News and Announcements

Research Object Storage (S3) coming August 19, 2024!

Posted: 2024-03-15 10:28:11   Expiration: 2025-06-01 10:15:21

Coming August 19, 2024! 

Research Object Storage (S3) is a lower cost object file storage solution for eligible researchers to store research-related data.  It is hosted on premise by UW-Madison and is not a public cloud application, such as Amazon Web Services (although it is based on the AWS S3 protocol).  

It is useful for: 

  • Data archiving
  • Backup software target (Commvault, IBM Storage Protect, Synology NAS, Oracle, etc)
  • Web applications - Lots of things know how to speak S3 natively
  • Static web content
  • Big data analysis
  • Instrumentation/IoT data
  • and more!

How much does it cost?

Eligible researchers will receive a 50TB no cost subsidy for Research Object Storage (S3).  This means they will not pay for the first 50TB of storage they use.  Additional storage beyond the 50TB allotment can be purchased at the rate of $60 per TB per year. 

Who is eligible?

While any permanent employee at UW-Madison can request an account, only eligible researchers will be awarded the 50TB no cost subsidy.

Eligible researchers include:

  • Tenured and Tenure Track Faculty (Faculty Job Group, Job Codes: FA040 (Assistant Professor); FA030 (Associate Professor); and FA020 (Professor))
  • Academic Staff who have been granted Permanent PI status 
  • Academic Staff with Research Professor titles ((Research Job Group, Job Codes: RE112 (Research Assistant Professor), RE113 (Research Associate Professor), RE035 (Research Professor))

Those not eligible for the subsidy will be required to provide billing information and will be charged for all storage used.

How do I get an account?

To request an account, please complete the Research Object Storage (S3) request formNote:  you must have an existing ResearchDrive account in order to request a Research Object Storage (S3) account. 

Support accounts (i.e. "demo" accounts)

Departmental IT and other research support staff may request a support account for learning purposes at no cost.  Support accounts do not come with the 50TB no cost subsidy and are not intended for long term data storage (they are audited for this). 

To request a support account, please complete the Research Object Storage (S3) request formNote: you must have an existing ResearchDrive account in order to request a Research Object Storage (S3) account. 

Can I store restricted data, including HIPAA data?  

No, not at first.  Support for restricted data will not be available when the service is launched in August 19, 2024.  Support for restricted data will be phased in at a later date.

Will Globus be available for this service?

Not yet.  We are working to provide Globus collections for Research Object Storage (S3), but they will not be available for the August 2024 rollout.  In the meantime, if you have an immediate need to do a one-time (or infrequent) data transfer, we can give you access to a temporary Globus S3 collection for this purpose.  Please reach out to us for more information.

Questions?

Please direct questions to researchdrive@wisc.edu    

-- UW-Madison Research Data: Casey Schacher