CINES: CINES Data Center — Montpellier

CINES Data Center — Montpellier is operated by CINES (Centre Informatique National de l’Enseignement Supérieur), a French national public administrative institution under the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, based in Montpellier, France. CINES states that it has three national missions: high-performance computing, long-term digital preservation, and hosting of national-scale IT platforms. Its published address is 950 rue de Saint-Priest, 34097 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.

Montpellier is one of southern France’s main academic, research, and technology centers, making it a logical location for nationally significant scientific and public-sector digital infrastructure. Within this setting, the CINES facility supports research, higher education, archiving, and national hosting workloads, with an infrastructure profile centered on resilience, secure operations, and enterprise-style technical readiness for institutional environments.

⚙️ Facility Highlights

1. CINES provides hosting of national-scale IT platforms as one of its three statutory missions.
2. The hosting service consists of machine-room space made available to partner organizations, with hosted equipment remaining under the technical responsibility of those partners.
3. CINES states it currently provides hosting for 65 racks across four machine rooms for 12 organizations.
4. The machine rooms use secured and redundant cooling.
5. The electrical infrastructure is described as dual-path end-to-end, with two feeds for standard IT equipment.
6. CINES describes the hosting environment as operating on a raised floor.
7. Infrastructure conditions include controlled climatic and hygrometric operation for hosted equipment.
8. CINES provides logistical assistance to partner teams and their maintenance providers.
9. Infrastructure supervision covers power, cooling, and hygrometry, with permanent automatic monitoring and alarm escalation.
10. CINES states that technical standby teams intervene on site outside business hours when required, supported by 24/7 maintenance contracts for infrastructure components.

🔐 Security & Compliance

1. CINES describes its hosting environment as using controlled access for authorized external personnel.
2. CINES states that it allows access to hosted equipment only to duly authorized persons designated by partner organizations.
3. All access and interventions on hosted racks are logged, with a quarterly report provided to partners.
4. The facility includes an early fire detection system.
5. CINES states that the premises comply with workplace law and applicable hygiene and safety rules.
6. CINES states that the environment complies with standards relating to electromagnetic and electrostatic conditions.

🌐 Connectivity & Carrier Access

1. CINES provides hosting for national-scale IT platforms, indicating suitability for institutional and multi-organization infrastructure deployments.
2. CINES operates a data-centric architecture designed to support data sharing and secure storage for public laboratories, offices, and agencies.
3. The facility supports hosted national platforms for a range of partner institutions, including higher education, research, and public-sector organizations.

💼 Who It Serves

1. Public laboratories, offices, and agencies.
2. Higher education and research institutions.
3. National public-sector organizations requiring hosted machine-room infrastructure.
4. Organizations deploying national IT platforms, digital preservation systems, and research computing environments.