A quiet yet fierce arms race is underway in data center expansion, particularly across the rural regions of the United States and other parts of the world. As demand for compute, AI processing, and cloud capacity surges, new hyperscale and large-scale data center campuses are being rapidly developed outside traditional network-dense metros.
These facilities are generally purpose-built and single-tenant, constructed to rigorous specifications tailored to a specific hyperscaler's workload or cloud platform. While this approach ensures engineering precision and scale efficiency, it often disconnects the facility from its local ecosystem. Once complete, many of these campuses operate as closed systems, optimized for internal global networks but detached from local carriers, service providers, and communities.
These campuses typically span multiple buildings developed in phases, interconnected through engineered fiber pathways and shared network distribution points. That backbone—if made even partially open—could serve as a foundation for both private and public interconnection.
A Proposal: Integrate Open Access Colocation
To align these massive infrastructure projects with regional digital equity goals, I propose that large-scale and hyperscale campus developers designate and integrate a multi-tenant, carrier-neutral colocation facility within or adjacent to their main campus.
However, it's important to acknowledge that most hyperscalers have no operational interest in running multi-tenant, open-access environments. Their business model is to optimize compute density and power efficiency for a controlled set of workloads—not to operate retail or neutral network spaces.
In such cases, developers could lease or concession the designated colocation portion of the site to an experienced open-access and interconnection specialist—for example, an operator like Equinix, QTS, DataBank, or regional players who already run carrier-neutral facilities and IXPs. This operational partnership model allows the hyperscale developer to maintain focus on core workloads, while enabling third-party experts to build out the open exchange layer, interconnection services, and carrier relationships that benefit the broader region.
Through this hybrid design, the campus can deliver dual value: global-scale compute for its anchor tenant and regional-scale connectivity for the surrounding ecosystem.
Why It Makes Sense
- Operational practicality: By offloading Open Access and multi-tenant operations to a neutral partner, hyperscalers avoid diverting focus from their primary infrastructure mission.
- Network leverage: Fiber and carrier investment reaching the site benefit both hyperscaler and colocation operator, increasing diversity and redundancy.
- Rural IXPs and peering: A third-party operator can effectively host a regional Internet Exchange Point (IXP) or facilitate private peering, keeping local traffic within the region and improving performance.
- Community enablement: Local ISPs, governments, and schools gain affordable access to carrier and cloud connectivity without excessive middle-mile costs.
What "Open Access" Really Means
The Open Internet Exchange (OIX) framework defines the foundational model for open and neutral network environments, emphasizing non-discrimination and freedom of interconnection. Within an Open Access facility:
- The site remains carrier-neutral, welcoming multiple network providers and cloud on-ramps.
- Any qualified participant can establish a presence and peer under uniform technical and commercial conditions.
- The facility owner—be it the hyperscale developer or leased operator—focuses on the physical interconnect fabric, while ISPs, carriers, and content providers deliver service overlays.
- Tenants may multi-home, peer locally, or participate in IXP ecosystems, enriching the entire regional connectivity matrix.
When executed in partnership with a specialist operator, this model scales efficiently and sustainably, aligning interests between hyperscaler, third-party operator, and local users.
Benefits for Rural Communities
Incorporating open, third-party-operated colocation space into large-scale campuses transforms them into shared digital infrastructure hubs. This approach brings:
- Lower broadband costs for local ISPs through accessible backhaul and peering.
- Reduced latency and improved resiliency via local IXPs and on-campus traffic exchange.
- Economic growth and skill development, as interconnection hubs attract network operators, engineers, and ancillary businesses.
- Public-private alignment, ensuring that hyperscale development supports local digital inclusion goals.
Such colocation and IXP partnerships can turn a single-tenant installation into a community-level digital node, connecting citizens and organizations directly to global infrastructure.
Value for Hyperscale Builders
Hyperscale developers gain multiple strategic advantages by carving out and delegating this type of open network environment:
- Focus retention: Leasing the open-access facility to a proven colocation operator eliminates the need for the hyperscaler to manage multi-tenant operations.
- Regulatory and community goodwill: Supporting digital equity and community interconnection aligns with public initiatives, smoothing permit processes and strengthening reputation.
- Improved connectivity economics: The presence of multiple carriers and exchange participants enhances route diversity and can lower transport costs for the hyperscaler's own operations.
- Potential revenue or cost offset: Leasing arrangements or fiber swap agreements offer incremental income or long-term network savings.
- Private or edge peering: Hyperscalers can still use the open-access facility for private interconnection or on-campus edge compute collaboration, benefiting from diversity without sacrificing control.
This model reflects a symbiotic relationship—the hyperscaler delivers scale and efficiency, while the colocation partner delivers openness, neutrality, and community engagement.
Strategic and Policy Alignment
The partnership model between hyperscalers and neutral operators complements U.S. broadband and infrastructure programs such as BEAD, the NTIA Middle Mile program, and state-level digital equity frameworks. By integrating IXPs and Open Access facilities into hyperscale developments, the industry can ensure that rural connectivity investments are inclusive, scalable, and locally impactful.
While this lease model remains largely untapped in the hyperscale space, the technical and operational frameworks already exist. Purpose-built campuses already incorporate the network distribution and carrier access infrastructure needed to support neutral interconnection zones. Partnering with established Open Access operators would allow hyperscalers to unlock community and policy benefits without diluting their core operational focus.
Toward a More Cooperative Digital Future
Rural hyperscale campuses have the capacity to do more than host compute—they can become bedrock infrastructure for local digital exchange. By reserving colocation space and working with specialists in Open Access operations, developers can create shared interconnection ecosystems aligned with both commercial and civic goals.
Embedding peering, carrier diversity, and neutrality into the architecture transforms this era of rapid hyperscale expansion from a capacity arms race into a collaborative effort to connect and empower the regions that host tomorrow's digital backbone.