ASX has entered into a commitment to build a new data centre to meet its expanded co-location (primary) services and upgraded business continuity (backup) requirements for the medium to long-term, as foreshadowed in February 2010
The new data centre will be located outside of, but a short distance from, the central business district of Sydney. It is scheduled to be completed in August 2011 and planned to be operational within a few months of that date.
Capital expenditure on the data centre facility is expected to be approximately $32 million, the bulk of which will be incurred in the second half of FY11. This expenditure will be incremental to the prior capital expenditure guidance of $25 million for FY11.
Migration to the new, larger data centre will allow ASX to expand its co-location hosting services, including providing co-location benefits to both cash equities and futures markets participants.
Co-location hosting enables high speed market data and trade execution with near zero network latency, by placing participant trading equipment in the same physical location as ASX's trading facility.
Last week ASX announced a reduction in its headline fees that will lower the direct costs of trading for ASX participants, and a range of new systems and order type functionality to lower the market impact costs of trading on ASX markets. The new data centre will complement these cost and service innovations.