Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx)), operator of stock and features exchanges in Hong Kong, will be deploying Juniper’s QFabric network system at the new data center for hosting services it is building and expects to complete by the third quarter.

QFabric is Juniper’s virtualized one-layer data center network that behaves like a single switch, reducing management complexity and operational cost, according to the vendor. The financial-services firm is the first customer in Asia to buy QFabric since Juniper announced it in February 2011.

HKEx is installing 10GbE top-of-rack switches and Juniper’s Ethernet switches with Virtual Chassis technology, which will provide the data center’s hosting clients with 1GbE and 100Mbps connectivity.

Virtual Chassis is the secret sauce that makes multiple interconnected switches behave as one logical device. The fabric is managed via Juniper’s Junos Space suite of network-management tools.

Douglas Murray, senior VP for Juniper in Asia-Pacific, said since every microsecond counted in securities markets, networking systems were key choices for data center operators. “Competitive edge can be driven by the speed, reliability and security of a trading platform's network,” he said.

Jonathan Leung, head of hosting services at HKEx, said hosting services were a key initiative in the company’s strategic plan.

“The network solution provided by Juniper Networks and Wharf T&T is designed to ensure that we deliver highly-efficient, low-latency connections within the hosting services ecosystems,” he said.

Wharf T&T is a Juniper partner that is implementing the solution at the HKEx data center and will provide support for it.