The best storage solution for research data depends on the specific needs of the research project and the stage of the research lifecycle. Digital cold storage is ideal for long-term preservation, warm storage is suitable for occasional access and analysis, and hot storage is necessary for high-performance computing applications.
Hot Storage
Hot storage for research data is a high-speed data storage solution that provides fast access to data. It is designed for research data that requires rapid access times and high-performance computing such as machine learning and simulations. This storage is more expensive than other storage solutions and may not be necessary for all research applications. Because of this, it should also be used sparingly.
Warm Storage
Warm storage is a type of data storage that offers faster access times than digital cold storage. Data is stored on disk-based systems some of which may be connected to the cloud or to the local network making it easily retrievable and accessible within seconds. This solution is ideal for research data that needs to be accessed occasionally. It is suitable for day-to-day desktop tasks and workloads that are not considered intensive. It also can be a staging area for compute taking place on hot storage, it can be the place you retrieve data that is on cold storage to prepare it for heavy computations. It is more expensive than digital cold storage but less expensive than hot storage. It offers a balance between cost and performance.
Cold Storage
Cold storage is a form of data storage that stores large amounts of data in a low-cost, durable, and secure manner. This type of storage is called "cold" because it is designed for data that is accessed infrequently or not at all. It is typically used for archiving data that needs to be retained for legal or regulatory reasons but is not likely to be accessed regularly. Because the data is stored in a way that is not easily accessible, retrieval times are slow compared to other forms of storage, with a return time of up to several working days to retrieve data that has been archived in this way. Because of this, there are high retrieval costs in retrieving data in cold storage.
Please contact your eResearch Consultant for support in archiving your research data.
