Taiwan NCHC joins iRODS data management consortium
Taiwan's National Centre for High-Performance Computing has joined the iRODS Consortium, expanding the consortium's membership base around open-source data management and distributed storage software.
The iRODS Consortium oversees development and support of the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System, known as iRODS. The software is used by research, commercial and government organisations for storing, managing and sharing large volumes of data across organisations and platforms.
NCHC operates national research infrastructure in Taiwan. It supports high-performance computing, AI, large-scale data services and scientific research.
The organisation also runs academic research network infrastructure and develops high-performance computing platforms. It conducts work in information security and data encryption, and it carries out research programmes that include quantum computing and big data analysis.
Data management
iRODS manages data and associated metadata. It also provides a mechanism for defining rules for storage, processing and distribution. The software targets collaboration, interoperability and scalability of data infrastructures.
NCHC said it has developed a proprietary Trusted-Cloud Platform aligned with the Trusted Research Environment framework. It uses the "Five Safes" model as a central element of the architecture.
NCHC described security mechanisms in its cloud platform that address Safe People, Safe Projects and Safe Outputs. NCHC said integration of iRODS plays a role in Safe Settings and Safe Data.
NCHC said iRODS allows it to register existing files into the system without extra replicas. It also said iRODS supports heterogeneous storage filesystems simultaneously. NCHC said this approach connects legacy storage facilities with researcher access controls.
Sensitive data
NCHC highlighted sensitive data management as a focus area for its work with iRODS. It framed consortium membership as a route to closer engagement with the iRODS development and support ecosystem.
Chang-Wei Yeh, Principle Engineer and the Lead of the Sensitive Data Authorization System at NCHC, said: "Managing infrastructure for sensitive data carries significant responsibility. Joining the iRODS Consortium grants us a direct line of communication with the development team and provides access to the latest features and expert support. This ensures our system integrations and configurations remain perfectly aligned with our evolving security requirements."
Consortium role
The iRODS Consortium said iRODS has been deployed at thousands of locations worldwide. It cited use cases including long-term data management in oil and gas, biosciences, physical sciences, archives, and media and entertainment.
The consortium's development team is based at Renaissance Computing Institute. RENCI is affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
NCHC's membership adds a national high-performance computing centre to the consortium's roster at a time when research organisations face rising volumes of data from AI and other data-intensive workflows.
"We are very excited to continue our collaboration with NCHC and welcome them to the Consortium." says Terrell Russell, iRODS Consortium Executive Director. "As an HPC center with numerous scientific requirements, we expect the programmability of the iRODS ecosystem to shine in their capable hands."
NCHC said it will continue building new generations of high-performance computing platforms alongside academic research networks and related security research.