Nasdaq DR Data Center to Move from Ashburn to Chicago

Nasdaq OMX Group is moving Nasdaq disaster recovery data center from Ashburn, Virginia, to Chicago. The new DR site will be located in the Equinix CH4 facility at 350 E. Cermak, a major Chicago data center hub and carrier hotel, according to a customer notice the company issued this week.

The move provides expanded geographic diversity, with the new location enabling customers to hook into a multitude of asset engines housed in or near the Chicago facility. It also means reduced networking costs for some, as it affects a range of different data feeds.

The decision to move the Nasdaq DR site was based on customer feedback, the company said. The move will take place in stages.

Modern stock exchange operators have morphed into sophisticated technology-services companies, and Nasdaq has a wide-ranging service portfolio, including data center colocation and direct connectivity to all of its markets and services at both 1Gbps and 10Gbps.

The feeds to Nasdaq Stock Market, Options Market, and others will be available out of Chicago in August, several months before officially shutting down in Ashburn in January of next year. Parallel data feeds will be available in the intermittent period.

Nasdaq is taking a staggered approach in migrating disaster recovery. Plans are to also move post-trade, back office, and reporting services to Chicago in early 2016.

Connecting to the Nasdaq DR data center in Chicago is not mandated for its customers but recommended. Nasdaq urges them to complete the migration of order connectivity from Ashburn to Chicago prior to the November 9 deadline in order to maintain full DR accessibility.

Nasdaq recently announced it was moving its primary trading data center serving the Nordic and Baltic regions from Lunda to a DigiPlex facility in Upplands Väsby in Sweden.