UK colocation is a mature market — Equinix, Digital Realty, Telehouse, Pulsant, ARK, IONOS, Custodian and 20+ regional operators. The right choice depends on connectivity needs, power density, geographic resilience, and price model. This is the procurement framework Servnet uses with mid-market UK colo customers.
The 8 procurement criteria
These are the decision factors we run through with every UK colo selection.
- •1. Geographic location — London Docklands (LD) for trading/FS; M25 for broad enterprise; regional (Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham) for resilience. Distance from primary office matters for hands-and-eyes response.
- •2. Tier certification — Tier III or Tier IV (Uptime Institute). Tier III = 99.982% uptime; Tier IV = 99.995%.
- •3. Power density supported — standard 4-8 kW/rack covers most. AI / HPC needs 20-60 kW/rack + liquid cooling.
- •4. Connectivity ecosystem — which carriers + cloud on-ramps (AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect)? Cross-connect cost is real.
- •5. Cooling — DX vs adiabatic vs liquid. PUE under 1.4 = good; under 1.2 = excellent.
- •6. Physical security — 24/7 manned, biometric access, mantraps, CCTV retention.
- •7. Compliance certifications — ISO 27001, ISO 50001 (energy), SOC 2 Type II, PCI-DSS Service Provider, NIST CSF.
- •8. Commercial model — power per kW vs per rack vs all-inclusive. Long-term contract discount vs flexibility.
The UK colo market structure
Tier 1 international: Equinix, Digital Realty, NTT, CyrusOne — global footprint + premium cross-connect ecosystems. Premium pricing.
Tier 2 UK-focused: Telehouse, Pulsant, ARK, Iomart — strong UK coverage + competitive pricing + UK-team accountability.
Regional / specialist: Custodian (NE), 11:11 Systems, various sub-regional operators.
Hyperscale-adjacent: AWS Direct Connect locations, Azure ExpressRoute Premium peering — best for cloud-native + hybrid architectures.
What Servnet does
Servnet doesn't own colo capacity. We act as buyer-side advisor + colo procurement + ongoing managed colo operations (remote hands + hardware refresh + connectivity management). Established relationships with all major UK colo operators + net pricing negotiation.
Typical engagement: 1) workload + connectivity requirements scoping (including server sizing), 2) 5-operator shortlist with sized commercial bid, 3) site visits + technical due diligence, 4) commercial negotiation + contract review, 5) migration + cutover support — see our colo-vs-cloud TCO model and UK reseller vetting framework for related buying context.