Every CME Globex electronic trading notice issued in 2026, tracked and categorized for market data professionals. Covers iLink protocol changes, MDP 3.0 feed updates, the Globex to Google Cloud migration, connectivity and port changes, disaster recovery tests, and scheduled market infrastructure upgrades.

⚠ Critical & High-Priority Upcoming Deadlines
APR 24, 2026 iLink 2.0 (Legacy) Sunset — All sessions must be on iLink 3.0 / iLink 8.x by this date. No fallback available.
MAY 18, 2026 MDP 3.0 Channel 335 Restructure — Agricultural complex channels consolidated. Feed subscribers must update channel subscriptions.
JUN 30, 2026 Globex → Google Cloud Migration Phase 1 — Equity index futures and options moving to cloud infrastructure. DR topology changing.
AUG 1, 2026 Tag 1500 (SecurityAltIDSource) Deprecation — Remove from parsing logic; field will no longer be populated in MDP 3.0 incremental refresh.

2026 Notice Tracker

Click any column header to sort. All dates are effective dates or implementation deadlines, not publication dates.

Date Notice / Title Category Severity Key Action Required Source

The Globex → Google Cloud Migration

CME Group's migration of Globex electronic trading infrastructure to Google Cloud is the most significant structural change to futures market data in over a decade. The migration proceeds in three phases through 2026–2027.

Phase 1 (Q2 2026): Equity index futures and options (E-mini S&P 500, E-mini Nasdaq-100, and related products) move to cloud-native infrastructure. Market data dissemination paths change; latency profiles will differ from current co-location arrangements.

What changes for feed subscribers: MDP 3.0 multicast groups will be reorganized. The primary and secondary IP multicast addresses for affected product groups will change with 60+ days advance notice. Feed handlers must be updated to subscribe to new multicast groups before the migration date — old groups will go dark.

iLink impact: Order entry sessions will also migrate. iLink 3.0 session configuration (host, port) will change for migrated products. CME will publish updated connectivity specifications at least 45 days before each phase cutover.

iLink Protocol Changes in 2026

iLink is CME's proprietary FIX-based order entry protocol for Globex. 2026 brings two critical changes: the final sunset of iLink 2.0 (the legacy protocol) and the rollout of iLink 8.x tag additions required for the cloud migration.

iLink 2.0 Sunset (April 24, 2026): CME announced in October 2025 that iLink 2.0 sessions would be terminated on April 24, 2026. Any firm still connecting via iLink 2.0 SBE (Simple Binary Encoding) sessions after that date will receive connection-refused responses. Affected sessions must be migrated to iLink 3.0.

iLink 3.0 / iLink 8.x: iLink 3.0 uses SBE encoding with FIX semantic tags. The 8.x version refers to the session layer specification version, not a new protocol. Key additions in 2026:

MDP 3.0 Feed Changes in 2026

Market Data Platform 3.0 (MDP 3.0) is CME's multicast market data protocol, delivering order book, trade, and reference data. 2026 changes focus on channel restructuring and tag deprecations ahead of the cloud migration.

Channel 335 Restructure (May 18, 2026): The agricultural complex MDP 3.0 channels are being consolidated. Channels 335–338 (corn, soybeans, wheat, and related) will merge into a new channel topology. Subscribers must update their multicast group subscriptions before this date — CME will publish new channel group IDs in the March 2026 connectivity specification update.

Tag Deprecations:

Disaster Recovery & Testing Schedule

CME conducts mandatory disaster recovery (DR) tests on a quarterly basis. Participation is required for all market participants that have signed CME's business continuity acknowledgment. 2026 DR test dates:

During DR tests, CME switches to the backup data center for production session validation. All iLink sessions must failover successfully. MDP 3.0 multicast is broadcast from DR topology — confirm your network can receive from alternate multicast sources.