CME Group offers their customers and Partner Exchanges the opportunity to participate in two exercises each year:

CME Globex Disaster Recovery (DR) Exercise – Scenario: Areas outside of the Chicagoland area have been affected and the CME Globex production data center is compromised. As a result, CME Group must failover to the CME Globex DR environment. All customers need to use their DR IP addresses to connect to the backup CME Globex environment.

Provides the ability to test order entry (iLink) and market data (MDP) connectivity to the CME Globex Disaster Recovery environment. Participants must register on the CME Group website prior to the exercise. This exercise is held on a Saturday in the August/September timeframe.

Clearing (FIA) DR Exercise – Scenario: The city of Chicago is unavailable for both CME Group, its customers, and Partner Exchanges. The FIA determines the scope of the exercise, which includes providing guidelines to customers as to how to connect to CME Group. Customers should use their DR site (if applicable) unless instructed otherwise.

Provides the ability to test connectivity to the CME Clearing Disaster Recovery environment. This is part of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) test and participants must register on the FIA website prior to the exercise. This exercise is typically held on the 3rd or 4th Saturday in October.

• In preparation for the Futures Industry Association (FIA) test, there are 2 Saturday CME Clearing connectivity tests dates offered prior to the FIA test that takes place in the fall. If a customer would like to participate in any additional connectivity tests throughout the year, they need to contact CME Clearing House Customer Service at 312.930.2525 or ccs@cmegroup.com.

Please note: Firms may request network connectivity testing to the CME Globex DR environment using their DR IP addresses on specified Saturdays throughout the year. Customers need to contact their Global Account Manager if they are interested in participating in connectivity test(s) via email Global Account Manager or by phone at +1.312.634.8700 in the United States; +44.20.3379.3754 in Europe; and +65.6593.5574 in Asia.

CME Group separates its production CME Globex and CME Clearing environments between two geographically diverse data centers. CME Clearing production is run in one data center while CME Globex production is run out of a secondary data center. This strategy mitigates the risk that any single event could adversely impact both CME Globex and CME Clearing production at the same time. In order for our customers and Partner Exchanges to be able to ensure backup connectivity to both CME Globex and CME Clearing systems, it is suggested that they participate in both tests (CME Globex DR and FIA Clearing DR).

The simulated CME Globex DR exercise provides firms an opportunity to connect their iLink session IDs and market data servers to the CME Globex DR environment using disaster recovery IP addresses to complete the following tasks:

• Enter orders
• Pull market data
• Status and cancel orders using FirmSoft
• Validate Drop Copy 
   

Important Points:

• During this exercise, CME Clearing applications are running in the CME Clearing production environment.

The simulated Clearing (FIA) DR exercise provides firms an opportunity to point to the CME Clearing DR environment using DR IP address to complete the following tasks:

• Access all relevant CME Clearing applications via the DR portal
• Submit PCS & Large Trader data
• Retrieve Trade Register & Price data file via DR FTP servers
• Enter sample block trades in the DR Front-End Clearing (FEC) application

Important Points:

• During this exercise, CME Globex runs in the production environment.
• Whether customers and partner exchanges connect using their back up or production environment is determined by the FIA exercise scope but the default scenario is to use their back up environment unless otherwise instructed by the FIA.
• The exercise simulates a loss of all connectivity within downtown Chicago. As a result, both CME LNet and Jackson Direct are not available during this exercise. All firms are encouraged to have redundant solutions, preferably in a different region.

For the simulated CME Globex DR exercise, firms will need their iLink DR IP addresses. Customers should confirm their iLink DR IP addresses with their Global Account Manager and complete the required registration prior to participating in the test.

For the Clearing (FIA) DR exercise, firms will need to work with their clearing firm and make sure they have access to a site outside of downtown Chicago since CME LNet and Jackson Direct are not available.

No, it is not mandatory to participate in any exercises. However, to ensure readiness between the Exchange and the external entities, CME Group highly recommends that each trading firm, clearing firm and Partner Exchange participate in the CME Globex DR exercise each year. All clearing firms should also participate in the Clearing (FIA) DR exercise each year.

These tests protect the CME Group, our customers, clearing members and Partner Exchanges by validating business continuity for all market participants in the event of a disaster.

To reduce the market impact if CME Group experiences an issue, CME Group separates their CME Clearing and CME Globex electronic trading platform between 2 data centers. Therefore, 2 exercises will be required to test connectivity and functionality of both DR systems.

Additional details regarding both exercises in addition to CME Clearing and CME Globex connectivity testing are available online.

Please contact your Global Account Manager at +1.312.634.8700 in the United States; +44. 20.3379.3754 in Europe; and +65.6593.5574 in Asia.

Additionally, the CME Clearing Customer Service (312.930.2525 or ccs@cmegroup.com) or Business Continuity Management Team (BCP@cmegroup.com) can assist with any questions regarding the Clearing (FIA) DR exercise.