October 7, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Voice and electronic inter-dealer broker ICAP (www.icap.com) will expand its premium connectivity "i-Cross" service to the 107,600 square foot, 24 megawatt London-Slough Internet Business Exchange (or LD4 IBX) data centre operated by network-neutral data center and Internet exchange services provider Equinix (www.equinix.com), making premium service available to customers by the end of the year.
An inter-dealer broker acts as an intermediary between market participants who wish to buy or sell large quantities anonymously. While they have trading systems similar to those used by stock exchanges, they serve a more exclusive market of professional investors. ICAP reports an average daily transaction volume of more than $1.5 trillion.
"This extension of ICAP's services to financial market participants in Equinix's London-Slough data centre builds upon the successful partnership that Equinix and ICAP have in providing high-speed, low-latency access options to customers in North America," ICAP Electronic Broking deputy chief executive officer David Rutter said in a statement. "Choosing Equinix as our premium connectivity and proximity partner for Europe was a logical choice."
The London expansion will speed up ICAP's EBS platform connection for foreign exchange traders in Europe. It also helps build upon ICAP's current deployment at Equinix IBX centres in the New York area. Equinix has 41 IBX centers spanning 18 world-wide markets on three continents.
ICAP's i-Cross service in LD4 helps customers host their equipment at the data center, giving them high-speed network connectivity particularly beneficial to institutions with no physical presence in the trading region.
"Our network-rich LD4 data centre provides a high-performance connectivity platform for ICAP customers seeking the fastest and most reliable links to ICAP's services," Equinix Europe president Eric Schwartz said in a statement. "The addition of ICAP and their trading platforms to LD4 will also enhance our service offering to the high concentration of financial companies already colocated at Equinix in London, where they have access to a rich mix of carriers and financial extranets providing metro, regional and international connectivity for the electronic trading community."
ICAP is the latest company to announce its expansion at Equinix facilities. In early June, managed hosting provider Logicworks (www.logicworks.com) announced it would be expanding its operations at Equinix's New York 4 Internet Business Exchange. Almost two months later, carrier Tiscali International Network (www.tiscali.net) expanded its service to the wholesale IP-MPLS market through Equinix' Frankfurt and Paris Internet Business Exchange data centers.
