Adopt sustainable data practices to safeguard storage capacity and integrity for future research.
As datasets grow, HMS IT is implementing new lifecycle management practices to ensure shared storage remains secure and available. Principal Investigators and data owners must review their current usage and clean up inactive content. This collaborative effort ensures data integrity and maintains accessibility to resources for the entire research community.
Who is affected
This initiative applies to all users of HMS centralized storage systems.All users of HMS centralized storage are affected, including:
- Principal Investigators (PIs)
- Department administrators
- Lab data managers
- Lab members (data owners)
- IT staff managing research data
Timeline and rollout
Work continues through 2026 with workshops and lab engagements scheduled for the first half of the year.The initiative will continue in phases through 2026. During the first half of the year, you can expect planned workshops, targeted communications, and scheduled individual lab engagements. During this time, we will assist with data cleanup and introduce improvements, including data tiering, lifecycle management, and automation.
Required actions
PIs and data owners must review usage reports and clean up inactive content when contacted.If you are a principal investigator (PI), lab data manager, or data owner, you will be contacted to participate. When notified:
- Review usage – Analyze data usage reports and dashboards for your group and share the findings during internal lab meetings.
- Clean up – Remove redundant, unused, or irrelevant data. Focus specifically on inactive content.
- Organize – Move data to Standby and Cold storage systems if it must be retained but is not in active use.
- Learn the guidelines – Familiarize yourself with guidance on data retention and data storage offerings. Follow instructions provided in targeted communications.
Risky behaviors to avoid
Do not store research data on personal devices or delete shared files without confirming with a data owner.To ensure data security and compliance, follow these guidelines:
- Personal local storage – Don’t store HMS research data on local hard drives (like external drives or ad hoc servers) or personal devices. This risks data integrity and security, and removes the data from proper lifecycle management and support from HMS IT.
- Personal cloud accounts – Don’t move or store HMS research data on personal cloud accounts (like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud). This risks non-compliance, data security issues, and loss of data access when researchers depart HMS.
- Unverified deletion – Don’t delete data that may still be needed without confirming with the PI or designated data owner. This risks the irrecoverable loss of critical research data.
- Ignoring reports – Don’t ignore storage usage reports, dashboards, or requests for cleanup. This risks capacity constraints and unexpected restrictions on new data.
- Mishandling sensitive data – Don’t move or store regulated, sensitive, or human-subjects data to locations not approved for that data type. This risks compliance violations and privacy breaches.
Policy and infrastructure updates
Recent changes include reduced snapshot retention, usage-based quota reviews, and infrastructure migration.- Snapshot retention – As of November 7, 2025, daily Standby storage snapshot retention is reduced from eight weeks to 21 days, and weekly snapshot retention is no longer available.
- Storage quotas – Lab and group allocations are reviewed periodically. Adjustments may occur based on usage, data type, and institutional priorities.
- Cost containment – Primary research storage for the O2 cluster was migrated to cost-effective infrastructure in FY24. While we are committed to maintaining centralized storage as a shared resource, persistent capacity pressure may require usage-based limits or cost-sharing models in the future.
Support
Access training, dashboards, and direct assistance from the Research Data Management team.We appreciate your efforts to improve data stewardship. To assist you, support options will be available throughout the first half of 2026:
- Tools – Dashboards for managing your data.
- Guidance – Regular communications regarding expectations and policy updates (sent in advance of enforcement).
- Education – Training sessions and office hours.
For questions, feedback, or assistance, contact the HMS IT Research Data Management team.