With this deployment, RTS will be able to directly reach an aggregation of network service providers and financial trading companies, including strategic customers and partners, within a single centralized location.

RTS is a leading Independent Software Vendor (ISV) providing electronic trading software, with more than 3,000 users and more than 65 exchange connections around the world. By offering an integrated trading, risk management and pre-execution limit control system, RTS products provide a comprehensive solution for trading on different exchanges worldwide from a single window. In order to achieve the trading speed, reliability, and world class trading functionality that RTS is known for, the company requires a solid information technology and network connectivity infrastructure as the backbone of its business.

With its deployment to Equinix's Chicago data center hub, RTS will enhance the speed, performance and reliability of its services by directly connecting to the aggregation of network service providers and financial trading companies operating within the center. By reaching these strategic partners and customers within a single, centralized location rather than in multiple locations and across great distances, RTS will streamline their connectivity infrastructure and greatly enhance performance. In addition, RTS will connect to multiple exchanges at Equinix including CME, CBOT, Eurex, Nymex, and other exchanges in 2006.

Specifically, RTS will utilize Equinix Financial eXchange, a bundled service designed to provide the financial trading industry with the highest levels of network redundancy along with a high-performance data center environment and interconnectivity fabric to ensure operational continuity for critical electronic trading operations. Equinix Financial eXchange offers a convenient platform for banks, financial trading companies and financial exchanges that are increasingly migrating from floor trading operations to electronic trading platforms to interconnect with each other and with multiple network service providers in order to execute financial transactions. This direct interconnection enables the most streamlined network connectivity with partners and end-users, reducing latency in this time-sensitive business. In addition, Equinix Financial eXchange allows customers to rapidly and efficiently scale to meet increasing trading volumes and respond to additional data demands from partners and customers.

Equinix's secure and network-rich Chicago hub also provides RTS with a solid disaster recovery infrastructure. In addition to the network redundancy of providing direct access to a choice of more than 200 network service providers, Equinix's centers include industry-leading security features, such as interlocking "mantrap" doors, multiple layers of biometric hand-geometry scanners controlling access, as well as 24-hour security officers and hundreds of surveillance cameras. The power operations of each center include a high-performance backup system that ensures uninterrupted power even in the event of utility power disruption.

"Speed and performance are critical in our business, and our customers require the fastest possible connections to multiple global exchanges through our various product offerings, such as our hosted RTD Tango algorithmic trading solution," said Steffen Gemunden, Deputy CEO of RTS. "Equinix and the company's Financial eXchange service provide us with the infrastructure, services and proximity to partners and customers that will allow us to greatly scale and expand our growing operations while maintaining the highest levels of performance and offering even more attractive service level agreements to our customers."

"As technology is drastically changing the legacy open outcry financial trading exchanges around the globe, Equinix provides a strong platform for these companies to deploy their next-generation electronic trading operations," said Peter Van Camp, CEO of Equinix. "RTS joins an ever increasing critical mass of financial trading companies that have found the Equinix Chicago IBX center to be a convenient one-stop shop for deploying a high-performance electronic trading platform."