Nasdaq and Equinix have announced that Nasdaq is moving its disaster recovery (DR) site for the U.S. equities and options markets in a phased approach from Ashburn, VA, to Chicago beginning in August 2015. The new DR will be located in the Nasdaq Point of Presence (Nasdaq POP) within the Equinix Chicago data center (CH4) located in 350 E. Cermak on the 8^th floor. The recently launched Nasdaq POP in Chicago, along with the Nasdaq POP in Equinix's Secaucus, NJ, campus, allows customers to connect directly to any of the Nasdaq market systems from remote financial data centers.

"Migrating our disaster recovery facility to Chicago will be convenient, cost effective and more efficient for our market participants," said Tom Wittman, head of global equities and executive vice president of global trading and market services at Nasdaq. "Chicago is home to many primary and disaster recovery engines. We will continue making the DR facility available to additional Nasdaq markets throughout 2015 and beyond."

Equinix provides a neutral meeting place for the world's leading financial market participants, including trading venues, buy- and sell-side firms, market data providers, technology providers and financial networks. More than 850 financial services customers locate servers and infrastructure within Equinix data centers to support mission-critical financial services applications with highly reliable, low-latency connectivity. The expansion by Nasdaq further enhances Equinix's global electronic trading ecosystem, providing the interconnection options that companies need to meet business demands.

"As one of the largest carrier hotels in the country, 350 Cermak is the focal point for Chicago's financial markets and is ideally located to provide connectivity to more than half a dozen exchanges plus hundreds of broker dealers, crossing and other network providers, market data distributors, liquidity providers, and application providers all located in the same building or nearby in downtown Chicago," said Stewart Orrell, senior director, global market development. "Equinix and Nasdaq have a long-standing relationship and we are excited Nasdaq continues to leverage our global data center platform to meet their changing business needs."

The eSpeed platform was Nasdaq's first market to launch its DR facilities in Chicago in the fourth quarter of 2014. The Nasdaq Futures, Inc. (NFX) will go live with Chicago as its primary DR site when the platform launches later this year.

Nasdaq's DR facility in Chicago provides regional diversity for business continuity planning, with further distance from the exchange group's primary U.S. data center and less chance of impact from natural disasters that affect the East Coast region. The location will be convenient for clients who already maintain trading systems in Chicago. Clients utilizing the DR facility will achieve cost-efficiency with a simple cross-connect from their existing connectivity or presence in Chicago.

Nasdaq's Global Access Services group provides trading opportunities and market solutions for the financial services community to facilitate our clients' growth. As a connector, Nasdaq brings global trading opportunities closer to clients. Nasdaq protects clients through Global Access Services' comprehensive risk, compliance and reporting platforms. Global Access Services is also an enabler, with outsourcing and warehouse solutions which allow clients to easily handle operations and concentrate on growing their business.