What kind of storage do I need for my research data?
Deciding on which data storage system and which data format to use will depend primarily on your project’s requirements and the resources that you have available. We generally advise you not to rely on local devices, external storage media or commercial cloud services (cf. Information on storage and backup strategies on the internal Confluence platform of the University of Bonn).
Faculty and graduate students at the University of Bonn have access to a range of data storage services provided by University IT and Data Center. As a rule, we recommend that you use the cloud storage service Sciebo. But if Sciebo does not meet your requirements (possibly because you need to store extremely large volumes of data, or because of data access arrangements), you may need to use the high-performance network storage system FDI Research Data Infrastructure. Research staff at the Faculty of Medicine also have access to the storage services at the University Hospital Bonn.
These are supplemented by the following services relevant to researchers: the availability of virtual machines and an option for transferring very large files.
Sciebo is a free cloud storage service that is operated on behalf of a consortium of universities in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
Sciebo is a file sync and share service that allows data to be synchronized smoothly between devices and, when necessary, enables people to share files and folders and to work collaboratively on documents.
The functionality is thus comparable to that from commercially available services, but has the advantage that your data is protected from commercial interests and is stored on media within NRW under a secure legal framework and with secure access protocols.
You can use a Sciebo project box for research data that offers up to 2 TB of storage.
Please do not use your personal storage for research data, because data loss is possible when your Uni-ID expires.
Access authorization rights can be managed simply using Sciebo’s Group functionality. You can invite external partners to join your project via the Guest function. Specific files or folders can also be shared by sending the recipient a direct link.
You'll find more information on the Confluence page of the University IT and Data Center.
If Sciebo is not able to meet your storage needs, University IT and Data Center offers access to its Research Data Infrastructure FDI – a high-performance data storage system that can be accessed via a number of different interfaces.
For example, the FDI storage system can be integrated into your operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux) as a network drive. It can also be connected to your own servers or to virtual machines and be linked to from the electronic lab book RSpace.
University of Bonn employees typically have a personal share. In addition, research projects and other organizational units or institutions at the university can request a project or group share. Project and group shares are larger than personal shares and not bound to an Uni ID and should therefore always be preferred over personal shares if research data is stored.
More detailed information on how to apply and on technical integration is available on Confluence.
Members of the Faculty of Medicine at the University Hospital Bonn can also make use of the storage services available at the Bonn Technology Campus.
If you need to store very large quantities of data, the University Hospital Bonn has its own storage cluster.
There is also a cloud storage service called BTC Cloud, which offers up to 128 GB of storage per user account.
The registration for these services, which are part of the BTC Core Facilities, is via the university’s intranet.
Questions can be addressed to Dr. Elmar Endl.
Virtual Machines via UniVM
If you are interested in setting up your own server, you can make use of the uniVM service.
Windows and Linux servers (CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian) are available. The server performance parameters can be adjusted as required. This service is being offered to scientists free of charge since the beginning of 2023.
File transfer using Gigamove
In order to share large amounts of data with others, you do not need to resort to commercial offers.
Members of the University of Bonn can use the RWTH Aachen Gigamove 2.0 service free of charge.
Here you have the option of making files of up to 100 GB available to others, including a virus scan and, if required, password protection.
For smaller amounts of data, you can also use direct links from Sciebo (see above).
Are you unsure which system is right for your project? Do you have requirements that are not covered by the current offers? Or do you still have unanswered questions about the listed services?
Feel free to contact us with your request at researchdata@uni-bonn.de