The UW Libraries and UW/IT have collaborated on a shared digital data repository designed to provide two main functions: 1) a storage service for UW researchers who need to reliably and safely store and securely exchange data with students, and collaborators anywhere in the world and; 2) a place for UW researchers to store data linked to publications or datasets as publications themselves, and be in compliance with funder requirements.

ARCC provides researchers two options for data storage for their research, petaLibrary and Pathfinder.

Contents

Glossary

Data Storage Systems

ARCC petaLibrary

The petaLibrary is connected to the UW network backbone at 40 Gbps (upgradeable to 80 Gbps) which is connected to the Internet2 research network at 100 Gbps so the data can be provided to the wide-area network (WAN) at world-class speeds. The service is designed and operated such that access to data in the Data Commons should be limited only by the receiving endpoint or intervening network connections, not the UW infrastructure. Thus UW researchers will be able to share (and/or host) data via a service that provides world-class speeds for research data.

ARCC Pathfinder

ARCCs newest data storage system is Pathfinder. It is a low-cost storage solution that enables a Cloud-like presence for research data hosted by ARCC. The system is built to be expandable and provides data protection. Its core functionality is hosting onsite backups as well as enabling data sharing and collaboration.