With an increasing number of their customers adopting public clouds, ICE needed to extend access to their market-leading data services into the cloud.

The Fortune 500 financial marketplace operator ICE has come a long way since its founding in 2000. Originally launched as an over-the-counter electronic trading platform, ICE bought the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 and invested heavily in its data business with strategic acquisitions such as Interactive Data Corporation (2015), Standard & Poor’s Securities Evaluations, Inc. & Credit Market Analysis (2016), Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research division’s fixed income index platform (2017) and SuperDerivatives (2014). Today, ICE’s comprehensive data services provide mission-critical information and analytics that help their customers capitalize on opportunities and operate more efficiently.

Enabling transparent and efficient markets

Throughout their history, ICE has remained true to their original mission of enabling transparent and efficient markets to help customers manage risk. ICE’s comprehensive data services aim to provide transparency, information, analysis, and connectivity to market participants. Today, ICE’s market-leading data services are relied upon by asset managers, banks, retail trading, prop trading, surveillance firms, solution providers, and wealth management providers around the world. 

Read the ICE case study here.

Cloud-based access to data services

As more and more ICE customers began to use public clouds, they desired greater flexibility in how they accessed ICE’s business-critical content and services. There was increased demand for cloud-based access to ICE Global Network (IGN), in addition to direct connections from specific physical points of presence (PoPs) to gain close proximity to ICE’s private network. 

The challenge was to develop a cloud-based offering that would provide the same level of security and low latency access as their on-premises offering. “ICE has stringent requirements for security, resiliency, and performance for our customers,” said Margaret Niche, ICE’s Head of Global Network. “Any provider we work with must meet our high standards, as well as provide our customers speed, choice, and coverage.”  

The solution: IGN Cloud Connect

ICE used Megaport to develop IGN Cloud Connect, which provides customers cloud-based access to ICE’s Consolidated Feed, fixed income pricing and analytics, and unicast content from prominent third-party providers. Virtual Cross Connects and Megaport Cloud Routers (MCR) were deployed at key ICE locations.

Learn more about Megaport Cloud Router (MCR), a virtual routing service that simplifies cloud-to-cloud connectivity.

IGN Cloud Connect offers global coverage thanks to Megaport’s private Software Defined Network (SDN), which provides access to over 700 enabled data centers in 24 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. And IGN Cloud Connect is pre-connected to cloud providers so connectivity can be established for customers in a matter of days.

“Megaport’s SDN is purpose-built for capital markets,” Niche said.

Successful use cases

IGN Cloud Connect has enabled numerous successful use cases globally including: 

• A leading global market data and analytics provider with secondary infrastructure in AWS looking to efficiently consolidate multiple exchange data sources.
• A global retail broker dealer servicing both North America and Asia-Pacific customers needing access to key US equity and options markets directly from their AWS infrastructure.
• A trade surveillance and market risk platform servicing compliance and risk desks wanting to reduce costs by migrating their infrastructure from on-premises to AWS.

To read more about how ICE designed IGN Cloud Connect with Megaport, read the ICE Case Study.