CQUni Research Data Storage Options
Did you know that there are Federal Government Obligations, especially federal funding grants such as ARC and NHMRC, as well as CQ University Policy that requires research data to be managed and preserved at least 5 years? In some cases, particularly health and medical data, research data may need to be stored for 25 years or even longer!
Within CQUniversity, there are now a number of options to assist researchers with managing and preserving research data. In regards to research data management, it is suggested that you check out the ‘Research Data Management’ section of this website. A Research Data Management Plan is required to access CQUniversity’s Dedicated Local Research Data storage infrastructure.
Depending on the user case, research requirements and needs, there are a number of research data storage options that are available. The following table provides help to determine with solution is best for you.
Requirements | Dedicated local Research Data Storage service | High Performance Computing Storage (not suitable for permanent research data storage) | QCIF QRIScloud | AARNet’s CloudStor service |
---|---|---|---|---|
*Do you require data storage for archiving purposes? | Y | N | Y | N |
**Are you working with very large datasets? | Y | Y | Y | Y (You can store up to 1TB for free, any more and it will come at a cost) |
***Are you using active data? | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Are you using sensitive data (eg, identifiable data, commercial in confidence, etc) | Y (This is the most recommended service for supporting sensitive data) | Y | Y (Though QRISCloud Service can support sensitive data, it is not a recommended service to support this) | Y (Though CloudStor Service can support sensitive data, it is not a recommended service to support this) |
Are you sharing your data with researchers at CQUniversity? | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Are you sharing your data with researchers NOT at CQUniversity? | Y | N | Y | Y |
Do you require remote access? | Y | Y (Through the use of the VPN client) | Y | Y |
Do you require storage that is physically close to computing facilities for processing purposes? | N | Y | Y | N |
Note
*Archiving purposes is data that requires permanent storage and will be stored and remain unchanged
**Large Data Set are considered to be more than 100GB’s of data
***Active data is the term given to a data set that is currently being used and produced as part of ongoing research – for example, data that is frequently accessed, modified and/or being added to.
About | Benefits | Limitations | |
---|---|---|---|
Dedicated local Research Data Storage service |
|
|
|
High Performance Computing Storage |
|
|
|
QCIF QRIScloud and RDS Storage |
|
|
|
AARNet’s CloudStor service |
Note: All data stored on Cloudstor is subject to AARNet's Content Policy (see http://www.aarnet.edu.au/about-us/policies) and as with most online data storage services, AARNet accepts no liability for any loss or damage to data stored using this service and provides no guarantee or warranty as to the security or availability of the service. Please ensure you take appropriate steps to secure and backup your data. |
|
|
Research data is precious, therefore here are a few tips to ensure the safety and security of any research data:
- Researchers should always try to keep three copies of their research data
- At least two different copies should be stored in two separate geographical locations
- Storing data on services such as ‘Dropbox’ and other U.S. services, enables the U.S. Government access to the data due to the ‘patriot act’. Even if the data is hosted on a data centre outside of the United States
- Some ‘free’ services have been known to block accounts, in which major issues have arisen with retrieving the data hosted on these services.