Equinix to Host BATS Exchange in Secaucus Trading Hub

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The data halls inside the Equinix NY4 data center in Secaucus, New Jersey. BATS Global Markets will consolidate its primary data centers at the Equinix Secaucus campus in early 2015. (Photo: Equinix)

Equinix continues to move from strength to strength in its financial services ecosystem. The colocation specialist will soon host a key trading exchange from BATS Global Markets in its NY5 data center in Secaucus, N.J., the companies said Wednesday. BATS, the second-largest U.S. stock exchange, currently hosts its infrastructure in the CenturyLink Technnology (Savvis) NJ2 data center in Weehawken, New Jersey. Early next year, BATS will move its infrastructure from Weehawken to NY5.

"This is a critical addition to the over 150 exchange and execution platform deployments that currently reside within Equinix," said Equinix CEO Steve Smith. "As the only data center provider with a presence across top global financial markets, we expect to realize outsize benefits as these markets return to growth."

This means Equinix will host all of the BATS exchange platforms, including the Direct Edge exchange, which was acquired by BATS last month and currently hosts its primary data center in the Equinix NY4 facility in Secaucus. The Direct Edge Exchanges will remain at NY4 until January 2015, when they will migrate to BATS’ technology in Equinix’s NY5 data center.

Equinix’s New York-area data centers serve many of the world’s largest companies, including high concentrations of financial services companies such as BATS, and provide access to more than 700 businesses and 135 network service providers.

“As we begin the integration of Direct Edge to the BATS technology, expanding our partnership with Equinix is a critical step for the expanded BATS Global Markets and, more importantly, our customers,” said Chris Isaacson, Executive Vice President & Global Chief Information Officer, BATS. “Choosing Equinix as our primary data center provider, and leveraging its tremendous trading ecosystem in Secaucus, provides the type of continuity and cost efficiency which is paramount to these customers.”

“We’re pleased to announce this agreement with a market leader like BATS Global Markets, particularly as financial technologies are evolving and converging faster than ever. BATS understands that one of the keys to success lies not just in what you deploy, but where you deploy,” said Karl Strohmeyer, president, Americas, Equinix. “In today’s networked world, financial services companies need to position their systems for maximum connectivity, performance and agility in order to keep ahead of fast moving trends. With the global network of Equinix data centers, BATS can achieve proximity hosting requirements while tapping into a financial services ecosystem with all the major market players.”

BATS will maintain a network Point-of-Presence (PoP) in Equinix NY4 and CenturyLink Techniology NJ2 indefinitely. This will allow current Direct Edge Member connections in NY4 and BATS Member connections in NJ2 to access all BATS/Direct Edge Exchanges without interruption once they are moved to NY5.

In addition to Secaucus, BATS has space in Equinix’s London Slough data center campus LD4, which provides a high-performance trading environment for BATS Chi-X Europe’s integrated and dark electronic trading books. The BATS and Direct Edge Exchanges secondary data centers will remain in Chicago at the CH4 data center with a PoP at CH1.