360 Technical Center Solutions (360TCS) has opened a new data center in Lombard, Ill. and is focusing on providing high-density data center space to Chicago-area financial firms. The facility has opened with an anchor tenant in Wolverine Trading, a Chicago trading specialist that's also an equity investor in 360TCS.
At 8,000 square feet, 360TCS is a relatively small facility, and will be built out in two phases. "We have a unique niche target market," said Don Welbourn, Director of Sales for 360TCS. "We are not focusing on selling large contiguous footprints. This facility will appeal to a specific type of client. With the center’s high density capabilities, equipment that would occupy 10 or more cabinets in most facilities can be compressed in to three or four."
The growth of low latency trading has boosted business for providers like Equinix (EQIX) and Savvis (SVVS) in the New York and Chicago markets. Wolverine provides technology solutions for high-performance trading, including real-time market data feeds that enable algorithmic trading. The availability of these data feeds is a key step in attracting trading operations and building a financial ecosystem within a data center.
“A network design capable of delivering low latency connectivity to all of the major exchanges in the U.S. and Europe provides a tremendous advantage to businesses that rely on receiving this data,” said Welbourn. "The infrastructure of 360TCS was designed specifically to meet the needs of companies in the financial industry."
That approach made an impression on Wolverine. “We have space in data centers in several cities in the U.S. and Europe, and in most cases we have to adjust our requirements to meet the data center’s limitations of available space, power, and connectivity,” said Jim Michuda, Partner at Wolverine. “At 360TCS, the needs of a technology driven financial firm were paramount in the data center’s design.”
