AI Indexes
IT AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Cloud and infrastructure › October 2026 Edition

Colocation providers

Asked as “colocation provider”, and as “data center colocation space”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 41 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
22%
Contested · Flexential 15%
22TierPoint15Flexential15InterServer49others

22% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01TierPoint22%6%18accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 22% now.
02Flexential15%0%14accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 15% now.
03Equinix10%25%44criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 10% now.
04DataBank10%0%15accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 10% now.
05CoreSite5%0%33accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 5% now.
06Digital Realty2%12%32accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now.
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07CyrusOne0%4%23accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
08NTT Global Data Centers0%0%18accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
09Iron Mountain Data Centers0%0%13accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.

The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01TierPoint22%
02Flexential15%
03Equinix10%
04DataBank10%
05CoreSite5%
06Digital Realty2%
07CyrusOne0%
08NTT Global Data Centers0%
09Iron Mountain Data Centers0%

What they warned about

Three of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5 and GPT-6 Luna changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Equinix
25%
11 of 44 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“**Avoid hyperscale giants (Equinix, Digital Realty):** ... will likely be overkill and overpriced for a mid-market B2B firm.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
ColoCrossing
62%
5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“This provider has received warnings primarily focused on customer support responsiveness.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Evocative
80%
4 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“There is a notable volume of negative sentiment surrounding Evocative. Users have described their experiences as an "absolute disaster"” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Digital Realty
12%
4 of 32 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“**Avoid hyperscale giants (Equinix, Digital Realty):** ... will likely be overkill and overpriced for a mid-market B2B firm.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

73 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 987 links across 249 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

38 answers · 50 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Guideflow23 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · DataBank22 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
22 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
21 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 21 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
18 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
vendor site · SourceForge15 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
vendor site · CoreSite15 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
12 answers · 14 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best colocation provider”, “colocation provider”, “colocation providers”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
TierPoint tierpoint.com22%463,60019233,285$160635
Flexential flexential.com15%374,40030679,719$915120
InterServer interserver.net15%403,6007053,424$1,02625
Equinix equinix.com10%12633,1002,00283,527771
DataBank databank.com10%366,60078253,845$6041208
CoreSite coresite.com5%904,40028273,076$9834
Sectorlink sectorlink.com5%1114001,552
Sharktech sharktech.net5%6
Digital Realty digitalrealty.com2%9614,80072668,67730
Colocation America colocationamerica.com2%12480396,7780

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (databank.com, gartner.com, quotecolo.com). The first result for “best colocation provider” is equinix.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best colocation provider for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which data center colocation space would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top colocation providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best colocation provider for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a colocation provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which colocation providers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceno first choiceHeldEquinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Qu Data Centres
InterServer
Two alternativesARPHost, LLC, ServerMania
no first choiceagainst: Evocative, QuadraNet
GPT-5.4 miniEquinix
Three alternativesCoreSite, Flexential, TierPoint
no first choiceChangedDigital Realty, Equinix
Seven alternativesCologix, CoreSite, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS, Switch
Flexential
Two alternativesCDNetworks, TierPoint
against: Equinix
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashFlexential
Four alternativesCentersquare, CoreSite, Iron Mountain Data Centers, TierPoint
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
CoreSiteChanged
Two alternativesFlexential, Iron Mountain Data Centers
against: Equinix
Equinix
Six alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Realty Trust, Switch
Joe's Datacenter
Four alternativesColoCrossing, Dedicated.com, Hivelocity, Psychz Networks
against: CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Equinix
no first choiceagainst: 11:11 Systems, Centersquare, INAP
Perplexity SonarCoreSite
Two alternativesIron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers
no first choiceChangedno first choiceInterServer
One alternativeColocation America
against: Dedicated.com
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastDataBank, TierPoint
One alternativeEquinix
TierPointChanged
One alternativeEvocative
no first choiceInterServer
Two alternativesHetzner, RackNerd
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Evocative
Mistral SmallDataBank, EquinixEquinixChanged
Two alternativesDigital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
Digital Realty, Equinix
Five alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Cyxtera, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers
Sharktech
Three alternativesInterServer, MIRhosting, Ultahost
no first choiceagainst: Cloudnium LLC, Crown Castle Colocation, Equinix, Leaseweb, MOD Mission Critical, TierPoint
DeepSeek V4 FlashFlexential
Two alternativesDataBank, TierPoint
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
TierPointChanged
Three alternativesCoreSite, DataBank, Flexential
against: Equinix
Equinix
Seven alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers, Switch
Colocation America, Sharktech
Three alternativesGigeNET, Hetzner, InterServer
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Colocation America, Evocative
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashDataBank, Digital Realty
Two alternativesEquinix, NTT Global Data Centers
PerformiveChanged
Two alternativesDigital Realty, Local Tier-2 Providers
Equinix
Six alternativesCyrusOne, DataBank, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS, Switch
InterServer
Three alternativesAtlantic.Net, Colocation America, MIRhosting
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Evocative, QuadraNet
Kimi K2TierPoint
Two alternativesCologix, DataBank
against: Equinix
Flexential, TierPointChanged
Three alternativesDataBank, Digital Realty, Equinix
Equinix
Five alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
against: Cyxtera
InterServer
Three alternativesColocation America, Sectorlink, Ultahost
no first choiceagainst: Cyxtera Technologies
GLM 4.7 FlashXFlexential, TierPoint
Five alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, DataBank, Iron Mountain Data Centers, QTS
TierPointChanged
Two alternativesDigital Realty, Equinix
Digital Realty, Equinix
Six alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers, Switch
NextArray, Sectorlink
Three alternativesDedicated.com, InterServer, LowCostColocation.com
no first choiceagainst: Cyxtera, Equinix
MiniMax M2.5no first choiceEquinixChanged
Three alternativesCologix, DataBank, NTT Global Data Centers
Equinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
no first choiceno first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing
GPT-6 LunaFlexential
Three alternativesCoreSite, Equinix, TierPoint
DataBankChanged
One alternativeFlexential
against: Equinix
no first choiceColoCrossingno first choicenothing named
Muse Glimmer 30BTierPoint
Seven alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Cyxtera, DataBank, Equinix, Flexential, NTT
TierPointHeld
Two alternativesCoreSite, Equinix
Equinix
Four alternativesCyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers
InterServer, Sectorlink
Two alternativesHetzner, Ultahost
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, DataSite / DataSite Colo, Dedicated.com, Digital Realty, Equinix, PureVoltage, UnitedLayer
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:21no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:27yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:34yes1925 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:58yes193 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:44yes2110 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:57yes65 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:20yes1961 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:00yes72 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:47yes517 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:03yes921 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:19yes1829 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:08no047 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:39yes413 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:04yes1213 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:25no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:36no03 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:13yes1220 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:22yes183 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:22yes239 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:51yes209 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:58yes2124 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:33yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:03yes522 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:19yes1527 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:16yes1417 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:05yes526 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:13yes316 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:34yes1829 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:20yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:56yes59 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:19yes1031 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:51yes204 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:18yes2210 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:57yes1112 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:34yes2347 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:19yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:23no026 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:34yes1258 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:59yes12235 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:56yes512 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:09yes823 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:11yes1238 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:55yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:12yes14 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:01yes3332 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:17yes173 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:59yes2210 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:28yes127 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:45yes2343 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:36yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:40yes819 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:18yes1719 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:47yes18340 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:13yes538 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:48yes110 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:49yes1218 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:13no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:10no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:48no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:13yes185 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:13yes138 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:20no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:57yes1942 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:12yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:27no024 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:20yes2029 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:01yes1934 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:55no012 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:44yes317 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:48yes1415 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:32yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:16yes76 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:59yes1732 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:57yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:05yes229 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:46yes158 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:53yes2438 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:02yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:31yes1826 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:32yes2520 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:43yes2325 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:38yes2042 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:25yes218 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:57yes2529 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Iron Mountain read as Iron Mountain Data Centers
Unresolved, counted raw
11:11 Systems
ARPHost, LLC
Aligned
Cafe24
Cogent CoreSpace
Colo Colo
Convergys
DataSite / DataSite Colo
Evoque
Fiber State
Interxion (Digital Realty subsidiary)
Lightsquared (ViaWest)
Local Tier-2 Providers
LowCostColocation.com
NextArray
Novva
Qu Data Centres
UnitedLayer
iland
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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