This document answers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the ResearchDrive storage service.
ResearchDrive a university-wide file storage solution for Faculty PIs, permanent PIs, and their research group members. It is suited for a variety of research purposes, including backup, archive, storage for data inputs/outputs of research computing, and others. It is a secure and permanent place for keeping data.
ResearchDrive is available to UW-Madison PIs and their collaborators.
ResearchDrive is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and Chief Information Office and Vice Chancellor for Information Technology's Office as part of a campus Research Cyberinfrastructure Initiative and provides 5 TBs of storage to all PIs and their research group members. See the ResearchDrive - Terms of Service for additional details.
A Research Technical Advisory Group (RTAG) data storage sub-committee developed the following guiding principles for ResearchDrive:
5 TB of storage provided to each PI at no cost. $200/TB per year for additional storage space and maintenance on ResearchDrive for PIs who need more than 5 TB (billed to DoIT Number).
Yes, ResearchDrive can support restricted data. Additional security controls are required to store restricted data like HIPAA or CUI in ResearchDrive. Restricted data, may only be stored, with approval, in specific folders that have access managed by authorized data administrators. In addition, workstations used to access and store PHI must meet specific security guidelines. See the UW-Madison HIPAA Security Program for more details.
UW-Madison PIs or their designees can signup for a ResearchDrive account by completing the form in the ResearchDrive - Getting Started Guide
UW-Madison PIs or their designees can purchase additional storage for a ResearchDrive account using the ResearchDrive - Account Modification Form.
The Research Data Services (RDS) group from the Libraries offers free consulting on Data Management Plans (DMPs). The text below can be used as a template for referring to the handling of data storage in the Data Management Plan portion of a research grant application:
“Data will be stored on ResearchDrive, the University of Wisconsin campus-wide file storage service managed by the Division of Information Technology. This is a secure space with data protection and security features based on the NIST Cybersecurity framework including off-site backups, encryption, and monitoring by the University of Wisconsin Cybersecurity Operations Center. The space required for this project is approximately XX Terabytes. The university provides up to 5 TB of storage at no cost, however, should we need more space the cost is $200/TB/year.”
Your local IT support will be an important resource as you begin using ResearchDrive to help you take advantage of it. We encourage you to work with your local IT support, but if needed you can also get help setting it up from the ResearchDrive service team. See ResearchDrive - Requesting Support for details.
Data stored on ResearchDrive is automatically backed up daily and replicated offsite for additional data protection. Snapshots are taken once a day and kept for 14 days and then weekly snapshots are kept for an additional five weeks. This allows you to recover accidentally deleted files or folders within the past two months. See ResearchDrive - Restoring Files or Folders from Snapshots for instructions on how to recover data.
If the default snapshot schedule does not meet your needs, please contact the ResearchDrive team at researchdrive@wisc.edu to discuss a custom data protection strategy.
ResearchDrive is a secure space with data protection and security features based on the NIST SP 800-53 Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations framework including off-site data protection, encryption, and monitoring by the University of Wisconsin Cybersecurity Operations Center.
The ResearchDrive service was developed and supported by the Office of Cybersecurity and the Office of Compliance in alignment with the HIPAA Security Program and CUI Security Program.
Only PIs are eligible for Research Drive which includes 5 TB of storage provided by the VCRGE. However, you can still get storage through SharedDrive, which has a very similar feature set as ResearchDrive minus the free 5 TB. SharedDrive costs $200/TB. Contact shareddrive@doit.wisc.edu
ResearchDrive and SharedDrive are similar services that share the same storage technology and infrastructure. ResearchDrive is sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and Chief Information Office and Vice Chancellor for Information Technology's Office as part of a campus Research Cyberinfrastructure Initiative and provides 5 TBs of storage to all PIs and their research group members. ResearchDrive has self-service collaboration features leveraging the Roles and Access Management (Manifest) and Active Directory Services as well as a collaborative support model providing delegated administration and resources for local IT and research support staff. SharedDrive is available to departments or research groups and features a delegated administration model for campus IT but does not support self-service collaboration like ResearchDrive.
ResearchDrive support Samba (SMB) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) from the UW-Madison campus network or off campus through a VPN connection. ResearchDrive is accessed by mapping a network drive on Windows or mounting a share on Mac OS or linux and supports both workstations and servers.
There are multiple considerations but several key differences between ResearchDrive and cloud collaboration services are:
See Connecting to ResearchDrive in the Getting Started Guide.
See Transfering Data to ResearchDrive in the Getting Started Guide.
See ResearchDrive - Moving Data From Box to ResearchDrive.
See Adding or Removing Collaborators from UW-Madison.
See Adding or Removing Collaborators external to UW-Madison
Yes, you can add individual people or add existing Manifest groups to your ResearchDrive collaboration groups. See ResearchDrive - Working with Collaborators and Manifest - Manage Group Members for more details.