CME outage Rootedโ in aurora Data Center,โ Now Owned by KKR and GIP
The recent notable disruption to CME โGroup’s trading operations stemmed from a failureโ atโ its Aurora, Illinois data center – a critical facility described as the “epicenter” for high-speed and futuresโค trading. the data center is operated by CyrusOne, a major player in the data centerโ industry, and was acquired in 2021 by a consortium of private equityโ firms KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for approximately $11.4 billion (roughlyโ 1.8 trillion yen).
CyrusOne’s โportfolio includes aroundโข 50 data centers across โคthe United States, United โKingdom, Germany, and Singapore, serving diverse sectors including technology, financial services, energy, healthcare,โ research, and โconsulting. Industry experts confirmโค CyrusOne’s strong standing.โ Tobias Bopp, strategy and โtransactions manager at EY Parthenon, noted the company is actively building new data centers and holds a significant market position. Lauren Eccles, senior principal consultant for โdata center recruiting at Firstโ Point Group, described CyrusOne as having “a very good reputation.”
The โacquisition by KKR and GIP was widely viewed as a strategic move toโฃ capitalize on the escalating demand for computingโข power driven by theโฃ burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI)โ sector and large technology โฃcompanies.
Following a cooling system failure on Novemberโฃ 27th,CME โขinitially considered enacting its disaster recoveryโ plan,which involved shifting operations to a data center near New York.However, CME opted to restart its matching engine in aurora after receiving dataโ suggesting the โฃcooling issue would be resolved more quickly than โคinitially anticipated.โฃ CyrusOne’s website indicates the Aurora โคfacility is equipped with redundant cooling systems for outage scenarios.
Thomas โSollerac, a partner at EY Parthenon, highlighted a potential design โฃflaw, stating that data centers of thisโข type “typically โฃhave a โlot of redundancy in place to avoid these power and cooling issues.”
It remains unclear whether cyrusone explored relocating CME’s โAurora operations to an alternative data center during the outage.
KKR directed all inquiries regarding CyrusOne to the data center operator. GIP, recently acquired by BlackRock, declined toโค comment.
(Original โreporting based on a Bloomberg article published November 28,โค 2024, with interview cooperation fromโ Isis Almeida.)
