# Colocation providers for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "colocation provider" and as "data center colocation space", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 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. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/cloud/colocation-providers/enterprise/

**Standing:** Equinix leads with 59% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Equinix | 59% | 7% | 57 |
| 2 | Digital Realty | 24% | 4% | 50 |
| 3 | CoreSite | 11% | 0% | 39 |
| 4 | CyrusOne | 2% | 0% | 39 |
| 5 | QTS | 2% | 0% | 13 |
| 6 | NTT Global Data Centers | 0% | 0% | 24 |
| 7 | Iron Mountain Data Centers | 0% | 0% | 17 |
| 8 | QTS Data Centers | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 9 | TierPoint | 0% | 20% | 10 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, Digital Realty
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers
- Perplexity Sonar: CoreSite; alternatives DataBank, Digital Realty
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global
- Mistral Small: Equinix; alternatives Cologix, CoreSite, NTT Global Data Centers
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, Digital Realty
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, Cyxtera Technologies, Digital Realty
- Kimi K2: Equinix; alternatives CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Iron Mountain Data Centers, NTT Global Data Centers
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Vantage Data Centers
- MiniMax M2.5: Equinix; alternatives CoreSite, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, NTT Global Data Centers
- GPT-6 Luna: Equinix; alternatives Digital Realty
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Equinix; alternatives CyrusOne, Digital Realty Trust, NTT

## Sources the answers cite

77 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- quotecolo.com: 37 answers, 41 citations
- gartner.com: 31 answers, 38 citations
- guideflow.com: 31 answers, 31 citations
- encoradvisors.com: 28 answers, 33 citations
- techradar.com: 24 answers, 25 citations
- dgtlinfra.com: 22 answers, 24 citations
- databank.com: 21 answers, 31 citations
- cyfuture.cloud: 20 answers, 22 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/colocation-providers (31 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/colocation-services (31 answers)
- https://quotecolo.com/colocation-providers (29 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-colocation-hosting (24 answers)
- https://dgtlinfra.com/top-10-colocation-providers (20 answers)
- https://cyfuture.cloud/blog/top-colocation-providers-in-us (19 answers)
- https://encoradvisors.com/best-colocation-data-center (17 answers)
- https://feeds.sabertoothpro.com/blog/best-colocation-service-provider-usa (17 answers)
- https://encoradvisors.com/top-colocation-data-center-providers (14 answers)
- https://netrouting.com/colocation/best-providers (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Equinix: 4 of 57 labels negative. "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: 3 of 3 labels negative. "Providers to Strongly Avoid for Large Enterprises: ColoCrossing" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- Cyxtera Technologies: 3 of 7 labels 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: 2 of 2 labels negative. "Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020 ... Significant financial instability and service disruption potential" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.