CME's data center operator admitted to operational irregularities that caused trading disruptions last week.

According to Mars Finance, on December 7th, Friday, trading was disrupted for over 10 hours across multiple markets of the CME Group, the world's second-largest derivatives exchange, due to a data center outage. Data center operator CyrusOne confirmed on Saturday that the major outage stemmed from human error. A CyrusOne spokesperson stated that on-site staff and contractors at the Aurora, Illinois data center failed to properly drain the cooling towers before the freezing weather, causing the cooling system to freeze and operate under overpressure, leading to uncontrolled equipment temperatures. Although CyrusOne claimed to have taken comprehensive and decisive measures to restore the cooling system, CME stated that the initial remedial measures actually exacerbated the problem, ultimately resulting in the failure of multiple coolers. This incident highlights the risk of CME's heavy reliance on a single data center. The facility, originally owned by CME, was sold to CyrusOne in 2016 under a 15-year leaseback agreement. CME stated on Saturday that it fully recognizes the serious impact of this incident on its global customers. (Jinshi)