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Research Data Management

A guide on managing, organising, sharing and preserving research data

Institutional Storage Solutions

The Geneva Graduate Institute offers different storage solutions to its researchers. They are network drives and network-attached storage (NAS) drives. They are generally the safest and most secure network solutions.

Advantages

  • A high level of data security is assured by firewalls and local monitoring. This is validated for ERC projects. 
  • Their safety measures are also validated by the ERC: the data is replicated between two physically separated storage arrays.
  • Their use is transparent when working on site: they are just another drive in your file explorer.
  • Standard network drives (not NAS) are free for staff and students.

Limitations

  • Our network drives are restricted to Geneva Graduate Institute staff and students, but access can be granted to external researchers on a case by case basis.
  • They do not support version history.
  • No web interface either.
  • They also require the installation of a VPN for distant access.

Key Differences

Home and Share Drives

  • The Home drive is personal and allows 5 GB of data.
  • The Share drive is project-based and allows 10 GB of data. 
  • In addition to safety measures indicated above, these drives have daily tape backups in a different location, making them the safest backup solution for your data.
  • Can be mounted virtually on your personal computers.

NAS storage

  • A project-specific solution for very large datasets. Your private project RAID arrays are installed in our server rooms for project usage.
  • This must be financed by project funds, and costs are non-negligible (thousands of Swiss francs for a performant solution).
  • There are no tape backups for this type of storage.
  • Less performant than the Home & Share Drive.

How to Setup Your IHEID Drive on Your Computer

Instructions on how to map the IHEID network drive on your computer are available on the IHEID Intranet.