HDS cloud
Certified cloud for hosting health data
What is an HDS-certified health data host?
In France, hosting personal health data on behalf of a third party is governed by article L.1111-8 of the French Public Health Code. Any provider that hosts such data must hold an HDS certificate of compliance, issued by a COFRAC-accredited body, valid for three years and subject to an annual surveillance audit. The HDS framework covers six activities, from providing the physical infrastructure to external backup, and requires hosting located exclusively within the European Economic Area. Clever Cloud is HDS v2.1 certified across the six activities.
Our HDS certification
No personal health data is transferred to any country outside the European Economic Area.
Clever Cloud’s HDS certificate (no. FR094504), issued by Bureau Veritas Certification, a COFRAC-accredited body, covers the six activities of the framework. It is valid until 19 December 2027.
Key points
The benefits of a certified HDS PaaS
x8 faster delivery cadence
30% average savings
More peace of mind
Less friction between Devs and Ops
Regions
3 HDS regions certified in France
Paris
Available in the Paris TH2 and nLighten zone
Gravelines
Available in the OVH Gravelines HDS zone
Roubaix
Available in the OVH Roubaix HDS zone
A solution for every healthcare sector
Health data hosting: Clever Cloud meets the needs of professionals across the sector
An HDS PaaS experience to shorten your time to market
Clever Cloud streamlines the deployment of applications and databases. On average, companies cut their time to market by a factor of 8.
Very high HDS availability
Clever Cloud delivers up to 99.99% availability depending on your plan.
A partner for your HDS compliance
Clever Cloud becomes your HDS partner across the 6 activities of the framework.
Easy procurement
Clever Cloud is listed on UGAP and RESAH, so you can procure our services through simplified channels.
A solution that eases your IT department’s work
Clever Cloud handles operational maintenance, security patches and language updates. Time-consuming tasks your teams no longer have to carry.
Built-in resilience
Immutable infrastructure, automatic redeployments, redundant databases, easier disaster recovery, daily backups, and more.
Data security
ISO 27001 and HDS certified: encryption, resource isolation and regular audits by independent bodies.
Digital sovereignty
Your data stays hosted in France, under European jurisdiction, outside the reach of extraterritorial laws such as the Cloud Act or FISA.
Databases as a Service
Spin up managed databases in seconds (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, Materia KV), running within the certified HDS scope, on our certified regions in France.
Resilience
Clever Cloud is built for maximum resilience: redundant databases, automatic redeployment, disaster recovery in a few clicks, and more.
Reliability and performance
Clever Cloud has supported the insurance sector for years (MAIF, Altima, Darva, Particeep), delivering availability and performance.
Compliance
ISO 27001 and HDS certified, Clever Cloud hosts your applications within a compliant, audited framework.
Security
Orchestrator, infrastructure and network are built for security: isolation, encryption and automatic updates.
HDS-certified health data host across the 6 activities of the framework
1 Providing and operating the physical hosting sites
2 Providing and operating the hardware infrastructure of the information system
3 Providing and operating the virtual infrastructure
4 Providing and operating the application hosting platform of the information system
5 Administration and operation of the information system containing the health data
6 External backup of the health data and electronic archiving service
Choosing Clever Cloud means
knowing that
The entire scope is certified
All six activities of the framework, with no grey areas.
Your data is hosted under European jurisdiction
By a French company, with no exposure to extraterritorial laws such as the Cloud Act or FISA.
Security is at the heart of our priorities
Immutable infrastructure, automatic updates, and more.
You’re never on your own
A dedicated French support team.
That your cloud is resilient
Redundant databases, automatic redeployments, and more.
A commitment to digital sovereignty
At Clever Cloud, digital sovereignty translates into concrete commitments:
- Hosting data in France and in partner regions committed to sovereignty, providing real protection against extraterritorial laws;
- Strict compliance with the GDPR and applicable regulations;
- Taking a stand on societal issues that threaten our autonomy as a company and as citizens (legal action against the Health Data Hub, support for the Open Internet Project, and more);
- Developing and promoting tools and practices that strengthen the security of our customers’ data.
To learn more about our vision of a sovereign cloud and our commitment to strategic autonomy, see this page.
A specific contract for hosting health data
To benefit from certified hosting for health data, a specific contract is required. Setting it up starts with an initial conversation. Contact us through the form below and an Account Manager will get back to you within 48 business hours.
Key points
Our certifications
HDS V2.1
Hosting of your health data
SecNumCloud
Hosting of your data in certified partner zones
The scope of our certification, the list of covered services and the representation of guarantees (actors involved in processing the data) are available on our security page.
FAQ – Health data hosting
What is HDS health data hosting?
HDS health data hosting concerns the hosting of personal health data collected during prevention, diagnosis, care, or social and medico-social follow-up activities. It can be carried out on behalf of a data controller or on behalf of the patient. For digital media, the host must hold an HDS certificate of compliance. This certification aims to frame the hosting of such data under security conditions suited to its sensitivity.
Who must use an HDS-certified health data host?
Any data controller who entrusts the hosting of personal health data to a third party must ensure that this third party holds an HDS certificate of compliance. This can involve healthcare institutions, health software vendors, laboratories, mutual insurers, insurers or digital service providers when their service falls within the scope of HDS hosting. The analysis must be done case by case, depending on the data processed, the role of each actor and the outsourced services.
Does using Clever Cloud make my organisation HDS certified?
No. HDS certification is held by the certified host, within a defined scope. By using Clever Cloud under a specific HDS contract, your organisation benefits from HDS-certified hosting within the scope covered by the certification and the associated contract. This does not transfer HDS certification to your organisation and does not automatically cover all of your regulatory, application or GDPR obligations.
Is an HDS contract mandatory?
Yes. The hosting of personal health data is the subject of a contract concluded between the host and its client. This contract specifies, among other things, the scope of the host’s HDS certificate, the services provided, the hosting locations, the service levels, the terms of data access, the guarantees in case of failure, the reversibility conditions, as well as the commitments to return and destroy the data at the end of the service.
Which law governs the hosting of health data?
The hosting of personal health data is governed by article L.1111-8 of the French Public Health Code, decree no. 2018-137 of 26 February 2018, and the HDS certification framework published by the French Digital Health Agency (Agence du Numérique en Santé).
Which providers are HDS certified?
The French Digital Health Agency publishes the official list of HDS-certified hosts. Clever Cloud is on it.
What are the conditions for hosting health data?
Using a host certified for the relevant scope, hosting the data within the European Economic Area, and concluding a specific HDS contract that sets out the scope of the host’s certificate.
How much does HDS hosting cost?
HDS hosting requires a specific contract whose scope is defined during a conversation with an Account Manager. It is this scope, and the resources involved, that determine the service.
Do I need to be HDS certified myself?
No, not for the hosting you entrust to Clever Cloud. You act as the data controller and Clever Cloud as an HDS-certified processor across the six activities of the framework: the host’s certification covers the activities it performs for you. However, if your organisation itself carries out an activity within the HDS scope, for example the administration and operation of the information system containing the health data (activity 5), that activity falls under your own responsibility. The exact split of roles is defined in the HDS contract.
Are your servers in France? What guarantee is there on data sovereignty?
For HDS projects, personal health data is hosted and processed in France only, on our regions that hold the HDS certification. Clever Cloud is a French company under European jurisdiction, and this data is not subject to extraterritorial laws such as the Cloud Act or FISA.
What proves that my hosting is compliant?
The HDS contract concluded with Clever Cloud. Provided for by article R.1111-11 of the French Public Health Code, it sets out the scope of the certificate, the covered activities, the hosting locations and the split of responsibilities. It is the contractual proof that your hosting is compliant. Our certificate is also available at any time on our security page.
What is covered by the HDS certification? Is Docker covered?
HDS certification covers a scope, not isolated products: it covers the platform and the services executed within our certified regions in France. This scope includes the main runtimes (PHP, JavaScript, Java, Python, Go, Rust, Docker, and more) and the managed databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elastic Stack, Cassandra, Materia KV, and more). Docker is indeed covered.
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