CME Group and Google Cloud today announced plans to build a new Google Cloud private domain and colocation facility in Aurora, Illinois.
The Google Cloud private area will host the new, industry-first, specialized Google Cloud platform designed to support CME Group’s global futures and options markets and provide derivatives investors with cloud-based, ultra-low-cost networking latency and high performance computing.
Locating the platform in the new private Google Cloud region in the Chicago area will allow CME Group customers to use existing connectivity options and access points in other global markets. In addition, CME Group customers can choose between self-managed infrastructure in the colocation facility or Google Cloud’s dedicated infrastructure-as-a-service offering, both with equal network latency for the exchange.
The new specialized platform will enable a range of benefits for CME Group clients, including expanded flexibility, enhanced operational efficiency and increased access to cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, which will deepen the value proposition for market users around the globe. For example, CME Group clients will be able to experiment, test and rapidly develop new strategies without impacting their production trading environments.
“This is an important step forward in our industry-revolutionizing Google Cloud partnership,” said CME Group President and CEO Terry Duffy. “Located in close proximity to our current data center campus and with disaster recovery facilities in Dallas, Texas, the new specialized Google Cloud platform will expand the benefits we can provide our customers through next-generation cloud technology, expanded access and efficiency. wider range of custom connectivity options and faster product development, with minimal disruption to their current operations.”
In addition to the capabilities offered through the new platform, market participants migrating to the cloud can benefit from Google Cloud’s global network and innovative AI and data capabilities. With Google Cloud’s data cloud products, such as BigQuery and AlloyDB, and its artificial intelligence and machine learning platform, Vertex AI, financial institutions will be able to experiment with new modeling techniques such as time series forecasting and simplify access in information by creating artificial intelligence. All of this is supported by the growing number of Google Cloud regions, the global scale network and AI-powered security.
“Our latest milestone with CME Group builds on our shared goal of accelerating CME’s transition to the cloud and innovating capital markets infrastructure globally,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “Through our collaboration, we are leveraging the best of cloud computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence, while respecting market participants’ existing custom hardware requirements to deliver low-latency, deterministic and scalable trading environments to CME Group clients and in the broader financial markets.”
Development of the specialized platform is ongoing, starting with core features available for customer testing in the Dallas Google Cloud region, which will eventually become the disaster recovery facility. Construction of the private Google Cloud area in Aurora is scheduled to begin this year. CME Group expects to provide clients with at least 18 months’ advance notice before CME Group markets move to the new platform. CME Group’s cash markets will continue to operate in their current facilities as they do today.
Since announcing their partnership in 2021, CME Group and Google Cloud continue to execute key initiatives, including recent enhancements to CME Group’s cloud-based data platform and the migration of critical clearing applications to the cloud. Both companies are focused on delivering significant benefits to all market participants by expanding access, creating real-time, customer-centric data and analytics capabilities, bringing new products and services to market, and increasing efficiency.