Powered Shell vs. Turnkey Colocation
How to choose between a compute-ready shell you fit out and an operated environment you deploy into.
GridColo Infrastructure Team · · 6 min read
The choice between a powered shell and turnkey colocation is fundamentally a choice about control and responsibility.
Turnkey colocation
You deploy into commissioned space. The facility provider owns power, cooling, security, and operations to a defined boundary. This is typically the fastest path when suitable capacity exists.
Powered shell
You receive a compute-ready building with power delivered to a demarcation point, and you design and build the white space. This suits teams with specialized cooling designs or in-house facility capability.
Questions that decide it
- Do you have facility engineering and operations capability?
- Is your cooling design non-standard?
- Is schedule or design control the priority?
- Which operating layers do you want to retain?
