Equinix to expand London data centre

Equinix, the global interconnection and data centre company, has announced it will expand its LD4 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre at its London Slough campus. The new phase supports the continued growth of the world’s largest multi-asset class electronic trading ecosystem which consists of a robust collection of interconnected execution venues, trading platforms, market data vendors, service providers, buy-side firms and sell-side firms. The new US$39 million (£29 million) expansion is scheduled to open Q4 2018.

Key facts:

• • The new expansion of the LD4 data centre will enable customers to interconnect securely with 1,000+ businesses in London including leading capital markets participants, insurers and electronic payments firms, as well as 200+ network service providers and 275+ cloud and IT service providers. Today, LD4 has 3,777 cabinets in approximately 10,000 square metres of colocation area; the expansion will add an additional 1,075 cabinets in approximately 3,300 square metres of colocation area
  • Leading financial services companies such as Nasdaq leverage Equinix’s global interconnection platform — Platform Equinix — to securely transact with ecosystem participants. As the creator of the world’s first electronic stock market, Nasdaq has deployed with Equinix in LD4 in London, as well as New York City for close proximity to customers and partners who demand high performance, low latency connectivity. This private connectivity allows for sharing large amounts of data with multiple stakeholders through private business exchanges, securely bypassing the public Internet completely
  • According to the Global Interconnection Index, interconnection bandwidth in Europe is expected to grow to reach 1450+Tbps by 2020, contributing more than a quarter of interconnection bandwidth globally. Banking and Insurance is expected to grow to reach 955+ Tbps of interconnection bandwidth by 2020. Furthermore, London is set to quadruple its private data exchange from 114 Tbps to 486 Tbps
  • With over 90 network service providers and access to a range of transatlantic cables, the London Slough campus is one of the busiest network nodes in the UK and offers latency in the region of 30 milliseconds to New York and 4 milliseconds to Frankfurt, making it an ideal high-performance hub for electronic trading, as well as cloud and content service provision

James McKeone, AVP and Head of Strategic Relationships and Products for Nasdaq’s Global Information Services, said: “Nasdaq’s collaboration with Equinix allows us to better serve our customers and partners from inside one of the world’s most interconnected data centres. With our presence in LD4, we are able to better provide products like Nasdaq Basic and our Global Index Data Service (GIDS) to investors in Europe. Localised data centres mean better market access for all and improved market transparency.”

Russell Poole, Managing Director, Equinix UK, said: “It is estimated that the financial and professional services industry contributes £176bn to the UK economy annually. In order for London to retain its title as the financial centre of the world, despite concerns over Brexit, businesses require the latest IT infrastructure to thrive. The extension of our LD4 data centre will help financial market participants continue to interconnect on a global scale — enabling them to improve the way investors access and act on the information that drives the global economy.”