Research data moves through stages: data you are computing on, project data the lab shares, documents you collaborate on, and data you must keep long term. Each stage has a storage option suited to it. This article maps them. Figures come from the source named beside each one, and the source is the authority.
Working data (hot): HPCC parallel storage
Best for: active computation and data currently being processed on the HPCC cluster.
- Each standard HPCC user account includes 50 GB (HPCC Recharging Rates 2026/2027, as of Oct 2026).
- Labs can rent more ($1,000 per 10 TB per year) or buy disks to HPCC specifications, with an annual maintenance fee.
- Details: HPCC storage (GPFS).
Project data (warm): CephRDS
Best for: lab shares, sequencing libraries, instrument output and other data that must stay online.
- Status: pilot. Terms and capacity may change during the pilot.
- Access over S3, with tools such as rclone and Cyberduck.
- Pilot rates: $50 per TB per year rented, or $250 per usable TB, one time, for the 5-year hardware lifecycle purchased (Research Computing CephRDS pilot terms).
- Details: CephRDS.
Cloud projects that need high-performance shared file systems (such as Google Filestore) can use them through a recharged Ursa Major project or a cloud account.
Collaboration: Google Drive and OneDrive
Best for: manuscripts, administrative files, protocols and lightweight shared files.
- Google Drive: 100 GB for faculty, staff and graduate students; 25 GB for undergraduates (ITS Storage at UCR, as of Oct 2026).
- ITS notes that faculty may request individual Drive storage up to 1 TB, and create Shared Drives of up to 1 TB each, at no additional cost.
- Details: Google Drive and OneDrive and the ITS storage page.
Long-term archive (cold): Ursa Major archive storage
Best for: raw data you are required to keep, reproducibility snapshots, and second copies.
- Uses Google Cloud archive classes (such as Coldline). Reading data back can carry retrieval charges.
- Under current Ursa Major terms, archive storage may be available without recharge to the lab, within limits and subject to eligibility. This depends on continued campus funding, and no duration is committed.
- Details: Cloud archive and KB012: Using Ursa Major archive storage.
Before you choose
- Check the data's protection level. P3 and P4 data need a review first.
- Check how long you must keep it: records retention.
- Keep at least one copy of irreplaceable raw data away from where you compute on it.