DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /    ( Table of Contents )

Breaking News - Networking:

SAVVIS To Provide IT Services For Boston Options Exchange

SAVVIS, a leading global managed IP services provider, announced that it will provide secured IP VPN connectivity and application services to the Boston Options Exchange (BOX), the new fully electronic United States-based equity derivatives market exchange, to connect with its global financial market participants.

"Network connectivity is a priority for BOX as our business depends exclusively on providing efficient, secure, and simple online trading," said Mike Curran, chief operating officer at the Boston Stock Exchange. "SAVVIS' Financial Xchange will enable our customers to participate in BOX's marketplace through a high-performance, secure and reliable network connection."

In addition to Financial Xchange connectivity, BOX will also deploy SAVVIS' highly successful FIX Transaction Services (FTS) to deliver electronic orders directly to the BOX. FTS provides a scaleable and cost effective means to provide direct connectivity for order flow without sacrificing performance.

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In February, BOX opened with its partners the Montreal Exchange and Interactive Brokers offering traders the opportunity for low-cost trading, an electronic auction feature that guarantees price improvement, and a model that functions without a trading floor. BOX has attracted extensive interest and support in the industry including equity partners Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS, Citigroup and JPMorgan. BOX began trading with more than 60 participants and five classes of shares and will rollout the top 250 options classes over the first 12 weeks following its launch.

BOX's new electronic platform has been fully integrated with SAVVIS' global network infrastructure to provide customers a cost-effective, secure and reliable connection to the exchange. By utilizing the SAVVIS network, BOX has successfully extended their reach to financial markets in 45 countries. Clients can now easily connect to BOX from any point on the SAVVIS network without engineering and managing complex and costly connections to BOX points of presence in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

"SAVVIS is a proven network and hosting provider for the top exchanges, ECNs and Alternative Trading Systems," said Jack Finlayson, president and chief operating officer of SAVVIS. "We are pleased to assist the BOX in delivering superior network connectivity to its liquidity pool leveraging the reliability, security and performance of SAVVIS services."