Faculty and staff may now request access to a resilient new storage system that will help protect important low- and medium-risk research data from both cyber threats and system failures.
The WVU Research Vault, developed by Information Technology Services, provides researchers with 5TB of data storage at no charge, thanks to a $1.3 million University investment.
Research data are valuable assets, and Interim Vice President for Research Ming Lei says the investment is recognition that these assets need to be properly protected.
University research is often attractive to cyber criminals and nation-states. Attacks on colleges and universities are up 70% year over year, with more than 3,000 documented incidents in 2024.
The Research Vault will replicate data to a second, off-site location, giving researchers quick access to their data if the primary storage site becomes inaccessible. The data will also be backed up to the cloud, so WVU can recover from a disaster impacting both the primary and secondary sites. Both the storage and backup system include anti-ransomware capabilities at no extra cost.
Request access. WVU Login credentials are required.
Storage exceeding 5TB won’t be funded centrally, so researchers with high-volume needs should factor that potential cost into grants and awards. Each terabyte over 5TB will cost $365 per year.
The Research Vault replaces the Research Data Depot, which had been administered by the Research Computing team since summer 2020. If you are still using Data Depot and want to migrate your data to Research Vault, you will need to submit a request; this will not happen automatically.
Research Vault will be the required default storage for low- and medium-risk data, and all WVU research data must be stored on approved enterprise solutions.
Independently purchased and managed storage systems create multiple risks and make inefficient use of the University’s limited resources. ITS must review those tools and try to develop adequate security plans that are difficult to enforce, while PIs, graduate assistants or others with varying levels of expertise need to administer and maintain the security of the tools, instead of focusing on their research. These tools also create inconsistent approaches to data protection and put the University’s intellectual property and regulated data at risk.
Less expensive solutions also often make tradeoffs in cybersecurity, data protection, performance, reliability or scalability. This puts research data and other institutional assets at risk.
ITS is also building a new environment for research involving high-risk and Sensitive Data. The Secure University Research Environment will be HIPAA-compliant and available to any WVU researcher, but with costs yet to be determined. The purpose of SURE is to improve the time-to-value for high-risk research through pre-certified solutions. More details about SURE will be announced in the coming months.
For questions or a consultation, contact the ITS Service Desk at 304-293-4444.