NYSE Plans Green-Tech Revolution

New York (TheStreet) -- The New York Stock Exchange(NYX Quote) is in the throes of a tech revolution that will shave tens of millions of dollars a year off its operating expenses, according to Larry Leibowitz, the organization's head of global technology.

Speaking at a green-technology meeting at the Exchange on Friday, Leibowitz announced that the financial powerhouse is in the midst of a massive IT overhaul.

"The New York Stock Exchange is undergoing a transformation, one that puts technology more and more at the core of what we do," he told an audience of tech companies, government officials and journalists. "Who would have thought that data centers would be sexy?"

The IT chief explained that during the recent economic crisis, the NYSE systems were handling more than a billion messages a day in each of its data centers.

"We had to process those at increasingly rapid paces," he added. "The latencies on our matching engines are now down to microseconds."

But, with the demands on his trading systems increasing, the NYSE tech guru has his eye firmly on the future.

Leibowitz is overseeing a major IT consolidation effort in which the Exchange will reduce its global data centers from 10 to six next year, he explained. Key to this effort is the construction of two new state-of-the art facilities, which will be the primary NYSE data centers.

The flagship site, a 400,000-square-foot data center, will be in New Jersey, with an additional 300,000-square-foot site outside London. Both will be operational in mid-2010, says Leibowitz.

The data center consolidation will shave more than $30 million off the Exchange's annual operating costs, the executive told TheStreet.com, as the organization reduces its management overhead for both hardware and software.

The IT chief also acknowledged that NYSE was in an ideal position to boost its green credentials with its new data centers.

"It's much harder to do this with an existing data center, but when you start from scratch it's more natural and easy," he said.

The event was hosted by the Green Grid, an organization that brings together business and government organizations to promote green IT, particularly in data centers. The group used the event to launch a report jointly conducted with the EPA which aims to boost energy efficiency in mid-sized data centers.

The Green Grid also unveiled a set of free online tools that determine how much "free cooling'" is available by exploiting air immediately outside data centers. Already available in the U.S., the online maps are now available for organizations in Europe and Japan.

During the event, Leibowitz explained that he is using the Green Grid's work to help drive his own IT agenda, and has already implemented a host of eco-friendly features the new data centers. These include automated light controls, carbon monitoring and reporting, and the use of outside air for cooling.

"During a significant period of the year the mechanical cooling system can be powered down," he said.

NYSE officials typically keep details of their IT infrastructure out of the public domain, although Juniper Networks(JNPR Quote) clinched a high-profile deal with the Exchange earlier this year.

The Green Grid event also included speakers from Verizon(VZ Quote) , Walt Disney(DIS Quote), Coach(COH Quote) and Californian utility giant PG&E(PCG Quote).

-- Reported by James Rogers in New York