At OuiHeberg, every major decision is guided by a rigorous analysis of innovation, performance, and resilience. This approach now leads us to embark on one of the most ambitious projects in our history: the complete transfer of our data centers from Montpellier and Toulouse to a remarkable site in Marseille.

This transformation, the result of several years of strategic planning, positions our company at the heart of one of the world's most powerful digital hubs. This change, crucial for our future and that of our clients, is driven as much by technological needs as by a proactive anticipation of sector developments.

1. Why migrate? Vision, challenges, and benefits

Hosting is evolving, and OuiHeberg must constantly stay ahead of new standards. Our historic locations in Montpellier and Toulouse were imposing limitations: restricted capacity, less optimal connectivity, and scalability hampered by the physical structure of the sites.

The Marseille opportunity quickly became a strategic obvious choice for several key reasons:

• Ultra-high-speed connectivity: Marseille is an international convergence point, through which numerous submarine cables transit, connecting Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The immediate proximity of multiple operators and internet exchange points (IX) ensures unmatched network access, minimized latency, and virtually unlimited bandwidth.
• State-of-the-art infrastructure: Our new data center (MRS2) benefits from some of the highest standards in the world for security, cooling, and power continuity, while maintaining a high level of energy efficiency.
• Scalability: The modularity and scale of the site allow us to support our clients’ growth with confidence, without risking any technical or physical bottlenecks in the years to come.
• Resilience and reliability: Being connected to an international hub provides extra guarantees in terms of availability, redundancy, and the ability to handle any major incident with no service interruption for our clients.

This migration is therefore not just a simple relocation: it is a technological leap, a strong market position, and a promise of continuity and performance for our entire ecosystem.

2. Crisis Management: A departure marked by the unexpected

The start of the migration, scheduled for April 28 at 11:00 p.m., immediately faced an unforeseen challenge. A general power outage in Spain caused the local Cogent Communication access control system to become unavailable, paralyzing the ability to physically open the doors of the Montpellier data center. For eight long hours, our teams were left unable to intervene, facing a Spanish NOC that was out of service and no on-call team available in Europe.

Fortunately, at daybreak, we managed to mobilize French technical teams who were able to resolve the situation. This last-minute intervention allowed us to regain control and launch operations with several hours of delay. This incident was a stark reminder of the risks associated with international technical dependencies and reinforced the crucial importance of our rigorous methodology.

3. Timeline of a tightly-paced migration

Once access was restored, the pace remained intense, every minute counting double:

• 29/04/25 – 7:00 a.m.: Shutdown of the Montpellier data center, followed by a complete dismantling in 2.5 hours.
• 10:30 a.m.: Arrival in Marseille, immediate setup. An incident occurred with three critical management boards (blade centers) that did not survive the trip. Solution: urgent transfer of replacement hardware from Montpellier by our field teams, rapid installation, and return to normal.
• 7:00 p.m.: Effective reboot of services in Marseille. Start of the journey to Toulouse (arrival at 10:50 p.m.) for the second wave of migration.
• 11:00 p.m.: Dismantling of the Toulouse site in 2 hours, resuming the route and arrival in Marseille at 5:00 a.m. on 30/04.
• 30/04/25 – 5:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.: Installation, configuration, and internal adjustments. Objective: restore all services as soon as possible – mission accomplished.

This quick transition demanded total commitment and exceptional endurance from our team. Despite fatigue and intense pressure, every server, network circuit, and rack was reconnected and checked with utmost precision to ensure a seamless restart for our users.

4. Strategic coordination with our partners

A migration of this scale is only possible with a completely aligned ecosystem of partners:

• Multiple technical checkpoints with the Marseille data center for preparation, documentation, and specific adaptations to our infrastructure.
• Constant communication with telecom operators and IP transit providers (because network quality is paramount in our business).
• Proactive contractual planning (controlled and gradual termination with our former sites) to ensure an optimal migration window and no continuity breaks.
• Centralized logistics organization: transport planning, timeline for dismantling and installations, prioritization of equipment, emergency management – every aspect was addressed with industrial-level detail.

This synergy, built on long-standing trust-based relationships, is one of our market differentiators and is key to the success of such complex operations.

5. Governance and methodology: a surgical migration

We treated each step as a sensitive operation. The main risk of a migration is never the transport, but human error or poor anticipation of critical sequences:

• Systematic securing and auditing of every rack and piece of equipment before any move.
• Cross-checks, thorough inventory, verification of cabling and numbering to avoid any loss or confusion during reinstallation.
• Network reconnection and routing tests, with repeated verification of key configurations and backup plans ready for activation at any time.
• Thorough documentation of all incidents encountered and solutions implemented in real time to ensure traceability and continuous improvement.

This professionalism, methodology, and high standards are the guarantee of our ability to deliver premium service, even in the most extreme situations.

6. What's next? Post-migration and our commitments for the future

This migration opens a new era for OuiHeberg and its clients:

• A modernized, scalable infrastructure, able to support all your evolving needs.
• International-level security and resilience.
• Unprecedented perspectives on performance, availability, and new advanced services we will deliver in the coming months.

We are proud to cross this milestone with you and to establish OuiHeberg as a key European hosting provider.

Next episode: technical feedback, innovations implemented, and the roadmap for new uses enabled by our Marseille base. Stay tuned!