The five types on these pages
| Type | What it is | One example |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperscale campus | Hyperscale data centers are large-scale facilities built and run by major technology companies that deploy internet services and platforms at massive scale. This page calls a site with several of these buildings a campus.[1] | Meta Richland Parish Data Center |
| Colocation and leased campuses | A colocation data center, also called multitenant, rents space to companies that host their own hardware there, with power, cooling, security and networking provided.[1] | Polaris Forge 1 |
| Carrier hotel (telecom hotel) | A carrier hotel, or telecom hotel, is a building where a commercial landlord rents floor space to many network companies, as a 2003 federal report defined it.[2] | 60 Hudson Street |
| Enterprise and government | An enterprise data center is run by an organization, internally, for its own use.[1] | VELCO New Haven Operations Facility |
| Edge sites | An edge site is a small place to run computing out across a network: a closet, a small room or a very small data center.[1] | Greensparc Cordova Data Center (Humpback Creek Hydro) |
These pages use 5 examples chosen by hand. Most records on this site are not typed. 3,110 of the 3,115 source listings on the opening map have no type assigned here. Listings can overlap, so neither number counts distinct data centers.
AI workloads and on-site power do not have pages of their own. Both are covered inside the hyperscale page: AI workloads and on-site power.
Closer looks at parts of a site
- A megawatt of what? Real figures placed on the part of a site each one describes.
- Closed loop, decoded What the phrase establishes about cooling, and what it leaves open.
- Inside one row of servers Where the air goes, in a labeled cutaway of a rack.
Go further on this site
How data centers work · The 3D map · The full map
Sources
- 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (LBNL-2001637). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. National laboratory. Cited at Table 4.1, p. 36; p. 36. Captured 3 November 2026.
- Vulnerabilities Task Force Report, Concentration of Assets: Telecom Hotels. President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, hosted by CISA. Government. Cited at section 3.0, pp. 1-2. Captured 3 November 2026.
Each type’s page lists all of its own sources.