Beginning in 2022, Nasdaq plans to migrate its North American markets to AWS in a phased approach, starting with Nasdaq MRX, a U.S. options market. Nasdaq will use a new edge computing solution that is co-designed by Nasdaq and AWS and specifically developed for market infrastructure. This solution may also be used by other market infrastructure operators and market participants to move their trading systems to the cloud. In addition, the partnership will include opportunities to explore new ways to leverage AWS’s cloud capabilities across Nasdaq’s anti-financial crime, data and analytics, and market infrastructure software solutions.
“This landmark partnership with AWS seeks to power a truly cloud-based market infrastructure that is more resilient, scalable, and accessible for all market participants,” said Adena Friedman, President and CEO, Nasdaq. “For over a decade, Nasdaq has used the elasticity and high security of AWS to deliver client-driven solutions. Our innovative, new collaboration with AWS creates a bridge to the future for our markets and represents the next major step forward in Nasdaq’s cloud journey.”
“Together, Nasdaq and AWS will change what’s possible for capital markets organizations, helping them to speed up innovation and improve business processes,” said Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Combining Nasdaq’s 50 years of expertise in pioneering technology for capital markets with the proven security, reliability, and resilience of the world’s leading cloud will help our joint customers and Nasdaq to continue to grow their businesses and seamlessly transact billions of dollars in trades per day. Our partnership will give Nasdaq a way to more easily move their core infrastructure to the cloud and innovate new services as they continue their second decade of cloud adoption.”
Building the Capital Markets Infrastructure of the Future
Core to Nasdaq’s move to AWS will be AWS Outposts, which extend AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility. Nasdaq plans to incorporate AWS Outposts directly into its core network to deliver ultra-low-latency edge compute capabilities from its primary data center in Carteret, New Jersey. This co-designed edge computing solution would effectively establish Nasdaq’s data center as the first-ever private AWS Local Zone for the capital markets industry.
Over time, Nasdaq plans to move additional North American markets to the cloud with AWS. This hybrid infrastructure would provide Nasdaq with low-latency access to its on-premises systems to deliver high-frequency trading capabilities, as well as give its clients access to cloud-based capabilities, including virtual connectivity services, market analytics and machine learning, at a lower cost. Nasdaq expects this migration to the cloud to enable the adoption of new services and products in a manner that unlocks value and provides its clients with added flexibility.
Advancing Cloud-enabled Market Technology Solutions for the Global Economy
For the 130+ market infrastructure clients – spanning exchanges, banks, clearing houses, central securities depositories and regulators – that rely upon Nasdaq for their core trading, clearing, settlement, and surveillance technology today, Nasdaq plans to partner with AWS to develop viable cloud choices that include public-cloud and hybrid models.
Nasdaq also intends to leverage its cloud journey for its own markets, coupled with the growing number of AWS Local Zones around the world, and the collective technology portfolios of the partnership, to create a migration blueprint for its market technology clients using a combination of public cloud and edge compute options.
Nasdaq expects that migrating to the cloud will give its market infrastructure clients added agility and help them rapidly adjust to ever-changing industry dynamics in their countries and regions.
Nasdaq’s Cloud Strategy: A Decades-long Journey for an Interconnected Future
For 50 years, Nasdaq has reimagined markets to realize the potential of tomorrow. After pioneering electronic markets half a century ago, Nasdaq developed the highest performance messaging protocols in the early 2000s, which now serve as the de-facto industry standard for ultra-low latency trading. In addition, Nasdaq was one of the first exchange operators to commercialize its technology, and started using AWS technology in 2008. Today, Nasdaq’s technology solutions drive high performance, transparency, efficiency, and integrity across the transaction lifecycle at market infrastructure operators—exchanges, central counterparty clearing houses, central securities depositories, and regulators—in over 50 countries.
As Nasdaq looks to redefine the market technology of the future and tackle the transformation of its core infrastructure for the decades ahead, it is committed to creating an interconnected future – one that is safer and stronger for everyone, in the cloud.