Research Data Storage Resources

The Center for Research Computing offers several secure, low-cost, scalable, networked data storage to researchers both on- and off-campus, and helps you to leverage these services to make the most of your data.

The CRC offers subsidized, low-cost, networked data storage resources on- and off-campus to research faculty in every discipline. We facilitate access to these resources for you and your research group, and help you to leverage them with computing resources to more efficiently work with and securely back up your large datasets.

Research Data Facility (RDF)


The CRC provides storage and data transfer services to support the needs across the research lifecycle. The Research Data Facility, or RDF is an on-premises, 2.9 petabyte (PB) networked service that is highly resilient. RDF allocations are available to faculty researchers –allocations of 500GB are subsidized, and a cost recovery model in place for additional utilization beyond the 500GB limit.


Research High-Capacity Facility (RHF)


In December, 2024, we launched our new 5PB performant storage resource, the Research High-Capacity Facility (RHF), which is designed to support active research using large datasets; this resource is connected to our HPC systems and is accessible from most endpoints. Requests for allocations require a brief proposal, and the initial 10TB are subsidized by the University. Researchers may buy into this system if very large allocations are needed.


Open Storage Network


Rice is a member of the national Open Storage Network (OSN), which supports research and education that requires research storage, access and transfer at scale. This OSN infrastructure provides S3 compatible object storage for multi-terabyte data in active use, and connects us to a national data fabric. The CRC is committed to providing 20% of the available storage to the common OSN allocation pool, which is available through the NSF ACCESS program.


Cold Storage & Disaster Recovery


For disaster recovery, archiving and preservation, the CRC provides access to remote storage services, including AWS Glacier and the Granite (tape) service run at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at UIUC.

Fast Data Transfer


The CRC manages an extensive network of GLOBUS data transfer nodes (DTNs) which allow researchers to move terabyte-scale datasets quickly between the CRC’s HPC systems and other data endpoints; or to transfer large datasets to other participating academic institutions. Rice University's Science DMZ provides high speed connectivity to our GLOBUS DTN network via Internet2 and ESnet.