Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data centre services, today announced that SIX Swiss Exchange AG will open an access node for its critical trading system infrastructure at Equinix's recently opened International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Zurich, Switzerland (ZH4), allowing financial services firms direct access to the Swiss Securities Exchange.
The strategic city centre location of Equinix's ZH4 IBX data center will support proximity colocation to the SIX Swiss Exchange AG, and will enable Equinix to offer financial market participants low latency solutions to this key trading platform.
Switzerland is one of the world's largest financial centres, and the SIX Swiss Stock AG, located in Zurich plays a fundamental role throughout the European market. SIX Swiss Exchange is part of SIX Group, which was formed through the merger of former SWX Group, SIS Group and Telekurs Group. SIX Group provides infrastructure services to national and international participants of the Swiss financial centre. The company is a globally operating market infrastructure provider that offers services including securities trading, securities services, financial market data information and payment transactions.
In addition to offering proximity data centre services to the SIX Swiss Exchange AG, SIX Group has also chosen Equinix for its proven track record in building financial communities of execution venues, buy and sell side firms, market data providers and financial networks within its global data centre network. Equinix's global services delivery platform and carrier neutral strategy has attracted the most comprehensive community of leading financial firms worldwide, with key market players locating within its data centres to support highly reliable, secure, low latency connectivity.
"Equinix has expanded rapidly into the world's top financial centres, and we are very pleased to see that Equinix is offering its services to the members of SIX Swiss Exchange," said Clemens Reuter, Head of Member Relations at SIX Swiss Exchange AG.
The ZH4 IBX data centre is a state of the art facility opened in May 2010 to meet the region's rising demand for premium colocation and interconnection data centre services, particularly from global and local network service providers and financial services firms. Located in central Zurich on the same campus as Equinix's ZH1 and ZH2 IBX data centres, and just 1.5 km from the nearby ZH3 IBX data centre, the ZH4 IBX data centre builds on the rich network density at Equinix's existing facilities, providing customers with a wide range of options to connect to other financial hubs around the world, offering immediate access to more than 70 networks.
"Switzerland is one of the most competitive financial centres in the world, and this mutually beneficial agreement with SIX Group supports our continued investment in the region," said Frits van der Graaff, general manager for Equinix in Switzerland. "While Equinix will offer SIX Swiss Exchange AG's many customers a highly reliable and secure location from which to boost their trading operations, SIX Swiss Exchange AG will in turn act as a magnet to help attract even more participants to the neutral financial trading community that relies on our data centres across the world."