Data Storage

VU Amsterdam offers several options to store your digital research data. The choice for a specific option depends on factors such as:

• Does a project involve multiple organisations or departments?
• The sensitivity of the data: does it involve personal data or copyrighted / commercial data?
• Are there any research partners with whom data need to be shared?
• Are any commercial parties involved?
• Does the research project involve multiple locations (inside or maybe even outside the EU)?
• Will there be (lab) devices producing data that need to be stored as well?
• What will be the volume of the data?
• Where will you run your analysis software?
• Are there enough funds available to store all the data?

Types of storage

There are 3 general types of digital storage:

• Local storage on computers or servers.
  These offer the fastest access, you can run analysis tools directly on the data.

• Networked storage
  This is storage directly attached to the local network. Less performant than local storage, but still fast enough to run analysis tools directly on the data.

• Cloud storage
  This storage is accessible over the internet from all over the world. Speed is limited by your and the supplier’s internet connections. In general it is not possible to run analysis tools directly on the data, you need to download data to your PC or a server first. Some cloud services offer functionality to automatically sync data, for others you have to download and upload manually or script it.

Storage services offered by VU Amsterdam

The VU offers a few storage services that can be used by every VU researcher. The Storage finder is a tool that will help you select storage platforms suitable for your project. For more individual guidance, please get in touch with the Research Data Management Support Desk for advice, particularly when you are working with commercial, personal or otherwise sensitive data, or when you have a complex IT setup.

General data-storage

VU IT offers 2 cloud services to store data:

• 🔒 OneDrive: personal cloud storage for all VU employees and part of the Microsoft 365 platform. OneDrive allows you to store files locally and in the Microsoft cloud, and share folders and documents with colleagues. Since this is personal storage, tied to someone’s personal VU account, we don’t usually recommend storing research data in OneDrive: if the account holder leaves VU Amsterdam, the account and all the data on it, disappear.

• 🔒 Teams. Faculties, divisions and departments have their own Team - part of the Microsoft 365 platform - where they store shared documents and where they can interact and chat. Projects may also request a project Team, but note that Teams is not always the best location to store your research data and has several limitations, especially when it comes to working with non-Microsoft file formats, large volumes of data, interacting with data, and collaborating with partners outside of VU Amsterdam. Contact the RDM Support Desk to find out more about the suitability of Teams for your project.

Research data-specific storage options

VU Amsterdam also offers storage specifically for research data:

• SciStor is networked storage hosted by IT for Research (ITvO) suitable for large volumes of (sensitive) data. With SciStor you have fast access to your data on campus, the ADA high performance compute cluster and SciCloud servers, but it can’t be used for external collaboration.

• Yoda is a cloud storage platform at SURF (Dutch IT cooperative of education and research) and is suitable for storing small to very large volumes of (sensitive) data. Yoda supports external collaboration. It has an integrated archiving and publishing facility, making it a one-stop platform.

• SURF Research Drive is a cloud storage platform at SURF for research projects suitable for storing small to medium (~10TB) volumes of (sensitive) data. Research Drive supports external collaboration. It offers a sync client for easier up- and downloading of data.

• OSF is an online platform especially suitable for small data volumes that you want to share with the public during the research project.

Using other (cloud) storage solutions

When selecting a cloud-based service it is important to remember to check where the data will be hosted. If the research project involves sensitive data it may be necessary to choose cloud-based options that guarantee that the data will stay in the EEA or on servers based in the EEA. make sure access to the data is not tied to just one account to avoid getting locked out of important data.

Keep in mind the usual (free) commercial cloud offerings such as Google Drive or Dropbox are not suitable for sensitive data at all.

When in doubt about the suitability of a cloud storage solution please contact the RDM Support Desk.

Data transfer

The Data Transfer topic page provides tips on collecting and moving data.