CME data center installs backup cooling after outage

An Illinois-based data center that supports the CME reportedly installed backup cooling systems after a significant outage caused a major disruption in the global market.

This announcement drew widespread attention after CyrusOne, the company that owns the Chicago 1 (CHI1) data center in Aurora, Illinois, released a statement mentioning that, “We have restored stable and secure operations at our facility. To improve continuity further, we have added extra redundancy to our cooling systems.” 

CME’s data center eases tension after a major power outage 

CME Group Inc., the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, operating four exchanges, relies heavily on the Aurora data center. In 2016, CME struck a deal with CyrusOne and decided to sell the facility to the Dallas-based company, which is now owned by KKR & Co. and Global Infrastructure Partners, the private equity companies that jointly acquired and now own CyrusOne.

Notably, the exchanges operated by CME include the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, the New York Mercantile Exchange, and the Commodity Exchange.

When the major outage occurred, the cooling system broke down late on Thursday, November 27, at the data center complex. This outage resulted in a significant rise in temperature to above 100°F (38°C). 

At this time, several possible suggestions were raised under CME’s disaster recovery plan to address the issue and prevent further impacts. An example of the proposals raised was that the company move to a data center located in New York. However, after reports announced that the incident was a short outage, the firm decided to withdraw the plan.

Contrastingly, the outage lasted for hours. This outage was massive. It began in Asia and spread globally, affecting various trading activities for everything ranging from gold and oil to bets on  US interest rates. 

On Friday afternoon, the following day after the incident occurred, most operations were back up and running. Regarding regulators’ participation in the scenario, a representative from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission confirmed that they were aware of the issue and were monitoring the market as usual.

CME’s power outage incident ignites tension in the market 

Following a significant power outage at  CME, trading on its famous currency platform halted. Futures linked to foreign exchange, commodities, Treasuries, and stocks were also affected.

In a statement, CME stated that,  “Our markets are currently halted due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers. Our support team is working to fix the problem soon and will update clients with Pre-Open details as they become available.” 

This situation prompted reports to contact CyrusOne for further information on the incident. However, when they requested the company to comment on the matter, it declined to respond. The Dallas-based firm is responsible for managing more than 55 data centers across Japan, Europe and the United States.

Regarding the CME’s notice, reports from reliable sources indicate that the EBS foreign exchange platform’s operations were temporarily halted due to technical issues. 

On the other hand, traders in the market raised concerns about CME’s power outage. They claimed that the company alerted them of the trading stoppage just before 0300 GMT, which resulted in major losses affecting all futures and options contracts on Globex.

One trader, who wished to remain anonymous, referred to this scenario as a “nightmare.” Meanwhile, it is worth noting that CME derivatives serve as benchmarks in various markets, including stocks and commodities. 

Still, it remained unclear exactly how many CME products were affected by the outage. Nonetheless, LSEG data highlighted that the prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, Treasury futures, S&P 500 futures, palm oil, and gold were not being updated. 

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