Background and Aims: Complex and large-scale approaches in science like the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) or the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) must be complemented by an infrastructure assimilating and supplying reliable data and data products from widely spread sources in a timely and efficient way. For this purpose a service-oriented federated system is needed, building on and integrating all facilities that handle drilling-related data. Objective: A major task in scientific drilling is the capture of drilling and scientific data during and after an expedition and the long-term storage and dissemination of these data. Results: For IODP-Mission Specific Platform (MSP) expeditions a working database - the Drilling Information System (DIS) - is used, a system that is mobile, flexible and that can be deployed quickly on small- to medium-sized drilling platforms of opportunity, and which can also be deployed onshore in laboratories where the bulk of the scientific work is conducted. The long-term archive for the European Consortium for Research Drilling MSP-Expedition data is PANGAEA® - Publishing Network for Geoscientific & Environmental Data, which belongs to the ICSU World Data System. A general data portal, the Scientific Earth Drilling Information Service (SEDIS), is able to provide data from all IODP contributors.