip, often with the newest building in town |
| Renting GPUs rather than hosting them | The neoclouds: see CoreWeave competitors | Compute by the hour or term, with no lease and no hardware. See GPU rental and GPU cluster rental |
Which Colocation Providers Are Tier Certified?
The most searched question about providers, and the least well answered, because certification is issued per building, not per company. Uptime Institute awards Tier certification at three levels: Design Documents, Constructed Facility and Operational Sustainability, and only a Constructed Facility certificate means the building as built was verified. Roman numerals (Tier III, Tier IV) denote an Uptime certificate; "Tier 3" with an Arabic numeral usually means a facility designed to that standard without certification, which is the norm across most of the US colocation market.
| Provider | How it approaches tier certification | What to check for a specific building |
|---|---|---|
| Equinix | Designs and operates its IBX facilities to Tier III-equivalent standards (concurrently maintainable) and holds Uptime certificates at a subset of sites; most US IBXs, including the Chicago and New York campuses that buyers ask about most, are described by tier design rather than a per-building certificate | The IBX's own data sheet, which lists certifications held, and the Uptime issued-awards list |
| Digital Realty | Builds to Tier III-equivalent designs across its campuses and pursues certification selectively; the carrier hotels are older buildings judged on their upgraded infrastructure rather than a tier certificate | The building's data sheet and the Uptime list |
| CoreSite | Describes its facilities against Tier III design criteria and publishes per-site specifications; buyers searching for LA2, CH2 and NY2 certification status should read the site's own specification sheet | The site specification sheet and the Uptime list |
| DataBank | Publishes per-facility specifications and compliance reports; newer halls are built to Tier III-equivalent designs, and certification status varies by site (LGA2, ORD3, ORD4 and PHX1 are the ones buyers ask about) | The facility's specification sheet and the Uptime list |
| Cologix | One of the operators that has pursued Uptime certification directly, holding Tier III Design and Constructed Facility certificates at several newer sites (Uptime lists Cologix among its award recipients); older hub buildings are described by design standard | The Uptime issued-awards list, which names the certified sites |
| Wholesale and regional operators | Varies widely: some new campuses certify every hall as a selling point, others build to Tier III or IV designs with an Uptime-accredited designer and stop there | Ask for the certificate, not the claim; a design by an accredited designer is not a Constructed Facility certificate |
Equinix vs Digital Realty, and the Other Matchups
Equinix vs Digital Realty
The most common comparison, and usually the wrong framing: it is ecosystem versus ecosystem. Equinix for the trading campuses and the deepest interconnection; Digital Realty for the carrier hotels, wholesale scale and multi-market footprints. For AI, both now have dense campus halls; for enterprise workloads that need neither ecosystem, both compete on price at their campuses. Full comparison: Equinix vs Digital Realty.
Interconnection operators vs national mid-market
The question behind "is Equinix worth the premium." Pay for the ecosystem only if you will connect to it; otherwise DataBank, Flexential, CoreSite and their peers run the same workload at a lower rate. See Equinix alternatives.
Retail vs wholesale
Below about 250 kW, retail colocation from the mid-market operators is simpler and cheaper to contract. Above 1 MW, wholesale halls from the developers cost less per kW and give you your own space, at the price of a longer term and a longer contract. Between the two, quote both.
National vs regional
In many markets the best local price and the newest building belong to an operator with one campus. Regional operators are the shortlist entry national buyers most often miss, and the reason our searches start from the market rather than the brand.
Colocation vs neocloud for GPUs
Own the hardware and need a home for it: colocation, in a dense hall. Need the compute for months, not years: a neocloud. Many AI companies do both, with a rented cluster for training and an owned base for inference. See GPU rental.
The hybrid answer
A small footprint in an interconnection building for the network, the bulk of the deployment at a mid-market or wholesale campus for the economics, joined by a cross-connect or metro circuit. Increasingly the shape of the best deals.
The Questions Buyers Ask About Providers
Is Equinix worth the premium over regional colocation providers?
Yes when the workload needs what only an interconnection campus has: proximity to exchange matching engines, market data feeds, and the carriers, clouds and counterparties in the same buildings. For trading, market data and heavy interconnection, the premium buys something no regional operator can replicate. For ordinary enterprise workloads, the same infrastructure runs from a national mid-market or regional operator at a lower rate, and even Equinix campus connectivity is available below flagship pricing in the newer campus buildings. The test is whether you will use the ecosystem, not whether you can afford it.
Which colocation providers hold both SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS?
All of the major operators on this page publish SOC 2 Type II reports, and the larger ones (Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, CoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint, Iron Mountain, Cologix) maintain PCI DSS attestations across their portfolios, alongside ISO 27001 and HIPAA business associate agreements. Two cautions: attestations are scoped per facility, so confirm the building you are quoted is in scope; and they cover the operator's physical and environmental controls, not your systems inside the cage. The compliance colocation guide covers what each framework does and does not cover.
Which colocation providers charge no cross-connect fees?
None of the major operators waives them as a rule; a monthly fee per connection plus installation is standard in carrier hotels and on interconnection campuses, where cross-connects are a core revenue line. What varies: the rate, whether installation is waived in a competitive evaluation, and whether a mid-market or regional operator bundles a number of cross-connects into a cabinet price, which several do. Cross-connects are negotiable before signature and rarely after, so state how many you will need in year three and cap the monthly rate in the contract. The data center lease guide covers the terms.
Which colocation vendors avoid surprise fees and hold consistent pricing across multi-year contracts?
The ones whose contracts say so. Surprise fees come from the items a quote leaves out (cross-connects, setup, remote hands, power above the committed draw) and from renewals at "then-current market rates," not from any operator's character. Every major operator will agree to a fixed escalator, capped cross-connect rates, a defined remote-hands rate card and a capped renewal if they are negotiated before signature and the buyer has alternatives. Ask for a five-year total cost on the quote, not a monthly rate. The colocation pricing guide lists what a quote usually omits.
Which colocation vendors allow relocation between facilities without migration fees?
Multi-market operators (Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, Flexential, TierPoint, Cologix, Iron Mountain) can move a customer between their own facilities under one master agreement, and several will waive setup at the destination for an expanding or consolidating customer. What none of them do is move the hardware for free; migration labor, circuits and any overlap period are priced. The negotiable point is portability: the right to move capacity between the operator's sites at the contracted rate without a termination charge, written into the master agreement. The data center migration guide covers what a move actually costs.
Which providers are best for financial services firms?
For anything that trades, the interconnection campuses: Equinix in Secaucus and Chicago, plus the exchange-adjacent sites. For financial firms whose work is not latency-driven, the mid-market operators serve well and the trading ecosystem is not worth paying for. See financial services colocation.
Which providers are best for hybrid cloud architectures?
The ones with their own on-ramp platforms: CoreSite's Open Cloud Exchange, Equinix Fabric, Digital Realty's ServiceFabric and Flexential's FlexAnywhere. Compare which clouds each reaches from the building you would use, the port and virtual-connection pricing, and whether the on-ramp is in the same building or a metro hop away.
Which providers are best for a warm-standby disaster recovery site?
A value operator in a different zone or market from your primary. A DR site does not need the primary's ecosystem, so TierPoint, DataBank, Flexential, Cologix and 365 Data Centers usually price it best, with 15 to 50 miles of separation and latency that supports replication.
Which providers are best in secondary US markets?
The national mid-market operators built their footprints there: TierPoint across the Midwest and Southeast, Flexential in the Southeast, Texas and Northwest, 365 Data Centers in the Northeast and Florida, Cologix in Columbus, Minneapolis and Jacksonville, DataBank in Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Pittsburgh. In many of those markets the local regional operator is the other name to quote.
How the Providers Line Up in Each Market
| Market | Who competes | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| New York metro | Equinix (Secaucus), Digital Realty and CoreSite (Manhattan carrier hotels), DataBank (Orangeburg, Newark), Cologix (Parsippany), Telehouse (Staten Island) | NYC colocation, Manhattan |
| Northern Virginia | Every operator on this page; the largest market in the world, led by the wholesale developers and the Equinix and Digital Realty Ashburn campuses | Northern Virginia colocation |
| Chicago | Equinix (CH1 to CH7), Digital Realty (350 East Cermak), CoreSite, DataBank, Netrality, and CyrusOne in Aurora beside the CME matching engine | Chicago colocation |
| Dallas | Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, Cologix, Flexential, the wholesale developers, and the Infomart carrier hotel | Dallas colocation |
| Atlanta | Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, Flexential, QTS, plus one of the largest construction pipelines in the country | Atlanta colocation |
| Houston | Digital Realty, DataBank, CyrusOne, Skybox, and TRG Datacenters with its HOU2 expansion | Houston colocation |
| Los Angeles | CoreSite (One Wilshire), Equinix, Digital Realty, and the media-focused regional operators | Los Angeles colocation |
| San Francisco and Silicon Valley | Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreSite, and the wholesale developers in Santa Clara | San Francisco colocation |
How Pricing Differs Across Providers
| Factor | What moves the price | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Building and zone | Carrier hotels and trading campuses at the top of each market's range; mid-market and regional campuses at the value end | Decide the zone first; it moves the price more than the operator's name inside a zone |
| Ecosystem | Buildings that host exchanges, dense carrier mixes or cloud on-ramps charge for it, on the rate and on cross-connects | Pay for an ecosystem only if you will connect to it |
| Retail vs wholesale | Retail runs about $350 to $1,400 per kW per month for small deployments; wholesale about $204 for 250 to 500 kW in primary markets, rising fastest for the largest requirements | Above 250 kW, quote both structures. See data center cost |
| Size and term | Larger footprints and three-to-five-year terms reach rates that single cabinets on one-year terms do not | Commit to what you will use; negotiate expansion rights at a capped rate rather than overcommitting |
| Competition | Operators price differently when they know two others are quoting the same requirement | Have the providers that fit quote the same requirement at the same time, before you talk to any of them directly |
| Extras | Cross-connects, setup, remote hands and bandwidth are outside most quotes and add materially over a term | Compare the whole bill. The colocation pricing guide has the breakdown |
Five Mistakes in Choosing a Colocation Provider
Choosing by brand before choosing by group and zone
The best-known operators are the right answer for specific workloads, not for all of them. Decide which kind of provider and which zone your workload needs, then compare the operators in it.
Paying for an ecosystem you will not connect to
Trading campuses and carrier hotels charge for what they host. If your cross-connect list is three carriers and a cloud, you do not need them.
Comparing rate cards instead of full bills
Cross-connects, setup, remote hands, power and the renewal clause can add a third to a five-year total and vary more between buildings than the rate does.
Treating a company certification as a building certification
SOC 2, PCI and Uptime tier certificates are issued per facility. Get the report for the building you are quoted.
Talking to one provider first
Operators price differently when they know they are competing, and once you have gone to one directly, it will not work through an advisor on your deal.
How We Compare Providers for a Client
You give us the requirement: power, cabinets or megawatts, density, the networks, clouds and counterparties you need to reach, compliance scope, markets and timeline. We decide the group and the zone, identify the operators that fit, and take the requirement to them at the same time so they compete. We benchmark the quotes against what comparable deployments pay, collect the current certifications for each building, and negotiate the rate, cross-connect terms and contract before you sign. We hold channel partner relationships across every group on this page and earn comparable commissions from each, so the recommendation follows the requirement; if the best fit is a provider we do not work with, we say so. The operator you choose pays us from the channel budget it would otherwise spend on its own sales team, so there is no cost to you. How it works.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the largest colocation providers?
Equinix and Digital Realty are the two global interconnection operators, each with well over 250 facilities worldwide. Behind them sit the national US mid-market operators (DataBank, CoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint, Cologix, Iron Mountain, 365 Data Centers), the wholesale developers (QTS, Vantage, Aligned, STACK, CyrusOne, Compass, Switch, NTT), and regional operators with one or two markets. Size is not the same as fit; most enterprise deployments land with the mid-market operators.
Who is the best colocation provider?
None is best for everything. Equinix for interconnection and trading; Digital Realty for carrier hotels and multi-market scale; DataBank, Flexential, CoreSite and their peers for enterprise deployments and hybrid cloud; the wholesale developers for 1 MW and up; regional operators for the best local price; neoclouds for renting GPUs rather than space. The right one is the one whose building fits your workload's group, zone and density.
How do colocation providers compare on price?
Price follows the building more than the brand. Retail colocation runs about $350 to $1,400 per kW per month for smaller deployments across primary markets, with carrier hotels and trading campuses at the top and mid-market and regional campuses at the value end; wholesale runs about $204 per kW per month for 250 to 500 kW in primary markets. Within a zone, having the operators that fit quote the same requirement, benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay, moves the price more than choosing between them on reputation.
Which colocation providers are Tier III or Tier IV certified?
Certification is issued per building by Uptime Institute at three levels, and most US colocation facilities are designed to Tier III standards without a per-building certificate. Cologix has pursued certification at several sites; Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreSite and DataBank describe most US facilities by tier design and hold certificates at a subset. Check the specific building against the Uptime issued-awards list or ask the operator for the certificate; a design by an Uptime-accredited designer is not a Constructed Facility certificate.
Is Equinix worth the premium over regional colocation providers?
For trading, market data and heavy interconnection, yes; the counterparties, exchanges and carriers are physically in the campus buildings. For ordinary enterprise workloads, no: the same infrastructure runs with a mid-market or regional operator at a lower rate, and Equinix campus connectivity is available below flagship pricing in newer campus buildings.
What is the difference between Equinix and Digital Realty?
Equinix is built around interconnection: the trading campuses, the exchanges and Equinix Fabric. Digital Realty operates in the Manhattan carrier hotels and runs large campuses, with a wholesale business for big tenants and the widest footprint for multi-market enterprises. For AI, both now offer dense campus halls; for enterprise workloads without an ecosystem need, both compete on price at their campuses.
Which colocation providers hold both SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS?
All the major operators publish SOC 2 Type II reports, and Equinix, Digital Realty, DataBank, CoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint, Iron Mountain and Cologix maintain PCI DSS attestations across their portfolios, with ISO 27001 and HIPAA business associate agreements available. Confirm the specific building is in scope; attestations are issued per facility.
Which colocation providers charge no cross-connect fees?
None of the major operators waives them as a rule; a monthly fee plus installation is standard in carrier hotels and on interconnection campuses. Installation is often waived in a competitive evaluation, several mid-market and regional operators bundle a number of cross-connects into a cabinet price, and monthly rates can be capped in the contract.
What is the difference between retail and wholesale colocation providers?
Retail operators sell cabinets, cages and small suites with power, cooling and cross-connects included, on one-to-five-year terms, to deployments from a few kW to a few hundred. Wholesale developers lease halls and buildings by the megawatt on longer terms, often built to suit, to hyperscalers, AI companies and large enterprises. Above about 250 kW it is worth quoting both.
Which providers are best for AI and GPU colocation?
Under 1 MW: the mid-market operators with dense halls (DataBank, Flexential, Iron Mountain) and the newer Equinix and Digital Realty campus buildings. At 1 MW and up: the wholesale developers, where rack-scale liquid-cooled systems live. And if you need the compute rather than the space, a neocloud rents the GPUs without a lease.
Should I use one provider or split across two?
Often two: a small footprint in an interconnection building for the network, with the bulk of the deployment at a mid-market or wholesale campus for the economics, joined by a cross-connect or metro circuit. It captures the ecosystem without paying ecosystem rates for every rack, and keeps two operators competing for your growth.
Can Metro Colo Advisory negotiate with several providers at once?
Yes; it is the standard approach. We take one requirement to every shortlisted operator at the same time, so each knows it is competing, then benchmark and negotiate the terms. We hold channel partner relationships across every group of provider on this page and earn comparable commissions from each, and there is no cost to the client.
What does it cost to compare providers through Metro Colo Advisory?
Nothing. The operator 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 best fit is an operator we do not work with, or staying where you are, we say so.
Get Quotes From the Providers That Fit
Tell us the requirement: power, cabinets or megawatts, density, the networks, clouds and counterparties you need to reach, compliance scope, markets and timeline. You'll hear back within 24 hours from the person who will run your search, with every provider that fits 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.
That is what keeps every provider competing for it.
Providers in depth: Equinix NY4, Digital Realty, DataBank, CoreSite, Cologix, Equinix vs Digital Realty, Equinix alternatives, CoreWeave competitors and neocloud providers.
Markets: New York, Manhattan, Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Deciding: the pricing guide, data center cost, data center tiers, compliance, site selection, lease and contract terms, migration, hybrid cloud, disaster recovery, cloud repatriation and wholesale colocation.
By workload: financial services, healthcare and HIPAA, law firms, media, AI and GPU colocation, GPU rental, GPU cluster rental, bare metal and data center consulting for developers and investors.
