Enterprise Services
Colocation Cage & Rack Decommissioning in Dallas-Fort Worth
Exiting a colo footprint is not a normal equipment pickup. It comes with COI requirements, escorted access, dock windows, and a lease deadline. We handle all of it — and qualifying equipment is removed free.
Built for Tenants
Decommissioning Inside Someone Else's Building
When you decommission your own server room, you set the rules. In a colocation facility, the operator does — and a vendor who does not know those rules burns your access window. Our colo process is built around the four things every facility enforces:
COI Before Anything
Facilities will not let a vendor past the lobby without a Certificate of Insurance meeting their requirements. We provide it as part of scheduling, not as an afterthought.
Escorted Access & Badging
We work within tenant-authorization and escort procedures, so the removal happens under the facility's security model without your engineers babysitting the job.
Dock & Elevator Windows
Freight elevators and loading docks in colo buildings are reserved, not walk-up. We book the window and bring the crew and pallets to finish inside it.
A Clean Demarcation
Your gear comes out; the facility's infrastructure stays. We work to the demarc you and the operator define — house cabinets, cross-connects, and facility power stay untouched.
DFW Colocation Facilities We Serve
Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the largest colocation markets in the country, and tenant exits happen every week — migrations to the cloud, consolidations after acquisitions, and footprints shrinking at renewal. We pick up from tenant cages and cabinets across the metroplex, including:
GreenIT Pickup is an independent vendor. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any colocation operator — we work as your authorized vendor under each facility's standard visitor and vendor procedures.
Our Process
From Exit Date to Empty Cage
Scope & Inventory
Send your cabinet count, a rough inventory or photos, the facility name, and your exit deadline. We size the job and flag anything with buyback value.
Facility Paperwork
We provide the COI to the facility's requirements, get authorized as your vendor, and book the access window, escort, and dock or freight-elevator reservation.
Drive Decision
You decide how storage media is handled: standard NIST 800-88 sanitization after removal, or onsite destruction as a paid add-on before anything leaves the building.
Removal
Our crew de-racks, de-cables to your demarcation, palletizes, and moves equipment out through the facility's approved path — during the window the facility gives us.
Serialized Manifest
Equipment is inventoried by serial number so you can reconcile against your asset list and close out the footprint with the facility.
Sanitization & Documentation
Media is sanitized following NIST 800-88 guidelines, certificates are issued, and you receive the final manifest and processing documentation for your records.
Your Decommission May Pay You
Colo cages hold the newest equipment in the disposal world — recent-generation servers, storage, and networking gear that still has real market value. Before anything is recycled, we evaluate qualifying hardware for refurbishment and buyback through our sister companies that purchase and resell enterprise equipment. Best case, your exit returns money to the budget. Worst case, removal is still free.
Send a rough inventory (make, model, quantity) with your request and we will flag buyback candidates up front.
What Comes Out of the Cage
Decommissioning your own on-premises facility instead? See our data center decommissioning service.
Colocation Decommissioning FAQ
Can you provide a Certificate of Insurance (COI) for the facility?
Yes. Colocation operators typically require vendors to present a COI naming the facility before work is scheduled. Send us the facility's insurance requirements when you request the pickup and we will handle the paperwork ahead of your removal window.
How does escorted access work for the removal?
Most colo facilities require tenant authorization and a facility escort or badge-access arrangement for vendors. You authorize us as your vendor with the facility, we coordinate the access window, and your team does not need to be on site for the physical work unless you want to be.
Can you work after hours or on weekends?
Yes. Freight elevator reservations, dock windows, and change-freeze schedules often push colo work to nights and weekends. Tell us the window the facility gives you and we will staff around it.
Is colo decommissioning really free?
Removal is free for qualifying equipment because colocation gear tends to have refurbishment and resale value that funds the service. Minimum quantities apply, and unusual scopes (for example, heavy non-IT infrastructure) are quoted separately before any work starts.
Can we recover value from the equipment instead of just disposing of it?
Often, yes. Colo footprints usually hold newer enterprise hardware than office cleanouts. Through our sister companies that buy and resell enterprise equipment, qualifying servers, storage, and networking gear can be evaluated for buyback so the decommission returns value instead of just clearing space. Ask for a buyback assessment when you send the inventory list.
What happens to the data on our drives?
Storage media is sanitized following NIST 800-88 guidelines after removal, with certificates of data sanitization available for your records. If your policy requires physical destruction or witnessed handling for specific drives, onsite shredding can be added as a paid option before the equipment leaves your control.
Do you handle cabling, racks, and PDUs, or just the servers?
We remove the full tenant footprint: servers, storage, network gear, PDUs, KVMs, cable runs you own, and the racks or cabinets themselves if they are tenant property. Facility-owned infrastructure (house cabinets, cross-connects, power whips owned by the operator) stays in place — we work to the demarcation you and the facility define.
How much notice do you need before a lease-exit deadline?
More is always better, but colo exits are deadline-driven and we plan for that. A single cabinet can often be scheduled within days once facility access is approved. Full cage cleanouts need enough lead time for COI processing, access approval, and an elevator or dock reservation — start the conversation as soon as you have your exit date.
Facing a Colo Exit Deadline?
Send the facility name, cabinet count, and exit date. We will come back with the plan — COI, access window, crew, and documentation.
Scope My Colo Exit