Human Error at CyrusOne Data Center Triggers 10-Hour CME Trading Outage
A technician's failure to follow standard procedures during maintenance work at a CyrusOne data center in Aurora, Illinois, caused a cascade of failures that shuttered CME Group's trading systems for over 10 hours on November 28. The incident—rooted in improper cooling tower drainage—allowed server room temperatures to rise unchecked, triggering automatic shutdowns of CME's Globex platform.
The outage froze derivatives trading across commodities, currencies, and Treasury markets, sending ripples through global finance. Asian and European traders faced halted transactions as Core servers overheated. CyrusOne acknowledged the breach of protocol, highlighting vulnerabilities in critical financial infrastructure.
Such disruptions underscore the fragility of systems underpinning modern electronic trading. As markets grow increasingly interconnected, single points of failure carry outsized consequences—a reality laid bare by this preventable incident.