Data Storage Services

Data Storage Department offers services for storing unstructured scientific data as files and/or objects. These services, along with the National Repository Platform, are part of the National Data Infrastructure.

This overview outlines basic use cases and recommends the appropriate services to address them.

General Information

The services are primarily intended for storing scientific data by users from eligible organizations, mainly academic institutions in the Czech Republic. Both users and the infrastructure operator must adhere to the Service Terms and Conditions.

For assistance, please refer to the contact information on the support page.

You may be also interested in the equipment and infrastructure we operate.

Typical Use Cases

This section outlines typical use cases and the systems that can be deployed to support them. If you have any doubts or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact support.

Temporary Data Transfers

For transferring files that are too large for email attachments to a single recipient or a group, you can use the temporary storage provided by FileSender. Please note that the files are stored only temporarily. You can also invite someone to send a file to you.

Data Sharing and Synchronisation

To keep your most important but smaller work data easily accessible and automatically synchronised across your computers and mobile devices, as well as available through a web interface, you can try out our sync’n’share service.

Object Storage for Individual Users

Whether you need a few terabytes of personal work data or you simply want to explore the concepts and tools of object storage, you can gain basic access by registering for the service. No questions asked, but we recommend reviewing the service documentation, as some configuration will be required.

Object Storage Access

You may need storage for various purposes, such as:

• processing terabytes (or more) of data in MetaCentrum or IT4I,
• archiving data for the medium term,
• sharing data among groups of users,
• backing up scientific data from your institution,
• or addressing any other storage needs.

In such cases, we would be happy to discuss your requirements and expectations through our support.

The available options include:

• direct access to S3, suitable for most common use cases,
• Rados Block Device, should block device approach be necessary,
• CephFS, if a file system is a must, please contact support.

In all cases, you will have detailed control over user access to the data.

Data Repositories

If you need to enrich your data with detailed descriptive metadata and publish it in a controlled manner, this documentation may not be what you’re looking for. In that case, you’ll likely be interested in the National Repository Platform, which is designed to support data repositories and handle these needs.