Active Data storage
Backing up your data
New National Security Guidelines for NSERC Alliance Grants
Active Data storage options for the University of Windsor are listed here. Active storage refers to your needs for research data storage while you are actively working with your research data during the course of your research project. These options are distinct from depositing and archiving your data for long term preservation for posterity and so that your data can be discovered and potentially re-used by others. For data preservation options, please see the section for Archiving Data. Also, please be advised that many of the options listed are not ideal for very sensitive research data that is not de-identified or sufficiently anonymized. Digital Research Alliance (the Alliance) Advanced Research Computing
The Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) is a national governmental organization supporting advanced research computing (services formerly provided by Compute Canada). The Alliance provides researchers with access to high performance computing (HPC). Usually this is a good option for researchers working with larger datasets which exceed the limits of desktop computing. The Alliance therefore provides large amounts of storage for researchers and data is securely transferred to the Alliance ARC systems. The systems are not specifically set up for handling sensitive data, but support staff can provide advice. By default 1TB is assigned but more storage space can be assigned through research competitions. All storage options can be found on the Alliance ARC storage website. Servers are all hosted in Canada. Globus is the preferred protocol for transferring data to and between Alliance ARC systems. File storage can also be accessed using SFTP, SCP, or other network protocols. Using ARC storage requires high technical complexity (e.g. working in Linux). Faculty members at any Canadian University can make a CCDB account by following the instructions here. Research staff and graduate students accounts can be sponsored by faculty researchers. For questions, please contact the Alliance contact page.
OneDrive
University of Windsor's institutional OneDrive access is hosted locally on institutional servers and is a viable option for secure active storage. As of April 7, 2025, space available to faculty was reduced to 20GB of space - Faculty have been granted an extension to September 1, 2025 to address the reductions in available storage through Microsoft. Users who may require more than the allotted quota for work, academic, or research purposes can submit a request to IT Services for review.
The Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) is a national governmental organization supporting advanced research computing (services formerly provided by Compute Canada). The Alliance provides Compute Canada Nextcloud, an online file syncing and storage solution for all advanced research computing (ARC) users. The Nextcloud service is aimed at users with relatively small datasets (100GB are assigned by default). If there is a need, researchers may be able to request more storage space. Medium risk data must be manually encrypted before being uploaded to Compute Canada Nextcloud. Nextcloud is hosted at SFU and is backed up daily. Users can share files with other users, create and send password-protected public links, and let others upload files to the private cloud. Nextcloud access is automatically provided to all Alliance ARC users, if you have a CCDB account you can login with it. If you do not have a CCDB account, faculty members at any Canadian University can apply for a CCDB account by following the instructions here. Faculty researchers can then sponsor research staff and graduate students accounts as well. Unlike advanced research computing, NextCloud does not require high technical skill, making this a suitable option for those who prefer web portal access (versus command line). Desktop syncing is possible for Mac, Windows, and Linux and Android and iOS mobile apps.
Ontario Library Research Cloud (OLRC) has been developed by the Ontario Council of University Libraries (including the University of Windsor) as an Ontario-based, highly secure cloud solution. The servers are located in Ontario University controlled data centres and the data travels over a private VLAN. Currently lacks a scalable user interface. For extremely sensitive projects with infrequent data transfer and access, the OLRC may be an option.
Local Secure Networks
Departmental networked storage (Novell etc.) may be a secure viable option, but check with your administrator on security and access protections.
Local storage
Your local hard drive may be the most convenient option for primary storage of most extremely sensitive data at present. Make sure you have external backup copies and in more than one location! Also, encrypt and password protect files to minimize security risk.
REDCap
REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. If you are collecting survey data, then the University of Windsor's locally-installed instance of RECap is a very good option for secure local storage and is highly secure. REDCap is more of a data collection tool than an active storage platform. After data collection is complete, researchers are encouraged to move their data from REDCap. REDCap is free for al WE-SPARK Health Institute Members.
Backing up your data
To mitigate against the risk of losing research data due to human error, natural disasters, or other mishaps, your data management plan should include strategies to prevent loss. Loss of data can be mitigated by following the 3-2-1 Backup Rule:You should have at least 3 copies of your data:
- The here copy, which can be your working copy
- The near copy, which is a local backup. Perhaps an external hard drive
- The far copy that is stored off-site and ideally accessible from another computer vs your own
Metadata and README files should be also backed up with your research data.
New National Security Guidelines for NSERC Alliance Grants
As of July 2021, applicants (and their institutions) are required to complete the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships’ risk assessment form for all Alliance grant applications involving one or more partner organizations from the private sector. For such partnerships, applicants must submit the completed risk assessment form as an integral part of the NSERC Alliance application.If based on the results of the Risk Assessment Questionnaire a Risk Mitigation Plan needs to be completed, please note that the reference to cyber hygiene and research data management training is not a formal requirement. Rather, it is recommended in the spirit of best practice. For research partnerships where the risks identified are linked to research data management and/or cybersecurity, following such training can be an especially valuable part of risk mitigation planning.
To assist researchers in completing these new requirements (if applicable) the following links may be especially useful.
Cyber Hygiene
The Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity offers resources on the cyber threat environment, including cyber threat actors and their motivations, sophistication, techniques, tools, and strategies to address the potential threat. This includes a Learning Hub and various Interactive content which could be valuable. There is also specific reference to cyber hygiene, here.
The “Cyber Security For Researchers” course on the Safeguarding Your Research portal is good place to start for cyber hygiene, since it is provided by the Government of Canada and includes a certificate of completion: https://science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_98282.html. There is also an “Introduction to Research Security” course available on the same platform, which NSERC recommends researchers follow before the cyber security course.
Public Safety Canada - Building Security Awareness in the Academic Community
BDC cyber hygiene checklist (BDC.ca)
CGI cyber hygiene do’s and don’ts (cgi.com)
Research Data Management Training
Alliance Training Resources
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