ISO 27001, HDS, EN 50600, Tier, SecNumCloud: data centers display many labels that do not guarantee the same thing. Some are mandatory depending on the activity, others voluntary. Some cover the building, others the organisation or a service.
INFORMATION SECURITY
ISO/IEC 27001. International standard for information security management. It certifies a management system over a defined scope, not the building as such.
HDS (health data hosting). Mandatory in France to host personal health data on behalf of third parties. It builds on ISO 27001 with specific requirements and distinguishes physical infrastructure hosting, which concerns the data center, from managed services.
SecNumCloud. Qualification issued by ANSSI, the French cybersecurity agency, to cloud services rather than to the data center alone, with high security requirements and protection against extraterritorial laws.
DESIGN, AVAILABILITY AND OPERATIONS
EN 50600. European standard series on the design, construction and operation of data center facilities, with availability classes 1 to 4, certified by third-party bodies.
Uptime Institute Tiers (I to IV). Proprietary classification of redundancy and maintainability. Design, constructed facility and operations are certified separately, so a "Tier III" claim depends on what was certified.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
ISO 50001 and ISO 14001. Energy and environmental management standards, useful to structure the performance approach expected under French and EU rules.
PUE. Not a certification but an energy efficiency indicator defined by ISO/IEC 30134-2, reported yearly at EU level by sites above 500 kW.
WHAT A CERTIFICATION DOES NOT TELL YOU
None of these certifications guarantees the power available for an expansion, a grid connection date or local acceptance of a project. For investors and long-term clients, these are checked separately: see lender due diligence and our French grid connection glossary.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Which certifications are mandatory for a data center in France?
None applies to all. HDS is mandatory to host health data on behalf of third parties. Regulatory duties also apply, such as EU reporting above 500 kW, the tertiary decree and the BACS decree.
What is the difference between EN 50600 and Uptime Tiers?
EN 50600 is a European standard series with availability classes 1 to 4, certified by third parties. Tiers I to IV are an Uptime Institute proprietary classification, certifying design, construction and operations separately.