I've been to NY4! It really is less magical then these articles make it seem. Yes - the security is a bit imposing. For anyone familiar with datacenters, though, it is pretty run of the mill except for it's tremendous scale.
Worth shouting out to Lucera - I have met the CEO and he is a really thoughtful technologist. They are doing some awesome work bringing AWS-style computing to the low latency space. Some interesting details on their deployment:
http://www.enterprisetech.com/2014/02/20/amazon-cant-catch-l...
Not really. Even in a world where HFT is limited, cross connections provide consistent connections between trading entities. While AWS provides over-the-Internet or "black boxed" networking on a best efforts basis, Lucera's connections are point to point.
Worth shouting out to Lucera - I have met the CEO and he is a really thoughtful technologist. They are doing some awesome work bringing AWS-style computing to the low latency space. Some interesting details on their deployment: http://www.enterprisetech.com/2014/02/20/amazon-cant-catch-l...