Unfazed by US regulators' increased scrutiny of electronic trading, amplified by last week's sudden market plunge, data center service providers continue to capitalize on demand from the financial vertical for low-latency access to the financial markets.

Equinix, which last week closed its acquisition of former competitor Switch and Data, has expanded its standing relationship with a connectivity provider for the financial sector and Telx has secured a new customer that will host its trading platform in the provider's New York City facility.

IPC Systems, which has previously had equipment in four Equinix data centers, will expand its use of the colocation provider's infrastructure by adding two more Equinix locations to its network.

IPC uses its private network to provide connectivity services to trading firms.

Until now, IPC has had presence in Equinix facilities in Chicago, New York, Toronto and Hong Kong.

The two new locations that will be added before the year's end are Singapore and Slough, UK.

\"IPC supports more than 2,400 trading floors and connects almost 4,000 market participants and exchanges globally so we expect it to prove a popular choice for our customers in our New York, Chicago, Hong Kong and Toronto data centers, as well as in Singapore and Slough later this year,\" John Knuff, general manager of financial services at Equinix, said in a statement.

Telx's new customer from the financial vertical is Ballista Securities, a securities broker that is now using the company's colocation and interconnection services for its Alternative Trading System, hosted at the provider's data center at 111 8th Ave.

in New York City. Ballista became part of Telx's Financial Business Exchange, a grouping of offerings optimized for clients in the trading industry, who need proximity to major exchanges and extremely low interconnect latencies.

\"Telx's broad choice of carrier-neutral third-party circuit providers enables us to offer a high-performance trading solution to our customers by keeping our direct network connections in New York City,\" Ballista CTO Daniel Marques said in a statement.

\"Telx's ecosystem of providers helps us reduce data latency and potential points of network failure, ensuring maximum network up-time and minimal delays in traffic.\"

Ballista's ATS is a trading platform for equity options traders.

The carrier hotel at 111 8th Ave. in New York where Telx leases space is owned by Digital Realty Trust. Image courtesy of DRT

The building housing the Telx data center is one of the city's largest carrier hotels, where providers like Switch and Data (now Equinix) and Level 3 lease space and use provide network connectivity.

Telx recently expanded the amount of data center space it operates there by 21,500 square feet.

According to the provider, the expansion was a response to observed growth in demand from financial service customers and cloud service providers.