Full Breakdown
CME Data Center Outage Disrupts Global Trading
12/10/2025, 2:02:57 AM
Overview of the Incident
On November 27, 2023, a significant outage at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) data center disrupted trading across global markets, affecting transactions in commodities, equities, and currencies. The incident began at 3:40 a.m. Chicago time, following a switch in the data center's cooling towers to a new operating mode, which led to overheating due to human error. The outage resulted in a trading halt that surprised market participants, particularly during the Asian trading hours.
Sequence of Events
The data center, operated by CyrusOne and owned by KKR & Co. and Global Infrastructure Partners, experienced a series of failures that escalated throughout the day. Initial remediation attempts by CyrusOne's onsite staff and contractors did not follow standard procedures, exacerbating the situation. By 6:19 p.m. Chicago time, all chillers were reported offline. Despite the severity of the incident, CME opted not to switch to its backup data center in New York, believing the outage would be brief.
Impact on Trading
The outage halted trading in various markets, including gold, oil, and interest rates, and forced CyrusOne to pause a $1.3 billion mortgage-bond sale managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Trading resumed on November 28, with CME's Globex Futures & Options markets reopening at 7:30 a.m. Chicago time. The incident raised concerns about CME's reliance on the facility, which handles trillions of dollars in transactions daily.
Official Responses
CME acknowledged the outage and referred to CyrusOne's analysis, which attributed the failure to human error and inadequate adherence to operational procedures. In a statement, CME noted that the initial attempts to remediate the issue only worsened the situation. CyrusOne has since updated its cold weather procedures and committed to maintaining a dedicated engineering team available 24/7 to monitor cooling operations.
Criticism & Opposition
Critics have pointed out the risks associated with CME's reliance on a single data center for such critical operations. The decision not to switch to a backup facility during the outage has been scrutinized, as emergency moves to backup sites are generally rare and often avoided to prevent data inconsistencies. Market participants expressed frustration over the lack of timely communication regarding the severity of the outage.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Trading Halt Still, the outage underscores risks associated with CME’s reliance on the facility, which handles trillions of dollars each day across equity, currency, bond and commodity markets globally.” — Source: Chicago Business
- “To prevent a repeat, CyrusOne has said it updated its procedures for cold weather, including boosting onsite engineers.” — Source: Chicago Business
What's Next
In response to the incident, CME and CyrusOne are expected to implement further measures to enhance operational resilience and prevent similar outages in the future. The ongoing scrutiny of their disaster recovery protocols may lead to additional changes in how they manage critical infrastructure.
