Data Store

The CyVerse Data Store is a secure data storage and management service built on iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System), an open source data management platform. It is designed for life sciences researchers and teams who need flexible, scalable, and collaborative data management — whether working with small or large datasets, structured or unstructured data.

The Data Store provides granular control over data access, privacy, and sovereignty, while keeping data continuously connected to interactive analyses within CyVerse or on external cloud environments. Managed file transfers (MFTs) ensure security, data integrity through checksums, and optional end-to-end encryption, making it suitable for sensitive research data workflows.

Key Features

• 5 GB of storage included with a free Basic account, with additional storage available through subscription plans
• Parallel data transfers enabling fast uploads and downloads across institutional and commercial cloud partners
• Syncing and checksum handling to support partial and interrupted transfers without data loss
• Safe, secure storage accessible via a single authenticated login
• Granular permission controls for data, workflows, analysis results, and data visualizations
• Public data browsing, access, and download available without an account and with no egress fees
• Support for making data and analyses public and FAIR-compliant, aligned with open data research agreements

Supported Transfer Interfaces

• Cyberduck — graphical managed file transfer client
• WebDAV — web-based distributed authoring and versioning access
• GoCommands — high-speed command line transfer tool
• SFTP — secure file transfer protocol support
• Mountable file systems for direct data access

Data Management Capabilities

• Adding and managing metadata for datasets
• Sharing data privately with collaborators or publicly with the broader research community
• Assigning Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to datasets for citation and discoverability
• Integration with the CyVerse Discovery Environment for seamless data analysis

Performance Metrics

• Transfer speeds have been benchmarked between the CyVerse Data Store (University of Arizona) and major partners including the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), University of Indiana Jetstream2 (JS2) Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• For a 10.74 GB file, download durations ranged from approximately 26 seconds (CyVerse internal) to 128 seconds (GCP), and upload durations ranged from approximately 40 seconds (CyVerse internal) to 155 seconds (GCP)
• Metrics represent rounded geometric means across 30 runs, providing reliable benchmarks for planning large-scale data transfers

The Data Store integrates with the broader CyVerse platform, including the Discovery Environment, Data Commons, and Science APIs, and supports open science workflows through public data sharing and DOI assignment. Users can get started via the Data Store Guide, which includes video tutorials and documentation for managing data within CyVerse.