Ocean data management has existed since the 1970s, with :

National Oceanographic Data Office (BNDO) of CNEXO (National Center for Ocean Exploitation), whose mission was to bring together all known information on deep-sea data. Data collection, storage and quality control already represented a major challenge.

• The Scientific and Technical Institute for Maritime Fisheries (ISTPM) in charge of fishing data.
• When CNEXO and ISTPM merged to form Ifremer in June 1984, the scope of data to manage expanded to include coastal environment data.

In 1990, the lack of a structure dedicated to archiving informations dissemination and scientific data and information is strongly felt by the national oceanographic community. The Ifremer Data Center will see the light day, with the following missions:

• Management of general information on scientific activity at sea,
• Archiving and dissemination of data collected during campaigns at sea or acquired by Ifremer's observation networks,
• Support for public policy.

Over the years and technological advances for research, the diversity of data acquisition sources has continued to grow (satellites, Argo floats, drifting buoys or seabed observatories) with an enrichment of data types (physical, biochemical, wind, current, sea level and color, waves, etc.) managed by the Ifremer Data Center.

In 2008, as part of Ifremer's ISO 9001 quality initiative, the process linked to the Data Center's activities was certified for the first time, attesting to the quality requirements of our data management procedures.