Data Center Links: Level 3, Horizon, CBOE, Equinix

Here's our review of noteworthy links for the data center industry for July 11th:

Level 3 Launches Trading Route Between London and Frankfurt - Level 3 Communications, today announced the launch of a new ultra-low-latency fibre-optic route to increase trading speeds between London and Frankfurt. The new route will also allow banks, hedge funds, brokers and other financial services institutions to execute trades with lower latency between additional exchanges connected to the Level 3 network including Zurich, Milan, New York and Chicago. "Frankfurt–London is one of the top 10 highest-bandwidth routes for international Internet traffic," says TeleGeography Senior Analyst Erik Kreifeldt. "Ultra-low latency affords a distinct differentiation on one of the most critical routes for global bandwidth, particularly for the financial services industry." From press release.

Horizon Certified to Provide Cloud Services to US Government - Data center operator Horizon Data Center Solutions announced last week that it has received the "Authority to Operate" as a cloud computing provider to the federal government. The government has made a commitment to move its services to the cloud as part of its Cloud First policy. According to the press release, this certification was awarded after completing the Federal Information Security Management Act compliance process. The contract was initially awarded in November 2010, and Horizon began adding staff in February to assist with the Blanket Purchase Agreement. From TheWHIR.

CBOE Stock Exchange Moves to Equinix's NY4 - Last week, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the largest U.S. options exchange and creator of listed options, announced that it was moving its operations to the East Coast from Chicago and begin trading from the Equinix (EQIX) NY4 Internet Business Exchange data center in Secaucus, NJ. CBSX's move to the NY4 facility will increase execution speed for the majority of CBSX's customers, which are located on the East Coast. From Paolo Gorgo at Seeking Alpha.