AIBRIEF
Uptime's 2026 survey of 800+ operators shows third party (colocation) data centers edging past corporate facilities for the first time, with average rack power crossing 11 kW.
Third-party data centers now host 46% of enterprise IT workloads, edging past the 44% still running on corporate-owned facilities in the Uptime Institute's 16th Annual Global Data Center Survey 2026. It is the first time third-party sites have held the larger share in the survey's history, based on responses from more than 800 data center owners and operators.
Average rack power density crossed 11 kW for the first time, up from 7.5 kW last year, and 24% of respondents now operate at least some racks rated 30 kW or above. A small cluster of AI and GPU racks exceeds 100 kW. Typical density, excluding those outliers, sits at 7.8 kW.
Only 10% of respondents still rely on smaller IT rooms or server cabinets rather than dedicated facilities, and Uptime projects third-party share will reach 48% by 2028 while self-owned halls hold steady. Rising electricity costs are squeezing budgets: 79% of operators say costs are at least somewhat concerning to management.
Refresh strategies are diverging. Some operators are shortening hardware cycles to under four years to chase new silicon, while Microsoft, Google, and Meta have extended server lifecycles to six or seven years to control depreciation, according to Data Center Knowledge. Outages have fallen for a sixth consecutive year.