Our Data Storage Services are designed to meet the growing need for mass data storage across the University. These services offer a competitively priced alternative to storage on local platforms, which can be costly to introduce and maintain or not always a good fit for purpose where data may be physically vulnerable and there is little or no guarantee that lost, stolen or corrupted data can be recovered.
While other storage options may be available, our services deliver unique capabilities including Cambridge-based secure storage, which is available on both the Cambridge University Data Network (CUDN) and the High Performance Computing (HPC) high speed network, and dedicated technical support available through the Research Computing service desk.
Our services are designed to meet a range of requirements and offer flexibility. The self-service model allows research groups or institutions to take control of the purchased data storage and allocate it as needed across projects. The self-service portal allows the purchaser to manage the storage allocations and control access to data shares. To learn more about the Research Storage Storage services please visit:
Research Data Store (RDS)
The Research Data Store (RDS) provides large scale, high performance storage for research data. This data storage service is ideal for research groups that wish to process data on the HPC service or store an additional copy for data kept elsewhere. RDS is accessible from anywhere using Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). To keep the cost as low as possible, RDS does not provide backups and therefore is not suitable for storing data that you can't recover from elsewhere or data that can't be reproduced.
Research File Share (RFS)
Research File Share (RFS) provides large scale, enterprise grade storage with additional data safety features. It is suitable for group shares that need additional protection and accessibility. In particular, this service delivers a highly resilient storage solution that provides snapshots and backups to allow fast recovery of lost files.
Research Cold Store (RCS)
The Research Cold Store (RCS) service provides large scale storage at extremely low cost. It has been designed to provide durable storage for storing large sets of inactive data securely. It is suitable for storing data packed in large files that can tolerate longer retrieval times. It is accessible from anywhere using the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).