Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data centre services, today announced that Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the largest U.S. options exchange and creator of listed options, plans to locate electronic trading operations for its all-electronic exchange, currently known as "C2," at the Equinix New York-4 (NY4) International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Secaucus, New Jersey.
SEC approval of C2 is pending, and CBOE has not yet announced an official launch date for the new exchange.
C2's participation in Equinix Financial eXchange at the NY4 centre will provide the growing number of electronic trading firms in the centre with direct proximity to CBOE's C2 options products. Equinix Financial eXchange serves capital market participants such as exchanges, buy and sell side firms, market data providers, technology utilities and network service providers. These companies locate operations within Equinix data centres in order to implement a high-performance, low latency connectivity infrastructure within a neutral environment. In addition, the NY4 centre can accommodate the latest power, cooling and space demands of the new generation of IT equipment, allowing financial companies to focus on their core competencies rather than on the increasingly complex management of a high-performance data centre infrastructure.
"This move brings all the benefits of the operations CBOE currently has in the Chicago area to the immediate proximity of the leading market participants in the New York area, reducing the latency in an industry where milliseconds can make a significant difference," said Gerald O'Connell, executive vice president and chief information officer for Chicago Board Options Exchange.
"The launch of CBOE's new electronic trading platform within Equinix's NY4 data centre will provide a significant benefit to the existing financial trading companies and networks already operating within the centre, and it will allow new CBOE customers to place their trading infrastructure within our flexible and high-performance data centre environment," said John Knuff, director of business development for Equinix.
The NY4 centre in Secaucus, NJ, at which C2 will be located, is Equinix's largest data centre in the US to date which, at full build out, will be 340,000 square feet - the size of five football fields. Power operaoperations include a high-performance backup system that provides uninterrupted power even in the event of utility power disruption. Security features include interlocking "mantrap" doors, multiple layers of biometric hand-geometry scanners controlling access, as well as 24-hour security officers and hundreds of surveillance cameras.