Home > Secure Storage

IRMACS Secure Storage

Much of modern research is driven by the need to store large amounts of data. As part of its research support, IRMACS provides its community with access to a wide range of backed up and secure data storage services. These include:

For more information about how to use IRMACS storage please refer to the IRMACS storage technical use page.

IRMACS Storage

IRMACS provides a range of storage capabilities for its researchers. This includes robust, backed up storage for user's home directories and project directories (~20 TB in total) as well as dedicated storage for the IRMACS computational cluster (2TB).

IRMACS Compute Canada Storage Allocation

IRMACS requests an annual storage allocation on bugaboo.westgrid.ca, the local Compute Canada cluster at SFU. This storage is accessible to all IRMACS researchers. If a researcher needs access to storage beyond their standard storage allocation on bugaboo.westgrid.ca, please send email to help@irmacs.sfu.ca with an email entitled "Increased storage allocation on bugaboo for IRMACS research".

IRMACS Secure Storage Facilities

IRMACS has the capability to provide a wide range of secure storage services. Through the physical security of its labs and server rooms, the network security of its wired network, and the hardware/software security of its firewalls and VPN, IRMACS can meet most research project's data security needs. IRMACS uses a five tiered data security classification based on the Harvard Research Data Security Policy. The five tiers are:

  • Level 5 - Extremely sensitive information
  • Level 4 - Very sensitive information
  • Level 3 - Sensitive or confidential information
  • Level 2 - Benign information to be held confidentially
  • Level 1 - Non-confidential research information

Harvard also has an excellent data classification table and a set of data security requirements that can be used to classify research data and help researchers determine the level of security with which their data should be treated. IRMACS can help you achieve any of the above data security levels.

If you have a need to store confidential data on IRMACS systems, please contact help@irmacs.sfu.ca. We are happy to discuss how we can meet your data security needs within the IRMACS Centre.