Choosing data storage

The University provides a range of data storage options for research data, but in general, researchers are advised to use one or both of:

• Research Drive
• Dropbox for researchers

If you've been asked to use a different service by a funder, data holder, or collaborator, please contact your Digital Services business relationship manager or the Centre for eResearch.

Research Drive

Ideal use: Research data you are actively working on

• Suitable for sensitive research data
• Located in New Zealand
• Post-project retention
• Recovery from deletion – 180 days
• Standard allocation: 4TB
• Collaboration is possible with any users with University credentials, including external collaborators

Dropbox for researchers

Ideal use: Research data you are actively collaborating on outside the institution

• Not suitable for sensitive research data
• Not located in NZ
• Recovery from deletion – 180 days
• No post-project retention
• Allocation: By consultation
• Collaboration is possible with anyone

Microsoft Teams or SharePoint

Ideal use: Shared research administration files, but not research data. More information: File storage

• Not suitable for sensitive data
• Collaboration is possible with  any users with University credentials, including external collaborators
• Not located in NZ
• Post-project retention
• Recovery from deletion – 93 days

OneDrive

Ideal use: Personal work-related files, but not research data. More information: File storage

• Not suitable for sensitive data
• Not designed for collaboration
• Not located in NZ
• No post-project retention
• Recovery from deletion – 93 days

• Data security classification: To identify appropriate classifications, review the data classification standard. This will inform how data can be stored and shared.

• Policies and agreements: Review your ethics approval, funding contract, and the Research Data Management Policy guidance to identify where data should be stored and how it should be transferred there.

• Collaborator access: Consider who needs access to which parts of the data, and how different parts may be separated into different storage options. For example, a project may have sensitive research data in Research Drive for access by University colleagues and named external collaborators, while data to be shared outside the University may be in a Dropbox team folder, and project administration data may be kept in SharePoint.

• Analysis requirements: Data may need to be stored in close proximity to computing resources.

• Retaining, archiving, and publishing: Review the requirements for research data retention and consider publishing research data in Institutional Figshare. It may be appropriate to use different storage services across the data lifecycle.

Research Drive and Dropbox for researchers can be requested by research staff and doctoral candidates. Other postgraduate research students, external collaborators, and visiting academics can be added as collaborators.

Research data storage is allocated on a project-by-project basis to enable appropriate governance (e.g. ethics conditions, access restrictions, retention, long-term stewardship). Therefore, storage requests must contain basic information about the project, the researchers involved and the data.

• Request or update research storage

Requests for more than the standard allocation require a consultation via the Research data management consultation service.

Research Data Support Services
Email: researchdata@auckland.ac.nz