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Index › Cloud and infrastructure › Colocation › Enterprise › October 2026 Edition

Colocation providers for enterprise buyers

Asked as “colocation provider”, and as “data center colocation space”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 46 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
59%
Clear leader
59Equinix24Digital Realty11CoreSite07others

59% of first choices, clear leader.

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 an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Equinix59%7%57endorsed leader
02Digital Realty24%4%50accepted challenger
03CoreSite11%0%39accepted challenger
04CyrusOne2%0%39accepted challenger
05QTS2%0%13accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09TierPoint0%20%10accepted challenger
06NTT Global Data Centers0%0%24accepted challenger
07Iron Mountain Data Centers0%0%17accepted challenger
08QTS Data Centers0%0%11accepted challenger
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
Q05
06
07
Q08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Equinix59%
02Digital Realty24%
03CoreSite11%
04CyrusOne2%
05QTS2%
06NTT Global Data Centers0%
07Iron Mountain Data Centers0%
08QTS Data Centers0%
09TierPoint0%

What they warned about

Nine of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, GLM 4.7 FlashX 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
7%
4 of 57 labels negative · 4 of 14 models
“They are typically the most expensive option. To keep costs predictable, you must negotiate against their default "metered" rates” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
ColoCrossing
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“Providers to **Strongly Avoid** for Large Enterprises: **ColoCrossing**” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Cyxtera Technologies
43%
3 of 7 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Cyxtera Technologies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023... the transition caused significant anxiety for their enterprise clients.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
INAP
100%
2 of 2 labels negative · 2 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020 ... Significant financial instability and service disruption potential” Kimi K2, negative 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

77 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. 1139 links across 294 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.

37 answers · 41 citations · 11 models
31 answers · 38 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Guideflow31 answers · 31 citations · 12 models
28 answers · 33 citations · 12 models
24 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
22 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
vendor site · DataBank21 answers · 31 citations · 11 models
20 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
19 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · CoreSite18 answers · 21 citations · 12 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 17 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
Equinix equinix.com59%12633,1002,00283,527771
Digital Realty digitalrealty.com24%9614,80072668,67730
CoreSite coresite.com11%904,40028273,076$9834
CyrusOne cyrusone.com2%618,10035010,755
QTS2%18,10048,168
Ark SecurePower All-In2%
NTT Global Data Centers nttdata.com0%491,6004844,7310
Iron Mountain Data Centers ironmountain.com0%351,90070139,332$758120
QTS Data Centers0%18,100436
Flexential flexential.com0%374,40030679,719$915120

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (databank.com, datacenters.com, gartner.com, netrouting.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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which data center colocation space would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade colocation providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best colocation provider for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a colocation provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which colocation providers should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceno first choiceHeldDigital Realty, Equinix
Three alternativesCyrusOne, NTT Data Centers, QTS
Equinix
Two alternativesCyrusOne, Digital Realty
no first choiceagainst: China Mobile, China Telecom Americas
GPT-5.4 miniEquinix
Two alternativesCoreSite, Digital Realty
EquinixHeld
Three alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Flexential
Equinix
Three alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty
QTS
One alternativeEquinix
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashEquinix
Six alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
Digital Realty, EquinixChanged
Two alternativesCoreSite, NTT Global Data Centers
Equinix
Six alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
Digital Realty
Three alternativesCoreSite, Equinix, QTS Data Centers
no first choiceagainst: Cyxtera Technologies, INAP, Sungard Availability Services
Perplexity SonarCoreSite
Two alternativesDataBank, Digital Realty
CoreSite, EquinixChangedEquinix
Five alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, QTS, TierPoint
CoreSite
One alternativeEquinix
no first choiceagainst: HostPapa, OVHcloud, Orange
Grok 4.1 FastEquinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global
Digital Realty, EquinixChanged
Three alternativesCyrusOne, NTT, QTS
Digital Realty, Equinix
Five alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
Digital Realty, Equinix
Two alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne
no first choiceagainst: Cogent-hosted facilities, ColoCrossing, TierPoint, Zen Internet
Mistral SmallEquinix
Three alternativesCologix, CoreSite, NTT Global Data Centers
EquinixHeld
Two alternativesDigital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
Equinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, Cyxtera Technologies, NTT Global Data Centers, STACK Infrastructure
CoreSite
Two alternativesFlexential, NTT Global Data Centers
no first choiceagainst: Cloudnium LLC, Crown Castle Colocation, Dedicated.com, MOD Mission Critical, Psychz Networks, Zayo Group LLC
DeepSeek V4 FlashEquinix
Two alternativesCoreSite, Digital Realty
EquinixHeld
One alternativeDigital Realty
Equinix
Six alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
Digital Realty
Two alternativesEquinix, Flexential
no first choiceagainst: 365 Data Centers
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashEquinix
Three alternativesCoreSite, Cyxtera Technologies, Digital Realty
EquinixHeld
Three alternativesCoreSite, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
Equinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, Cyxtera, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
CoreSite
Two alternativesSectorlink, ServerMania
against: Digital Realty, Equinix
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Colocation America, Joy Services, Melbicom
Kimi K2Equinix
Five alternativesCyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
EquinixHeld
Two alternativesCyrusOne, Digital Realty
Equinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, QTS Data Centers
CyrusOne, Digital Realty
One alternativeSTACK Infrastructure
against: Equinix
no first choiceagainst: ColoCrossing, Cyxtera Technologies, INAP
GLM 4.7 FlashXEquinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Vantage Data Centers
Digital Realty, EquinixChanged
Three alternativesCyrusOne, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS Data Centers
Digital Realty, Equinix
Six alternativesCentersquareDC, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain Data Centers, QTS Realty Trust, Switch, Telehouse
Digital Realty, Equinix
One alternativeTierPoint
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Equinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
EquinixHeld
Four alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Cyxtera Technologies, Digital Realty
Equinix
Four alternativesCoreSite, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers, TierPoint
Digital Realty
Three alternativesCyrusOne, Equinix, NTT Global Data Centers
no first choiceagainst: Cyxtera Technologies, Sungard Availability Services
GPT-6 LunaEquinix
One alternativeDigital Realty
Digital Realty, EquinixChangedDigital Realty, Equinix
Six alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, Flexential, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers, QTS
Ark SecurePower All-In
Two alternativesDigital Realty, QTS
no first choiceagainst: Equinix, HostDime
Muse Glimmer 30BEquinix
Three alternativesCyrusOne, Digital Realty Trust, NTT
EquinixHeld
Three alternativesCyrusOne, Digital Realty, Switch
Digital Realty, Equinix
Three alternativesCoreSite, CyrusOne, NTT Global Data Centers
Digital Realty, Equinix
Two alternativesCoreSite, QTS
no first choiceagainst: Cogent Data Center, Digital Realty, Equinix, TierPoint
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 00:43no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:59yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:47yes1426 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:03yes203 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:57yes2311 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:55yes128 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:48yes1729 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:22yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:43yes518 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:43yes1823 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:02yes2245 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:04yes940 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 01:23yes213 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:21yes1824 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:30no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:00yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:29yes923 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:58yes193 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:20yes2210 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:24yes208 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:08yes2540 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:31yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:57no024 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:55yes2022 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:16yes1528 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:47yes514 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:36yes114 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:59yes1318 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:06yes1813 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:52yes76 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:36yes1025 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:17yes195 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:59yes2213 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:00yes1310 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:41yes2256 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:14yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:32yes1022 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:55yes1734 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:21yes2425 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:31yes2335 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:28yes835 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:59yes2231 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:20yes169 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:53yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:20yes2727 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:52yes192 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:54yes2013 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:58yes1710 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:36yes2229 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:39yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:06yes1044 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:40yes2329 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:02yes2128 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:01yes2156 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:20yes216 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:31yes1931 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:48yes1813 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:40no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:33yes1133 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:29yes194 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:27yes149 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:48no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:28yes2566 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:49yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:03no037 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:04no079 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:01yes1536 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:40yes522 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:13yes628 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:53yes1323 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:39yes2613 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:44yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:00yes1630 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:59yes184 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:52yes2510 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:40yes145 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:57yes2352 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:01yes74 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:45yes1457 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:17yes2429 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:38yes2225 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:35yes1533 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:17yes333 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 01:56yes2542 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
Ark SecurePower All-In
Brookfield
China Mobile
China Telecom
China Telecom Americas
China Unicom
Cloudoora
Cogent Data Center
Cogent-hosted facilities
Colt DCS
CoreSite, now American Tower
Digital Realty Trust
HostDime
HostPapa
Joy Services
KDDI
Macronet Services
Netrouting
TRG Datacenters
Zayo Group LLC
Zayo/Flexential
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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