Methodology
Primary sources, one link per number, a date on every row.
Where the data comes from
We read each provider’s own pages first: the about page, the locations list, the high-density or liquid-cooling page, the compliance page and recent press releases with the company boilerplate. Next come the owner’s pages and filings (an 8-K, an investor portfolio page), then trade press. Every record lists its sources with the date we accessed them, and every number in the table links to the source it came from.
Counts: data centers, metros, countries
Providers count differently: buildings, campuses, network sites, or totals that include sites under development. Count basis records which unit each provider uses, and every ranking on this site names that unit. Lower-bound claims (“300+”) are stored at the stated number; campus-only totals go in the separate Campuses field. We store the number as the provider states it and link the sentence it comes from. Where a provider gives no country count but lists its locations by country, we count the countries on that list.
Megawatts
Built (MW) is operating capacity as published, usually critical IT load. Incl. development (MW) adds what is under construction and planned when the provider (or its owner) states one total. A provider that publishes only a combined figure appears in the development column. Capacity basis names the snapshot and whether it measures contracted, available, leasable, operating or potential power. Contracted or leased MW from a single deal is left out. When we rank providers by MW, each figure carries its basis.
Platform overlap and dated snapshots
The row count includes providers and separately useful platforms. Equinix xScale is included within Equinix; VIRTUS overlaps STT GDC; ODATA overlaps Aligned. GDS and DayOne are separate platforms with a minority shareholding relationship. Regional hubs show platform-wide figures, so a provider’s whole footprint appears on each hub it belongs to. Because platforms overlap, the rows are not summed into a market total.
Equinix’s footprint (282 data centers, 77 markets, 36 countries, 24 of them xScale) comes from its 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026. xScale’s metros and MW come from the Q2 2025 investor presentation. Iron Mountain’s MW come from its Q3 2026 supplemental report. The accessed date records when we read a source; dated snapshots say their date in the basis field.
STT GDC’s platform map explicitly includes development and future development sites. Aligned’s campus count and QTS’s facility count use different units.
Density and liquid cooling
Max density is the highest kW per rack or cabinet the provider says it supports, on any cooling method. Liquid cooling is marked Yes only where a provider page says it offers or supports liquid cooling for colocation customers, and Liquid methods names the methods it lists: direct-to-chip, rear-door heat exchangers, immersion.
Prices
Colocation is priced per deal, so the Published price column stays empty unless a provider publishes a list price with the power it includes. Where a provider publishes a bundle price without a power figure, the record shows the bundle as published and derives no per-kW price.
How we verify
Each row shows the date we last checked it. A field is filled only when a source states it; when a figure cannot be verified from the pages read, the cell stays empty. An empty liquid-cooling cell means we found no such offer on the pages we read. Providers with fewer than three sourced fields are left out until they publish more.
Corrections
Vendors and readers can send corrections to hello@colocationcompare.com with a public source. We update the row and its verified date. Featured placement is paid and labelled; it never changes a row’s data or its position in the sorted table.
Reuse
The dataset is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to colocationcompare.com. Download it as CSV or JSON.
Field definitions
21 fields- Model
- How the provider sells space. Retail: cabinets, cages and suites to many tenants, usually with interconnection. Wholesale and hyperscale: whole halls, buildings or build-to-suit campuses leased by the megawatt. Retail and wholesale: both, as the provider describes itself.
- Data centers
- Provider-reported data center or location count. Read Count basis for buildings versus campuses, operating/development status, snapshot date and overlap. Campus-only counts use the separate Campuses field.
- Metros
- Number of metros or markets the provider says it serves, as it counts them.
- Countries
- Provider country coverage as published or counted from its location list; may include development and announced projects. Read Count basis and Key markets for stage and scope.
- Key markets
- Flagship metros or countries named on the provider's own pages. Not a full location list: open the provider's site map for that.
- Built MW
- Operating capacity in megawatts as the provider publishes it, usually critical IT load. Where only a combined figure exists it goes in 'Incl. development' instead.
- Incl. development MW
- Published platform scale including development, planned capacity or full build-out potential. This is not pipeline alone. Read Capacity basis for the exact definition, date and exclusions; figures are not directly comparable.
- Rack density kW/rack
- Published supported rack-density threshold or upper figure. Read Density basis for lower bounds, configuration and site restrictions; this is not a measured universal maximum.
- Liquid cooling
- The provider offers or supports liquid cooling (direct-to-chip, rear-door heat exchangers or immersion) for colocation customers, on a page cited in the record's sources. Blank means no such offer was found on the pages read.
- Liquid methods
- The liquid cooling methods the provider names: direct-to-chip, rear-door heat exchanger, immersion.
- Interconnection
- The provider's interconnection offer as it names it: software-defined fabric, cloud on-ramps, internet exchanges and carrier-neutral meet-me rooms.
- Networks on-net
- Carriers and networks the provider says are available across its platform (a stated '1,000+' is recorded as 1,000). Counts differ in what they include, so compare orders of magnitude.
- Certifications
- Certifications and attestations the provider lists (ISO 27001, SOC 1/2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, Uptime Institute Tier and others). Coverage often varies by site; the source says which sites hold which.
- Published price $/kW/mo
- Public list price per kW per month, where the provider publishes one. Converted from a per-cabinet monthly price only when the source states the cabinet's kW. Almost every provider quotes per deal, so this is usually blank.
- Ownership
- Who owns the provider: a stock listing, or the named private owners from the provider's own pages, filings or the deal announcement.
- Campuses
- Published campus count, separate from individual data center buildings. A campus can contain several facilities.
- Count basis
- What the footprint count measures, its snapshot date where available, and any parent/platform overlap.
- Capacity basis
- Exact basis and date of the MW figure: operational, leasable, construction, contracted, planned or potential. Not a measure of vacant availability.
- Platform overlap
- Parent, subsidiary or joint-venture relationships relevant to avoiding double counting. Directory row counts are not independent operator totals.
- Density basis
- Scope, configuration and threshold qualification of the published kW per rack figure.
- Deployment example
- A sourced facility example with its own scope, kept separate from platform capacity totals.