Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? Does this principle apply to data centers? If so, which data center facilities have the greatest demand for colocation and interconnection? Are there any markets, facilities, and data center trends we should be paying attention to? In this article, I will highlight the top 10 data centers in the United States according to Datacenters.com and third-party data sources. Together, we can get a sense of which data centers are strategically important. It will also give us an idea of which colocation providers have the highest demand and market share.
#1 – Equinix DC2 Data Center, Ashburn, Virginia
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 11 miles from Dulles International Airport and 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
The Equinix Ashburn DC2 data center provides access to one of the top three peer exchanges and the largest peer exchange on the East Coast of the United States. The Equinix DC2 facility provides access to an ecosystem of over 290 connections: telecom carriers, ISPs, network service providers. and cloud onramps. It also houses 450 enterprises, technology companies and IT solution providers.
The Equinix DC2 building has 147,600 total square feet, 118,447 square feet of data center space and 5 MW of mission-critical power. DC2 is part of a larger Equinix campus, totaling more than 109,000 square feet and 37 MW of mission-critical power. The data center has a single power supply and seven power transformers. It has 480V three-phase AC power and DC power for customer equipment.
For redundancy and data center uptime, Equinix DC2 meets or exceeds Tier III rating standards. It features N+1 power redundancy and N+1 cooling redundancy. Equinix offers a 99.999% SLA on power. #2 – Equinix NY4 Data Center, Secaucus, New Jersey
The Equinix NY4 New York data center, located at 755 Secaucus Road, Secaucus, New Jersey, is just six miles northwest of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Across the Hudson River and off I-95, this Equinix colocation facility is in an entirely unsuspecting and downright ugly industrial area of New Jersey: highly industrial streets littered with junk, semi-trucks, dilapidated buildings, and the like. . Despite its appearance, the Equinix NY4 data center in New York is probably one of the most important hubs in the U.S. financial system. There are more than 49 different financial exchanges that rent space at NY4 in Secaucus, New Jersey. More than 6,300 companies are interconnected here, including hedge funds, financial and banking institutions, high-frequency traders, and news and data companies. And the data center facility specifications? Equinix NY4 has a total of 338,967 square feet, 151,772 data center spaces, and 18.5 MW of mission-critical power. As a carrier-neutral facility, NY4 provides low-latency access to a large e-commerce 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 has 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 standpoint, Equinix NY4 offers FISMA, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA-HITECH, PCI-DSS, NIST 800-53, SOC 1 Type 2
#3 – CoreSite LA1 Data Center, Los Angeles, California
CoreSite LA1 Data Center in Los Angeles is located 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 numerous undersea Internet cables landing at this facility. It is one of the most densely interconnected data center ecosystems in the world, with nearly 300 networks and gateways to hyperscale public cloud providers.
Within the CoreSite Los Angeles data center campus, customers can access direct connectivity to CoreSite LA1 facilities from nearby CoreSite LA2, LA3, and LA4 data center facilities. Scalable space and interconnection opportunities make CoreSite’s Los Angeles data center campus a prime option for companies 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 15 MW of mission-critical power. The building was last renovated in 2014 and is considered a Level III facility. From a data center redundancy perspective, CoreSite LA1 has N+1 UPS redundancy, N+1 generator redundancy, and c.
CoreSite LA1 meets or exceeds the following compliance and regulatory standards: HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, SOC2, and SOC 1 (SSAE-16) compliance standards
#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.
#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.
#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.
#7 – Equinix DA1 Data Center, Dallas, Texas
Infomart Dallas’ data center is located at 1950 North Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, Texas. Equinix acquired it in 2018 from ASB Investments for $800 million. As the largest building in Dallas, this data center campus totals 1.5 million square feet. Infomart is home to four Equinix Dallas International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers (Equinix DA1, DA2, DA3, and DA6). Infomart Dallas is located just five miles from Dallas Love Field Airport and nine miles from downtown Dallas, Texas.
Dallas is a major communications hub in the southern United States, with a high concentration of telecommunications companies. Many of these companies are part of the Equinix Infomart data center campus ecosystem of telecom operators, internet service providers, network service providers, colocation providers and cloud providers: AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Zayo, BT, Spectrum, Comcast Business. In total, there are more than 140 telecom operators and four cloud on-ramps on site. The Equinix DA1 Dallas data center occupies suite 1034 on the Infomart campus. Dallas DA1 has a total of 61,573 square feet and 30,355 square feet of data center space. It also features N+1 data center redundancy for power and cooling infrastructure. Equinix offers a 99.999% service level agreement (SLA) on energy. No. 8 – Digital Realty 60 Hudson Data Center, New York, New York
The 60 Hudson Street Building, formerly known as the Western Union Building, is located at 60 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10013. Built in 1930, it was one of several Art Deco 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 located in the center of 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 its acquisition of Telx in 2015.
From a data center specifications standpoint, the building has 1,800,000 total square feet, 164,000 square feet of data center space and 3.75 MW of mission-critical power. The facility’s power density is between 80 and 125 watts per square foot.
From a network and Internet connectivity perspective, Digital Realty 60 Hudson is one of the largest interconnection and colocation data center facilities in the world. There are over 200 telecommunications carriers, ISPs, and network service providers located in Hudson’s 60 data centers.
#9 – Netrality 1102 Grand, Kansas City, Missouri
Netrality 1102 Grand data center is located at 1102 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, Missouri 64106. This data center is one of the largest networked and interconnected environments in the Midwest. Located in the heart of Kansas City, it is far from the threats of natural disasters and outside of high-risk earthquake zones. This installation is also outside the 100 -year flood plain.
From the point of view of the data center specifications, 1102 Grand provides 156,117 total square feet and 5 MW of critical mission power. Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) provides various 13,200V service supplies. Standby generator power includes N+1 with 4,000 kW of standby power. The UPS system is a 2N type with 2040 kVA of conditioned power. The 1102 Grand also features N+1 for cooling redundancy with CRAC units. Netrality offers partial cabinets, full cabinets, custom cage spaces, private suites and tens of thousands of square feet available for build-out based on placement environments.
In addition to colocation, Netrality 1102 Grand is a premier central interconnection data center with owned and operated, carrier-neutral Meet-Me-Rooms. Customers can choose from over 42 telecom carriers, ISPs and network service providers at their location.
#10 – Switch SuperNAP 8 Data Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Switch SuperNAP 8 data center is located at 5225 W Capovilla Ave, Las Vegas, Nevada 89118 and is part of the CORE Las Vegas campus. SuperNAP 8 was one of the first multi-tenant data center facilities to achieve Uptime Institute Level IV Built Facility certification for its mission-critical reliability.
Unlike other data center design techniques, SuperNAP 8 uses prefabricated modular components manufactured by Switch. MacroMOD is the main building and includes two data halls. SuperNAP 8 currently offers 218,226 total square feet and 40 MW of mission-critical power. As a carrier-neutral data center, SuperNAP 8 has a broad ecosystem of Internet service providers, telecom operators, and network service providers, including providers such as AT&T, CenturyLink, Cogent, COX Business, MegaPort, Comcast Business, Zayo, Verizon, and Tata Communications. Compliance and Certifications for Switch Las Vegas CORE Campus Locations in
