Skip to content

Data Attic

DATA ATTIC

A Data Attic is a place to store data that you do not need to regularly access or analyze.

A Data Attic is one of the services available to add to your Research Project in Research Toolkits. It is a place to store data that you do not need to regularly access or analyze. A Data Attic is S3 Object storage on Ceph, and data can be moved into and out of an attic via Globus.

To learn more about how to use a Data Attic in your Research Toolkits project, please checkout our Data Attic Tutorial

Duke Data Attic

Please note:

  • Faculty receive 2TB of storage at no cost, PhD students receive 500GB of storage at no cost. Sizes are expandable with a fund code.
  • PhD students must assign a faculty data steward to any attics they create. This steward will be responsible for the data when the student leaves Duke.
  • Data stored in attics is not backed up. The service is deployed on highly resilient data center storage, but it is not protected from accidental deletion from a user.
  • Sensitive data (including regulated data) is not permitted in Duke Data Attic, and usage must comply with IRB protocol and/or data management plans. Clinical researchers should consult with the Data Front Door if they have questions about allowability.
  • Duke Data Attics default to a 6 year automatic retention period that may be adjusted by the data steward (project admin or PI). At the end of the data retention period, the Duke Data Attic is deleted automatically.
  • When you leave Duke, the Duke Data Attic will persist until the retention period is reached.
  • By data steward request to research computing, attics may be transferred to another user.

Big Data, Smart Savings: Duke's Data Attic Cuts Research Storage Costs by 63%.

When Dr. Mark Palmeri, a faculty member in Duke's Biomedical Engineering department, was faced with the challenge of managing over 1 PB of ultrasound data, he turned to Duke's new low-cost storage solution, the Data Attic, for his archival needs. Learn how Mark shifted his strategy and plan for big savings for his big data.