Dublin The Speed! Volta Joins Metro2C For Low Latency Between UK & Ireland

As Volta completes finishing touches to its City of London Datacenter, low-latency network connectivity is an apparent focus in order to ensure that at the time of opening it can support the requirements of the world’s largest financial center’s institutions.

Today, Sea Fibre Networks (SFN), owner and operator of Europe's most advanced subsea telecoms network, CeltixConnect, today announced Volta Data Centres as a member of the METRO2C Alliance.

A particular facet of this alliance, is that it creates a unique low latency eco-system between Dublin's International Financial Services Center (IFSC) and London's financial services trading community.

The METRO2C Alliance enables latency sensitive trading participants, including exchanges, brokers and high-frequency traders, to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed from the IFSC in Dublin, directly to Volta's Great Sutton Street Data Centre via the CeltixConnect submarine network.

Proximity To City – And To Europe

Volta’s facility in Great Sutton Street represents a significant advancement in terms of infrastructure, as London, despite its proliferation of financial institutions, lags behind North American financial centers in its connectivity and modernity of infrastructure. Reliance until now has been concentrated on the Equinix LD4 location, some 30 miles away in Slough.

It is highly likely that this will continue as the LD4 is a well-established hub and has connectivity with the world’s venues plus vast capacity, however Volta's London operations represents the first new data center to be opened in London in 15 years, and also is situated just half a mile from the City’s financial district.

The METRO2C Alliance intends to strengthen the digital economy through critical infrastructure and commences with a focus on the financial industry.

SFN considers the matters of electronic trading requiring high speed, resilient and secure connections to be of utmost importance.

Therefore, tools such as sophisticated algorithms can execute thousands of orders in a single stock per second, while smart order routers scan dozens of public and private marketplaces simultaneously for the best available price.

These tools enable trading participants to spot trends rapidly and adjust their trading strategies within milliseconds.

Power To The People

CeltixConnect, the shortest submarine network on the Dublin to UK route, lands in Dublin at a dedicated cable landing station in the vicinity of the IFSC, delivering the fastest possible speeds to and from half of the world’s top 50 financial institutions including high frequency trading firms, financial services firms, hedge firms, brokers and banks.

In London, through its centrally located data Centre, Volta offers proximity Hosting and low latency access to key trading venues in an ultra-secure facility with 24 hour surveillance and bomb blast protection measures.

Julian King, Volta’s Commercial Director explained to Forex Magnates at the time of completing the implementation of the data center that “The location in the city will make it particularly attractive to the Forex community, particularly the connectivity of the building which is currently connected to eight carriers and all of the major trading venues. The building itself is a brand new facility, which encompasses a 45,000 square foot raised floor technology space with a very resilient power supply which is better than any out-of-town data center power supply in the UK, in this case comprising a 33,000 volt substation which is exclusive to this data center and not shared with anyone else.”

Diane Hodnett, CEO, Sea Fibre Networks today made a commercial statement: "We are delighted to add Volta to the METRO2C Alliance. This collaboration not only benefits the financial services industry in the UK and Ireland but also supports the new wave of online media companies who continue to locate significant operations in both Dublin and London's Shoreditch and Silicon Roundabout areas."

Regarding the strategic partnership, Mr King concluded: "We are pleased to become a member of the METRO2C Alliance. We welcome this collaboration to provide more connectivity options to the financial markets and offer our customers ultra-low latency, secure and resilient connectivity between the UK and Irish trading communities."