Equinix and Switch and Data - companies in the process of becoming one - have both strengthened their foothold in the market for providing data center services to financial service firms.

Trans-Atlantic submarine cable provider Hibernia Atlantic expanded its Global Financial Network into two Equinix data centers in Secaucus, N.J. and trading solution provider Pragma Securities installed its equipment in a Switch and Data facility in North Bergen, N.J.

Equinix announced in October a definitive agreement to acquire Switch and Data for $689 million - a deal that is expected to close during the first quarter of 2010.

Hibernia expanded into Equinix's NY2 and NY4 data centers for greater redundancy within the New York metro area and to be able to bypass "major congestion points" within city centers, according to a company statement. The route allows for financial exchange traffic between Chicago and Secaucus to bypass Manhattan (if necessary) and traffic across the Atlantic Ocean to Slough, UK, to bypass London.

Hibernia's financial network leverages about 15,000 miles of fiber optic cable, provided by five different dark fiber providers, reaching Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Stamford, Weehawken, Secaucus, Newark, White Plains, New York, Frankfurt, Reading and London.

Including the new Equinix links, the network now has 13 points of presence in the New York metro area.

A Switch and Data facility in New Jersey - soon to become property of Equinix - will host Pragma's infrastructure that supports the company's tactical trade execution tools and hosted execution services for its financial-service client base.

The facility is one of Switch and Data's Financial EcoCenters - data centers optimized for use by the financial service sector. They provide infrastructure to satisfy the high-volume, high-security and low-latency requirements of the finance community.

The North Bergen site is interconnected with Switch and Data facilities at 60 Hudson St. and 111 Eighth Ave. in Manhattan and to many other execution venues in the region.