What does it cost to lease a rack in a colocation data centre?
Two models decide your monthly bill — and the fine print in each is where the money is.
Leasing a rack in a colocation data centre comes down to two things: the cost of the rack itself, and the cost of the power that feeds it. How that power is priced makes a real difference to what you pay. There are two common models.
Bundled power
You buy the rack plus a power bundle — say 3 kW, 6 kW or 9 kW — and draw as much or as little within it as you like; exceed the limit and you buy the next bundle up. It is easy to budget, but there is a catch: the typical enterprise colocation customer uses only 40–60% of their allocation. Buy a 3 kW bundle and draw 1.5 kW, and you are paying for roughly double what you use.
Pass-through power
Here you pay for the power you actually consume, multiplied by a power cost factor that bundles in PUE, the utility tariff and infrastructure cost. It is fairer on usage, but that cost factor is the number to watch — a small change in it moves the bill a long way, so it is worth understanding exactly what sits inside it before you sign.
The table below sets the two models side by side across a range of rack loads.