ENGINEERING

Equinix, the leading provider of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services, today announced that ACTIV Financial Systems, Inc. has established an infrastructure hub within Equinix's Chicago Internet Business Exchange (IBX) center to support the company's financial market data services. The addition of this facility to ACTIV Financial's global network will enable ACTIV Financial to reach strategic partners and customers operating in the futures, options, and other derivative markets in the Chicago and West Coast regions with enhanced connectivity and greater efficiency. ACTIV Financial develops and supports a comprehensive suite of market data content and a low-latency exchange data management technology. Their product suite includes a North American composite data feed ("ActivFeed"), a high-end quote terminal ("ActivWorkstation") and a ticker-plant software infrastructure for client data centers ("ActivDF"). The company provides products and services that maximize its customers' ability to apply and profit from time-sensitive securities market information. These services have become a critical component to the equities and futures markets as the industry increasingly adopts computer technology to manage trading strategies, electronic order handling, and market making functions within the capital market process. ACTIV Financial aggregates market data content from a wide range of sources including global exchange data feeds, primary sourced corporate actions, fundamental data and news. As this data is utilized by clients' trading systems to make critical trading and investment decisions, ACTIV Financial requires a solid IT and connectivity infrastructure to provide customers with the highest levels of performance and reliability for the delivery of services in real-time. By basing critical infrastructure operations within Equinix's Chicago financial IT hub, ACTIV Financial can directly connect their network operations to the leading financial companies that comprise their partner and customer base. The company will also leverage the integration of network service providers within the center to implement a more reliable and cost-effective network connectivity infrastructure. By directly connecting to these key partners and customers within the same physical location, ACTIV Financial can drastically reduce costs and increase performance. This streamlined connectivity has allowed the company to increase the speed of their service, benefiting their clients and partners and providing a strong competitive advantage. To facilitate its relationships with the other companies operating within Equinix's Chicago center, ACTIV Financial will utilize Equinix Financial eXchange(TM), a fast, reliable, secure and convenient platform for banks, financial trading companies and financial exchanges to interconnect with each other and with multiple network service providers in order to execute financial transactions. The service offers the financial trading industry the highest levels of network redundancy along with a high-performance data center environment that ensures operational continuity for critical electronic trading operations. Equinix Financial eXchange allows customers to rapidly and efficiently scale to meet increasing trading volumes and respond to additional data demands from partners and customers. Equinix's Chicago center also offers a high-performance physical infrastructure that includes industry-leading security, power and environmental features. Security elements include interlocking "mantrap" doors, multiple layers of biometric hand-geometry scanners controlling access, as well as 24-hour security officers and hundreds of surveillance cameras. The power operations of each center include a high-performance backup system that guarantees uninterrupted power even in the event of utility power disruption. Cooling and environmental control features enable deployment of the most demanding IT deployments, including high power density equipment, such as blade servers. "An important concern for ACTIV Financial in assessing our IT infrastructure needs was the ability to operate within a community of other financial trading companies where we can directly connect to a critical mass of partners, suppliers and customers within the same room," said Frank Piasecki, president of ACTIV Financial. "After evaluating the benefits of operating our own Chicago data center or using other outsourced data center providers, we found Equinix to provide a unique opportunity that will enable us to scale our business rapidly without relinquishing control over the quality of our customer service." "ACTIV Financial is the first market data feed provider operating at Equinix and is a strong addition to the mix of financial industry companies in our Chicago data center, which has become the leading interconnection point in the U.S. for the financial trading industry," said Margie Backaus, chief business officer for Equinix. "As with many other financial information and securities trading companies, ACTIV Financial will use Equinix's Chicago hub as a key platform for the reliable, fast aggregation and dissemination of crucial exchange data services with unparalleled performance and a low Total Cost of Ownership."