Colocation Solutions Featured Article

Telx Connects Capital Markets Community with FBX Exchange

By Erin Harrison, Senior Editor

Responding to a demand to interconnect capital markets customers, Telx, one of the largest domestic interconnection and colocation data center operators, announced the creation of the Telx Financial Business Exchange, or FBX, a new exchange dedicated to providing proximity to the interconnected capital markets community. 

 

According to company officials, Telx has added 23 new customers in 2009 alone, and from September 2008 to September 2009, the company’s financial vertical customers grew their services by more than 70 percent. Further evidence of the demand for the exchange can be found in this fact: from January 2009 to September 2009, 23 new customers increased their services with Telx by more than 20 percent.

“Financial services customers continue to turn to Telx for fully conditioned colocation space that is in very close proximity to all major exchanges and a wide variety of market data and order processing vendors as well as fund management and brokerage firms,” said Bill Kolman, executive vice president of sales for Telx. “Our team has become expert at understanding the entire spectrum of needs of the capital markets community – including low latency connectivity, proximity hosting space, and wrap-around services to support the overall solution. Our success in this arena has prompted us to devote specific resources to continuing our legacy of high-quality service to the financial services sector.”

 

Connecting the capital markets communities shows the company’s commitment to the financial services sector, Kolman added, which can be witnessed through the company’s recent announcement that electronic trading networks and managed services leader 7ticks will expand its presence in Telx’s facility at 350 East Cermak Road in downtown Chicago. The expansion gives 7ticks additional colocation space and expands the reach of 7ticks direct exchange access to such exchanges as the CME Group and the IntercontinentalExchange, company officials said.

 

“Our business model calls for Telx to be a carrier-neutral provider of connectivity, as well as colocation space and ancillary services,” he said. “The more providers we connect to across the five different segments of the capital markets community that Telx can connect to and offer as an interconnection in one of its centers, the greater the possibilities for our customers.”

 

With today’s financial markets demanding technology that will bring maximum returns, FBX enables customers to access ultra low latency connectivity to leading exchanges and market data vendors in the Telx FBX community. 

 

“In financial services, the most important factor in profitability is speed of execution. Whether it be sharing market data to make trading decisions or execution of an actual trade, time to transaction completion is critical,” said Kolman. “Technology can assist in two major ways: first, by offering faster connections between two financial service firms that need to work with one another and second, by locating equipment that sends and receives data in close physical proximity to the source or destination to which it sends or receives – which also reduces transaction time. Telx offers financial services firms both advantages, allowing for some of the fastest data routing available to the financial services community today.”

 

Company officials said that Telx will continue to respond to the trend of financial institutions taking a presence in network-diverse, network-rich colocation facilities.

 

“FBX is just one response to the growing trend of financial service firms turning to colocation. By offering very broad, dense interconnection capabilities and the availability of many carriers that strive to offer the fastest connectivity and best possible routing on the market, Telx can, in turn, provide the best possible services to meet the needs of the capital markets community,” Kolman said. “The company will also continue judicious expansion of its facilities to meet customer needs, especially in data centers with a strong cadre financial services customers for FBX customers to interconnect with.”

Erin Harrison is a Senior Editor with TMC. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Erin Harrison