Quick Start

Available to: Faculty, Researchers, Staff, Departments, Students doing approved research under faculty guidance

Cost: See cost details, below.

The Data Archiving service is designed for secure, long-term storage of large quantities of infrequently accessed data. The service supports teaching, research, and administrative computing. Typical uses include storage of experimental or sensor data, computational output, images and the results of image analysis, video files, and unstructured content that is infrequently accessed. Storage of non-university related data is prohibited.

This service is offered in two modes: The standard mode replicates archived data across two data centers, providing protection against failures. If you maintain a copy of your data outside of the archive service, you may choose the “no replication” option. Typical uses of the “no replication” option would be for copies of production A/V content and large data files that change rarely and are thus expensive to back up via traditional tape backup. Data in unreplicated archives will be stored and accessed separately from data in standard, replicated archives.

Benefits

Central provision and management of archiving resources relieves departments and research groups of the costs and responsibilities associated with acquiring and maintaining individual resources. High capacity and low operating costs ensure that affordable space is available to meet changing needs. High availability, achieved by duplicating stored information across multiple data centers, ensures ready access to data. Space on a department’s primary storage can be freed up for more frequently accessed files.

Key Features

  • Data is hosted in professionally managed, environmentally controlled, and physically secured data centers.
  • Information is available for retrieval 24X7, except during scheduled maintenance periods.
  • You may choose to have archived data hosted in a single data center or replicated across two data centers.
  • You directly manage access to your information.
  • The service supports access from Windows, Macintosh, and Linux/UNIX platforms.
  • Information can be retained as long as desired.
  • Periodic “snapshots” of the information are taken to ensure data integrity.

Requirements

  • BU login name and Kerberos password
  • Agreement in full to these terms and limitations:
    • The BU Data Archive may be used to store data related to your work for the University as a staff member, faculty member, or student doing research under faculty guidance; or departmental data. It may not be used to store personal data.
    • The BU Data Archive must be used in accordance with the University’s Tech and Information Security Policies, including but not limited to the Data Protection Standards, and any additional requirements imposed by your school, department or unit.
    • The BU Data Archive may not be used to store data defined in the Data Protection Standards as “Restricted Use Data.” Examples include but are not limited to: social security numbers, financial account numbers (including credit card numbers), driver’s license numbers, human subject data or Protected Health Information, as that term is defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If you have any questions on Restricted Use data, contact BU Information Security at 617-353-9004 or BUInfoSec@bu.edu.
    • If you inadvertently delete files, you are responsible for recovering the files. The procedure, which IS&T developed, is described in the FAQ section.
    • The BU Data Archive does not support exporting data to removable media, e.g., copying to tape.
  • You must renew your agreement to use the BU Data Archive each year.

Cost

Category Fully subsidized base allocation Additional allocations ($/Terabyte/Year, $100 minimum)
Individual faculty, staff, or
faculty-sponsored students		 10 Gigabytes Replicated: $200/Terabyte/Year
Not replicated: $100/Terabyte/Year
School or college 10 Terabytes
Research project 1 Terabyte
Administrative department, OU, center, others 1 Terabyte

Getting Started