Which data center facilities have the highest demand for colocation and interconnection? Are there any data center markets, facilities, and trends that we should be paying attention to?

In this article, I will highlight the Top 10 Data Center locations in the United States according to Datacenters.com and external data sources. This will give us a solid idea of the data centers that are strategically important. It will also provide us with a sense of the colocation providers that are in the greatest demand and have the highest market share.

#1 – Equinix DC2 Data Center, Ashburn, Virginia

Located in the heart of “Data Center Alley” is the Equinix Ashburn Data Center Campus and the Equinix DC2 Ashburn Data Center at 21715 Filigree Court, Ashburn, Virginia 20147. Equinix DC2 is located just seven miles from Dulles International Airport and 30 miles from Washington, D.C.

Ashburn has long been a hot data center market due to the low cost of electricity in the region, the tax cuts and incentives that are offered to data center operators in the region, and the proximity to vital institutions in Washington DC. Loudoun county, where Ashburn is located, has estimated that upwards of 70% of the worlds internet traffic is routed through data centers in the county, making it the most sought after region for colocation in the US.

Equinix Ashburn DC2 Data Center offers access to one of the top peering exchange markets and the largest peering exchange in the U.S. east coast. The Equinix DC2 facility provides access to an ecosystem of 290+ connections – telecom carriers, ISPs, network service providers, and cloud on-ramps. It is also home to 450 enterprises, technology companies, and IT solution providers.

The Equinix DC2 building features 147,600 total square feet, 118,447 square feet of data center space, and 5MW of mission critical power. DC2 is part of a larger Equinix Campus which has more than 1,117,252 total square feet and 37 MW of mission critical power. The data center has single utility feed, and seven power transformers. It has 480V – 3 phase AC power, and DC power to customer’s equipment.

From a data center redundancy and uptime perspective, Equinix DC2 meets or exceeds the standards for Tier III classification. It features N+1 power redundancy and N+1 cooling redundancy. Equinix offers a 99.999% SLA on power.

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#2 – Equinix NY4 Data Center, Secaucus, New Jersey

Equinix NY4 New York Data Center, located at 755 Secaucus Road, Secaucus, New Jersey is just a mere six miles northwest of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Across the Hudson River and near I-95, this Equinix colocation facility is in an industrial part of New Jersey that is downright unsuspecting and frankly ugly – highly industrial, trash littered streets, semi-trailers, rundown buildings, and the like.

Despite its appearance, Equinix NY4 New York Data Center is probably one of the most important nodes for the U.S. financial system. There are more than 49 different financial exchanges that lease space at NY4 in Secaucus, NJ. More than 6,300 companies interconnect at this location. It’s comprised of hedge funds, financial and banking institutions, high-frequency traders, news and data firms.

What about the data center facility specs? Equinix NY4 has a total of 338,967 of total square feet, 151,772 data center space, and 18.5MW of mission critical power. As a carrier-neutral facility, NY4 offers low-latency access to a massive electronic trading ecosystem. The facility is classified as a Tier III facility and features N+1 power redundancy and N+2 cooling redundancy.

In terms of connectivity, NY4 features 91 ISPs, telecom carriers, network service providers including many industry leaders such as AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Zayo, Comcast Business, Cogent, GTT, NTT, Masergy, and Colt.

From a certification and compliance perspective, Equinix NY4 offers FISMA, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA-HITECH, PCI-DSS, NIST 800-53, SOC 1 Type 2.

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#3 – CoreSite LA1 Data Center, Los Angeles, California

CoreSite LA1 Los Angeles Data Center at 624 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, California 90017 is located in the iconic One Wilshire Building. CoreSite LA1 Los Angeles is known as the gateway to Asia with multiple subsea internet cables landing at this facility. It is one of the most densely interconnected data center ecosystems in the world with nearly 300 networks, direct on-ramps to the hyperscale public cloud providers.

Within the CoreSite Los Angeles Data Center Campus, customers can access direct connectivity to the CoreSite LA1 facility from CoreSite’s LA2, LA3, and LA4 data center facilities located nearby. Scalable space and opportunities for interconnection make CoreSite’s Los Angeles data center campus is a premier option for businesses looking to support digital transformation and mission-critical IT applications.

Built in 1966, One Wilshire features 149,000 square feet of data center space and 15MW of mission-critical power. The building was last renovated in 2014 and is considered a Tier III facility. From a data center redundancy perspective, CoreSite LA1 has UPS redundancy of N+1, generator redundancy of N+1, and cooling redundancy of N+1.

CoreSite LA1 meets or exceeds the following compliance and regulatory standards: HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, SOC2, and SOC 1 (SSAE-16) compliance standards.

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#4 – Equinix MI1 Data Center, Miami, Florida

If One Wilshire is the gateway to Asia, NAP of the Americas is the gateway to Latin America. Equinix MI1 Data Center is the Miami International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) and provides access to subsea cable landings, the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Telecommunications Service, and 600+ business and enterprise customers.

Equinix MI1 Miami is located at 50 NE 9th Street, Miami, Florida 33132. Equinix acquired NAP of the Americas, as well as 29 other data center facilities from Verizon in 2017 and added 1,093 cabinets and 4MW of power capacity, giving it a total of 6,489 cabinets in 2018.

As to the specifications for the facility, Equinix MI1 is a six-story building with 750,000 square feet of purpose build data center space. It is classified as a Tier IV data center with fully redundant power (N+1) and cooling infrastructure (2 x N+1). The building was designed to with seven-inch thick steel-reinforced concrete exterior panels which are able to withstand Category 5 hurricane-level winds. It is built 32 feet above sea-level.

From a regulatory, compliance and certification perspective, Equinix MI1 has the following: NIST-800/FISMA, SOC 1 Type II, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 Type II, and ISO 27001. As mentioned previously, the facility is a Tier IV data center.

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#5 – Digital Realty 350 E Cermak Data Center, Chicago, Illinois

Digital Realty’s 350 Cermak Road Data Center located at 350 E Cermak Road, Chicago IL 60623. This Chicago colocation data center facility is regarded as the premier mission-critical interconnection, multi-tenant colocation, and telecommunications facility in the Midwest.

Constructed as a printing press more than 100 years ago, 350 Cermak was retrofitted to become one of the largest data centers in the world. Digital Realty 350 E Cermak Rd features 1,100,000 square feet of data center space and boasts more than 109 MW of mission-critical power infrastructure.

This carrier-neutral data center features 95+ enterprise customers, 25+ cloud service providers, 10+ content providers, 35+ IT providers, and 90+ network service providers.

Digital Realty offers a multitude of colocation and interconnection options ranging from a single cabinet to multi-megawatt wholesale colocation deployments. For customers wanting less than full rack colocation, there are numerous colocation providers that can offer shared colocation such as INAP, Steadfast Networks, and Colocation America.

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#6 – Digital Realty 56 Marietta Street Data Center, Atlanta, Georgia

Digital Realty’s 56 Marietta Street is the primary interconnection data center facility in Atlanta, Georgia. Equinix’s Ashburn Campus in Ashburn, located is 640 miles away, is the only data center facility in the United States that can rival the interconnection infrastructure of 56 Marietta Street. Notable data center facilities with similar infrastructure to 56 Marietta include NAP of Americas Miami, Florida (660 miles), 350 E Cermak Chicago, Illinois, or Infomart Dallas, Texas (780 miles).

Located in Downtown Atlanta, 56 Marietta is home to the Southeast’s largest concentration of telecommunications companies. There are 190+ ISPs, telecom carriers, and network service providers at this facility including but not limited to: CenturyLink, CBTS, Verizon, AT&T, Zayo, Comcast Business, Cogent, GTT, Fiberlight, LUME, Orange Business Services, NTT, and many others.

56 Marietta Street has 153,000 square feet of colocation data center space and 10MW of mission critical power. Built in 1917, the building features 12 stories with two basements. It’s constructed with concrete and steel and has a brick façade. The floor load is 185 pounds per square foot.

In terms of data center redundancy and uptime, 56 Marietta offers UPS redundancy of 2N, generator redundancy of N+1 and cooling redundancy of N+1.

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#7 – Equinix DA1 Data Center, Dallas, Texas

The Infomart Dallas Data Center is located at 1950 North Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, Texas. It was acquired by Equinix in 2018 from ASB Investments in 2018 for $800 million.

As the largest building in Dallas, this data center campus features 1,500,000 total square feet. Infomart is home to four Equinix Dallas International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers (Equinix DA1, DA2, DA3 and DA6). Infomart Dallas is just five miles from Dallas Love Field Airport and nine miles from Downtown Dallas, Texas.

Dallas is a major communications hub for the Southern United States, with a high concentration of telecommunications companies. Many of these companies are part of the ecosystem of telecom carriers, ISPs, network service providers, colocation providers, and cloud service providers at the Equinix Infomart Data Center Campus – AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Zayo, BT, Spectrum, Comcast Business. All in all, there are more than 140 telecom carriers and four cloud on-ramps at the facility.

Equinix DA1 Dallas Data Center occupies Suite 1034 at the Infomart Campus. Dallas DA1 features 61,573 total square feet and 30,355 square feet of data center space. It also features N+1 data center redundancy for power infrastructure and cooling. Equinix offers a 99.999% SLA on power.

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#8 – Digital Realty 60 Hudson Data Center, New York City, New York

The 60 Hudson Street Building, formerly known as the Western Union Building, is located at 60 Hudson Street, New York City, New York 10013. Built in 1930, it was one of several Art Deco-style telecommunications buildings designed by Ralph Thomas Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker.

Digital Realty 60 Hudson Street (JFK12) is a 24-story, 371-foot-tall building centrally located in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. This data center facility spans an entire city block between Hudson Street, Thomas Street, Worth Street, and West Broadway. Digital Realty acquired 60 Hudson as part of the Telx acquisition in 2015.

From a data center specification standpoint, the building has 1,800,000 total square feet, 164,000 square feet of data center space, and 3.75MW of mission critical power. The power density of the facility is between 80-125 watts/square foot.

From an internet and network connectivity perspective, Digital Realty 60 Hudson is one of the most important colocation and interconnection data center facilities in the world. There are more than 200 telecom carriers, ISPs, and network service providers located within the 60 Hudson Data Center facility.

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#9 – Netrality 1102 Grand, Kansas City, Missouri

The Netrality 1102 Grand Data Center is located at 1102 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, Missouri 64106. This data center facility is one of the most network-rich, interconnected environments in the Central Midwest. Located in the heart of Kansas City, it’s far away from natural disaster threats and outside of high-risk earthquake zones. This facility is also outside the 100-year floodplain.

From a data center specification perspective, 1102 Grand provides 156,117 total square feet and 5MW of mission critical power. Diverse utility feeds at 13,200v is provided by Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L). Backup generator power including N+1 with 4,000kW of backup power. The UPS system features 2N with 2,040kVA of conditioned power. 1102 Grand also features N+1 for cooling redundancy with CRAC units.

Netrality offers one partial cabinets, full cabinet, customized caged space, private suites, and tens of thousands of square feet available for build to suit colocation environments.

In addition to colocation, Netrality 1102 Grand is a premiere core interconnection data center with carrier-neutral, building owned and managed Meet-Me-Rooms. Customers can choose from 42+ telecom carriers, ISPs, and network service providers at his location.

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#10 – DataBank Las Vegas Data Center, Las Vegas, Nevada

The DataBank Las Vegas Data Center is located at 7185 Pollock Dr, Las Vegas, Nevada. Boasting over 10,000 square feet of colocation space with access to 4 MW of power this location is large enough to handle the colocation and data center demands of the largest companies in the city. This facility is minutes away from McCarran International Airport and five minutes from the strip.

Las Vegas remains one of the hottest colocation markets in the country. The city offers many advantages as a colocation destination due to its proximity to California, renewable energy options, available capacity, and low cost of power. The demand for this market looks to only increase over time as Las Vegas continues to serve as a major media and entertainment hub. Tax incentives and unique utility pricing continue to entice organizations to the region as well.

Compliance and certifications for this location includes SSAE-16 Type 1, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FISMA, FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, SSAE-18.

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