How to write a colocation RFP that operators can answer
A colocation RFP gets useful answers when an operator can tell from the first page whether it can deliver. That comes down to seven requirements: what you are sourcing, the workload, power, timeline, location, resilience, and rack density and cooling.
Everything else in the RFP, from certifications to service levels and contract terms, sharpens the answers once those seven are clear.
This guide covers what to put in each part, how operators read it, and how to score the offers that come back.
The seven core requirements
Operators use these to decide whether they can bid at all. They usually come out of the capacity planning you do before the RFP is written.
| Requirement | What to state | Example |
|---|---|---|
| What you are sourcing | Space and power for your own hardware, or rented GPU compute | Space and power for our own hardware |
| Workload | What will run there: business systems, cloud, AI training or inference, HPC | Enterprise IT |
| Power | IT load in kW on day one, and the total you expect to grow to | 500 kW, growing to 750 kW |
| Timeline | The month first power must be live, and when you need the next step | June 2027, expansion by Q2 2029 |
| Location | The countries, regions or metros you will consider | The Nordics |
| Resilience | Minimum tier or availability class, and whether it is a must-have or a preference | Tier III preferred |
| Density and cooling | Average and peak kW per rack, and air or liquid cooling | 10 kW average, 20 kW peak, air cooled |
- State power as IT load in kW. Not as racks or amps. A rack count says nothing about what each rack draws, and power, not floor space, is what an operator has to find for you.
- Give a range when a figure is uncertain, and say so. An honest range is easier to price than a round number that moves after the offers are in.
- Mark must-haves apart from preferences. An operator that misses a preference can still make a strong offer. One that misses a must-have should not spend a week on it.
- Ask what a tier claim rests on. An Uptime Institute certification of the built facility is not the same as a site designed to Tier III, and the European standard EN 50600 uses availability classes rather than tiers.
Additional requirements
These sharpen the answers when you know them. Many can wait until the first round, but the commercial ones decide whether offers can be compared at all.
| Area | What to state |
|---|---|
| Power pricing | All-in price per kW, or a fixed fee plus metered power, and whether cooling overhead (PUE) is charged on top |
| Contract | Term in months, target signing date, how contracted power steps up, expansion rights, and any budget ceiling per kW per month |
| Sustainability | Target PUE, renewable supply (Guarantees of Origin or a power purchase agreement), heat reuse |
| Certifications | The ones you require, such as ISO/IEC 27001, EN 50600, PCI DSS or a SOC 2 report |
| Connectivity | Carriers on site, carrier neutrality, diverse fibre paths, cloud on-ramps, internet exchange access, bandwidth |
| Data sovereignty | Whether data must stay in a given country or region |
| Scope and services | What the operator delivers beyond space and power: cages, fit-out, remote hands, 24/7 operations, migration |
| Notes | Anything else that changes the answer |
Expansion rights are often worth more than the first price. If you will grow from 500 to 750 kW, ask whether the extra 250 kW is reserved for you, offered on a right of first refusal, or only hoped for, and what reserving it costs.
Service levels to ask for
Ask for service levels as measurable numbers, together with what is credited when a level is missed.
| Service level | Usually stated as |
|---|---|
| Power availability | A percentage per month at the rack, and how it is measured |
| Environment | Temperature and humidity at the rack inlet, often against ASHRAE's recommended range of 18 to 27 °C |
| Remote hands | Response time, hours of service, and what is included before billing starts |
| Incidents and maintenance | Notification time for incidents, notice period for planned work |
| Service credits | What is credited when a level is missed, and the cap on credits |
Read the credits as closely as the levels. A 100% availability promise with credits capped at a small share of one month's fee tells you how much of the risk the operator actually carries.
How operators read your RFP
An operator decides in minutes whether to spend days on an answer. Four things decide it.
- Fit comes first. Power, date, location and density tell an operator whether it can deliver. Put them on the first page.
- Vague requests get vague answers. Without a power figure and a date, an operator can only send a list price and a brochure.
- A decision date gets attention. A request with a target signing date and a named decision process is answered before an open-ended enquiry.
- Comparable questions get comparable offers. Ask every operator to price the same load, term and services, and the offers line up side by side without a round of follow-up questions.
How to evaluate data center providers
Many buyers set their scoring criteria before the RFP goes out and share them with operators. A common approach has three steps:
- Pass or fail. Offers that miss a must-have are excluded.
- Weighted scoring. Each criterion gets a weight, and each offer a score, for example from 0 to 5.
- Total cost over the term. Space, power, cross-connects, remote hands, installation and indexation, rather than the price per kW alone.
An example weighting in colocation procurement. The weights vary with each buyer's priorities.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Technical fit | 25 % |
| Total cost | 25 % |
| Timeline | 15 % |
| Location and connectivity | 15 % |
| Security and compliance | 10 % |
| Sustainability | 5 % |
| Service and flexibility | 5 % |
A typical RFP process
- Explore with an RFI, if you need to. When you do not yet know what a market can offer, a request for information comes first.
- Send the RFP with a deadline and a window for questions. Share every answer with all bidders, so nobody prices on different information.
- Score the offers. Pass or fail, weighted scoring, then total cost.
- Shortlist and visit. Two or three sites, a site visit, and a first look at each draft contract.
- Ask for a best and final offer. Final terms from the shortlist, on the same basis.
- Sign. Attach the RFP and the winning offer to the contract, so what was promised is what was signed.
Checklist: before you send the RFP
- IT load in kW on day one, and how it grows
- The month first power must be live
- Countries, regions or metros you will consider
- Minimum resilience, and what you accept as proof of it
- Average and peak kW per rack, air or liquid cooling
- Must-haves marked apart from preferences
- The power pricing model you want offers in
- Certifications and where the data may sit
- Connectivity and carriers
- Term, target signing date and expansion rights
- Service levels and service credits
- Scoring criteria and weights
- Deadlines for questions and for offers
Questions buyers ask
- What is a colocation RFP?
- A request for proposal that asks data center operators to offer space, power and services for hardware you own, on terms you set, so the offers can be compared side by side.
- What is the difference between an RFI and an RFP?
- An RFI asks what is possible while you are still exploring. An RFP asks for a priced offer against requirements you have already decided.
- Should I state power in kW or kVA?
- In kW of IT load. kVA describes the electrical supply, and the ratio between the two depends on the power factor, so kW is the figure operators can compare.
- What is the difference between Tier III and Tier IV?
- Both are Uptime Institute levels. A Tier III site can take any component out for planned maintenance without shutting down the IT load. A Tier IV site also keeps running through a single unplanned failure.
- Should I share my budget in the RFP?
- When it is a real ceiling, yes. A ceiling per kW per month lets operators who cannot meet it step aside early, instead of sending an offer you will reject.
Write the seven requirements once. Let matching operators answer.
The RFP on Capacity Connect asks for the seven core requirements first and everything else as optional detail. It goes to verified operators whose capacity fits, and you stay anonymous until you choose otherwise.
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