As previously announced in Equity Trader Alert #2015-54, Nasdaq is moving its Disaster Recovery (DR) site for the US equities and options markets in a phased approach from Ashburn, VA to Chicago, IL. The new DR will be located within the Equinix CH4 facility in 350 E. Cermak on the 8^th floor. In addition to offering additional geographic diversity, this new DR location also enables clients to easily connect to a broad group of other equities and options exchange DR engines as well as other asset classes in this Chicago facility.

In advance of the next UAT window for port testing (of logical sessions) on August 29, 2015, customers must register and submit port requests no later than August 24, 2015 in order to be guaranteed IP/port assignments. Subsequent UAT weekends are listed in the timeline table below.

Port Requests and IP Information

Logical ports/sessions will be provided on as needed based on customer requests. Firms will need to opt-in in order to receive DR/backup order entry and market data Ports/IPs in Chicago. Pending filing with the SEC, effective Friday, January 1, 2016, Chicago IPs/ports for order entry and TCP ITCH market data will be assessed a $25 add-on fee per port and must be a mirror of an existing production port in Carteret.

Firms must complete a Port Request Form to request Chicago IPs/Ports. Email requests will not be accepted. Customers will need to check the box to request “a Chicago Backup/DR port”.

For new ports, firms can elect to receive a Chicago IP/port with their current order or firms can request to modify existing ports and add Chicago IPs/ports. Please include the list of ports in the Notes section or attach the list separately. Firms will continue to receive Carteret/Ashburn port pairs during the migration (with Chicago ports as an additional option). Ashburn order entry ports will be accessible until they are shutdown on November 9, 2015. Ashburn TCP ITCH market data ports will be shut down on January 29, 2016.

Network Details

As previously announced, customers will need to work with Nasdaq or their third party vendor to provision for Nasdaq’s Chicago subnet: 206.200.80.0/20. All multicast and unicast services for the six Equities and Options markets will be contained within this network range. Firms also must establish physical connectivity via a 1G or 10G direct connect or through an extranet, ISV or an Equinix approved telco provider.

Timeline of the Migration

Nasdaq will be moving the DR connectivity of its U.S. equities and options markets (including Nasdaq, BX, PHLX, NOM, BX Options, and PSX) according to the schedule below.

* There will be two UAT weekends for order entry testing prior to the production launch date. Following the launch, customers will be able to use their Chicago ports for production traffic even when Carteret is active.

Other Nasdaq post-trade (TRF), back office, FINRA, and reporting services will be moved to Chicago in early 2016.

For More Information

For port requests, please contact U.S. Market Operations at +1 212 231 5180. Please also refer to the DR Migration page on our website for an updated timeline.

Customers may contact Andrea Moran, +1 212 231 5162, Doug Aragones, +1 212 231 5189 or their Nasdaq relationship manager for additional details on the DR migration.