Digital Realty
Procurement partnerAbout
Cloud- and carrier-neutral data center operator and interconnection platform spanning 310+ facilities across 50+ metros in 25+ countries, operating under the PlatformDIGITAL® brand. ServiceFabric® is the company's managed interconnection layer — providing virtual and physical connectivity to cloud providers, networks, and enterprise ecosystems within and between Digital Realty campuses. Offers colocation from single cabinets to Powered Base Buildings (whole-building wholesale) and high-density c...
Details
VenSearch Intelligence
Ideal Customer
- Digital Realty's sweet spot is mid-to-large enterprises and service providers — typically companies with $500M+ in revenue — as well as hyperscale cloud providers and global network operators.
- Their platform spans from retail colocation (sub-250 kW, suitable for smaller enterprise deployments) through wholesale (250 kW–4 MW) to full hyperscale builds (4 MW+), with hyperscale customers including major cloud providers like Microsoft, Google, and others.
Key Differentiators
- Digital Realty's primary differentiator is PlatformDIGITAL®, a globally standardized data center architecture built around their Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) methodology, which directly addresses the concept of 'Data Gravity' — enabling enterprises to deploy consistent, interconnected infrastructure hubs closer to their data and users across 50+ metros worldwide.
- Unlike asset-light competitors, Digital Realty owns its land and buildings, providing cost predictability and long-term capital appreciation, while offering a single platform spanning retail colocation, wholesale, hyperscale, high-density AI/GPU, and software-defined interconnection (ServiceFabric®).
Industries Served
- Digital Realty serves a broad range of industry verticals including financial services, healthcare, information technology, cloud and SaaS, communications, manufacturing, energy, consumer products, gaming, IoT, and AI.
- Key verticals explicitly cited by the company include healthcare, finance, and gaming/AI technologies, with their compliance certifications (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS) making them particularly well-suited to regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare.
Service Coverage
- Digital Realty operates one of the largest global data center footprints in the world, with 310+ facilities spanning 50+ metro areas across 25+ countries on six continents.
- In the Americas, they cover 22 metros including major U.S. markets such as Northern Virginia, Dallas, Chicago, Silicon Valley, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Phoenix, as well as Latin American cities like São Paulo, Bogotá, and Santiago.
Partnerships
- Digital Realty operates a formal partner program called PartnerOne, which supports resellers, VARs, MSPs, referral agents, system integrators, Technology Services Distributors, and real estate brokers across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
- Major cloud partnerships include Google Cloud (Dedicated and Partner Interconnect via ServiceFabric®), AWS, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud (joint Oracle Cloud Solution Centers on PlatformDIGITAL®), IBM Cloud, and OVHcloud.
Company Size & Ownership
- Digital Realty was founded in 2004 by GI Partners and went public on the NYSE (ticker: DLR) the same year.
- The company employs approximately 4,500–5,600 people depending on the source and measurement date, with headcount growing roughly 12% year-over-year as of late 2025/early 2026.
Compliance & Certifications
- Digital Realty maintains a comprehensive compliance portfolio that includes SOC 2 (Security and Availability principles), PCI-DSS (annual Report on Compliance for U.S.-owned and managed facilities), HIPAA-supportive infrastructure, and five ISO certifications: ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environmental management), ISO 27001 (information security), ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety), and ISO 50001 (energy management).
- They have also achieved EPA Energy Star certification for 34 U.S. data centers — representing 67% of their U.S.-owned and managed portfolio — and received the EPA Energy Star Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award.
Compiled from public sources by VenSearch · Last researched October 13, 2026
Offerings
7 offeringsColocation
Retail colocation within PlatformDIGITAL® data centers — cabinets, cages, and partial-suite configurations. Carrier-neutral environment with access to a broad cloud and network ecosystem. Available across 310+ facilities globally; 99.999% uptime SLA with SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001 certifications.
Cross Connect
Direct physical connections between customers, partners, and service providers co-located within the same Digital Realty facility. Fast, cost-effective, and low-latency — bypasses the public internet entirely. Standard option for cloud onramp deployments and private peering arrangements within a campus.
High-Density Colocation
Colocation optimized for AI, GPU, and high-performance compute workloads requiring elevated power densities beyond standard rack configurations. Supports liquid cooling and direct-to-chip thermal solutions. NVIDIA-certified liquid-cooled facilities available. Positioned for enterprises moving ML training and inference workloads into dedicated colo environments.
Internet Exchange
Neutral peering platform within Digital Realty data centers enabling networks, ISPs, and content providers to exchange traffic at low cost and low latency. Supports bilateral and multilateral peering with BGP route server infrastructure. Available at select PlatformDIGITAL® locations globally.
Metro Connect
Dedicated dark fiber or wavelength circuits between Digital Realty facilities within the same metro area. Enables customers to extend their footprint across multiple campus locations without public internet exposure. Useful for disaster recovery, capacity overflow, and distributed workload architectures.
Powered Base Buildings
Wholesale colocation providing entire buildings or multi-floor data halls to large enterprises and hyperscalers. Customer controls the space and deploys their own infrastructure within Digital Realty's powered shell. Typically structured as long-term lease arrangements; located adjacent to Digital Realty IBX campuses for direct interconnection.
ServiceFabric
Digital Realty's managed interconnection platform providing virtual and physical connectivity to cloud providers, network service providers, and enterprise ecosystems within and across PlatformDIGITAL® campuses. Includes ServiceFabric® Connect for software-defined cloud onramps. Enables on-demand, low-latency access to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, and 4,000+ providers in the Digital Realty ecosystem.
Considering Digital Realty?
Our team will work with you to determine if Digital Realty is the right fit for your organization. From research and assessment through procurement negotiation and ongoing vendor management — we handle the entire process at no cost to you.