FAST vs DLR Comparison

Fastenal opened its first fastener store in 1967 in Winona, Minnesota. Since then, it has greatly expanded its footprint as well as its products and services. Today, Fastenal serves its 400,000 active customers through approximately 1,600 branches, over 2,000 on-site locations, and 15 distribution centers. Since 1993, the company has added other product categories, but fasteners remain its largest category at about 30%-35% of sales. Fastenal also offers customers supply chain solutions, such as vending and vendor-managed inventory.

Digital Realty owns and operates over 300 data centers worldwide. It has nearly 40 million rentable square feet across five continents. Digital's offerings range from retail co-location, where an enterprise may rent a single cabinet and rely on Digital to provide all the accommodations, to "cold shells," where hyperscale cloud service providers can simply rent much, or all, of a barren, power-connected building. In recent years, Digital Realty has de-emphasized cold shells and now primarily provides higher-level service to tenants, which outsource their related IT needs to Digital. The company operates as a real estate investment trust.