Research Drive Pilot

After creating a central location for documents (Sharepoint) and for internal communication (Slack), we are now working on a central location to store all the research data that will be generated and processed within CropXR. To facilitate the storage and sharing of research data, we are running a pilot called CropXR Research Drive Pilot, using SURF Research Drive.

The CropXR Research Drive Pilot combines the features of a professional/secure drop box and a virtual (mounted) drive and allows researchers of both universities and companies to securely store and share (high volumes of) research data and manage the access rights on a group and individual level.

Why a ‘Pilot’? We want to test the functionality of this platform with you – CropXR researchers – before we commit to the long-term use of this platform. The pilot runs until coming September, after which we will evaluate it. For this, we will use the feedback of the people who have used the platform. Please note that all the data you store on the Research Drive will be safe/saved in the long-term. If we decide not to continue with Research Drive, the data will be transferred elsewhere. In terms of back-up: keeping an extra copy on a local drive is a good idea. This will create an extra back-up in line with the 321 backup rule.

For whom? If you want to store, share or analyze data consisting of images, videos, sequence data, csv-files, models or high volumes of other data, you can use the CropXR Research Drive Pilot. We already have some early adopters from the demonstrator and potato projects. If you are generating data, you are welcome to join the Pilot and get an account on the CropXR Research Drive Pilot as well!

Not for? If your research data contains only documents, (ppt) presentations, some (small) spreadsheets or an occasional image, you should (continue to) use Sharepoint for this.

What are the specifications of the CropXR Research Drive Pilot?

• Storage: total 10 TB (if you need more, please let us know);
• Interface: the storage is accessible through multiple interfaces: browser, OwnCloud, Rclone (commandline tool) or can be mounted as a network drive. And S3 compatible tools for the object store;
• Types of storage: 5TB on Research Drive, 5TB on S3 storage and 2TB on Research Cloud (for compute);
• Login: using your university account (if you have one) or with e-mail/password (companies);
• Other features: manage access rights on group/invidual level, compute power (e.g. to run Python/R scripts), sharing, trashbin with 90 day retention to recover accidental deletes, disaster recovery backup.