v1Effective July 7, 2026
This is a frozen, versioned document. Contracts cite this exact version and it will not change. Newer requirements are published at a new version URL; this one remains available indefinitely.
Colo Requirements
These requirements define the criteria a colocation facility must meet to host SF Compute capacity.
Every requirement is tagged with a Tier:
- Core — a hard requirement the facility must meet.
- Nice-to-have — scored; a miss may be accepted as a tradeoff against a remediation commitment.
- Reference — informational; collected during diligence, not enforced as pass/fail.
A facility that does not yet meet every Core requirement may still be engaged, paired with a contract that commits it to reach this standard within a defined diligence window (e.g. a 60-day diligence term sheet).
| Requirement | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| Total contiguous power | 2 MW contiguous (open to > 2 MW on a ramp). | Core |
| Provisioning | Confirmed at 100% load. | Core |
| Generator | ≥ N+1 redundancy; on-site fuel under a continuous-replenishment contract; ≤ 30 s start; tested weekly–monthly; annual load test; fuel-resupply contract with < 24 h response. | Core |
| UPS | Bridges utility-to-generator transfer (typical runtime 9–10 min); batteries in a separate fire-rated room. | Core |
| Utility feeds | Redundant, diverse feeds. | Nice-to-have |
| rPDUs | Redundant pair per rack. | Core |
| Primary voltage | 208 V (415 V acceptable for high-density / DLC builds). | Core |
| Provider PDUs / racks | Optional — SF Compute can provide its own; if provider-supplied, PDUs must be switched. | Core (if provider-supplied) |
Density follows the cooling design, so the bar is stated per build type. The cooling method is the facility's choice; each build type gates per-rack density and the matching cooling the facility must supply:
| Build type | Cooling | Per-rack density | Tier |
|---|
| Air-cooled | Air | ≥ 30 kW/rack | Core (air builds) |
| Air-cooled (target) | Air | 60 kW/rack | Nice-to-have |
| Liquid / DLC | Chilled-water loop, rear-door / direct-to-chip | up to ~240 kW/rack | Core (liquid builds) |
| Rack-scale / NVL (Vera Rubin-class) | Liquid | Density target to be published in a future revision. | — |
| Requirement | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| Capacity | Confirmed at maximum thermal output, with airflow clearance where applicable. | Core |
| Redundancy | ≥ N+1. | Core |
| Containment | Hot/cold separation (cold- or hot-aisle), blanking panels, airflow baffles. | Core |
| Cooling type | Air or liquid (no immersion); must match the §1 build type. | Core |
| Air filtration | MERV >9. | Core |
| Environmental setpoints | 68–71 °F, 40–72% RH. | Nice-to-have |
| PUE | ~1.3 target. | Nice-to-have |
| Requirement | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| Access control | Measures preventing unauthorized entry into the DC hall and access to hardware. | Core |
| Inspection | Physical or virtual inspection of the facility on request. | Core |
| Badge readers | At access points. | Core |
| Mantrap / vestibule | Secure entry at the entrance. | Core |
| Visitor logs | Access logs and tracking. | Core |
| Staffing & access | 24/7 staffing (on-site or NOC) and 24/7 access for SF Compute. | Core |
| Fire detection | VESDA (very-early-smoke-detection). | Core |
| Perimeter fence | Site perimeter fencing. | Nice-to-have |
| Requirement | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| DIA / ISP connections | At least 2, with sufficient route diversity. | Core |
| Bandwidth | 2× 100 Gbps to the space, with route diversity (burstable acceptable). | Core |
| Latency | < 50 ms ping to AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2. | Core |
| Ingress / egress | No restrictions or metering. | Core |
| Carriers | Cogent plus at least one additional Tier-1 carrier. | Core |
| Cloud connectivity / peering | Cloud on-ramps / peering available (AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare). | Nice-to-have |
| Meet-me rooms | Redundant MMRs and multiple physical entrance routes. | Nice-to-have |
| Requirement | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| Facility tier | Minimum Tier III; ≥ N+1. | Core |
| Power / cooling redundancy | ≥ N+1 on generator, UPS, and cooling. | Core |
| 2N redundancy | 2N where available. | Nice-to-have |
| Certification | Tier |
|---|
| SOC 2 Type II | Core |
| PCI-DSS | Core |
| ISO 27001 | Core |
| TIA-942 (Rated-3 or better) | Nice-to-have |
| EN 50600 (Class 3 or better) | Nice-to-have |
TIA-942 / EN 50600 are Nice-to-have: providers often hold higher ratings (e.g. Rated-4 / Class 4), but they are not required.
| Requirement | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| Cleanliness | Clean space, free of dust and debris, with cable runs neatly bundled. | Core |
| Contiguous space | Sufficient for the deployment (≈ 33 racks @ 60 kW, or ≈ 67 racks @ 30 kW — power-limited at 2 MW; 1,024 GPUs / 128 nodes). | Core |
| Floor | Raised floor or slab. | Core |
| Loading & staging | Loading-dock access to the DC floor (ramp or lift to raised-floor height); secure staging / burn-in area. | Core |
| Single-tenant cage | Dedicated cage. | Nice-to-have |
| Conveyance | Power from floor or overhead; overhead conveyance for fiber. | Nice-to-have |
| Modular build | Acceptable for sites lacking infrastructure, subject to review. | Nice-to-have |
| Floor loading | Floor bearing ≥ 3,000 lbs per rack (GB300 NVL-class); ≥ 4,000 lbs per rack (Vera Rubin-class). | Core (rack-scale builds) |
| Ceiling height | Reviewed during site diligence. | — |
Reference only — informational inputs, not enforced as pass/fail requirements.
| Item | Detail | Tier |
|---|
| Location | Continental US & Canada. | Reference |
| Lease term | ~5 years (1–3 years for the high-density DLC variant). | Reference |
| Clean / renewable power | Preferred; describe availability in your proposal. | Reference |