DuraSpace and the University of Toronto Libraries in collaboration with Scholars Portal and COPPUL (Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries) are pleased to announce a new joint project “DuraCloud Canada: Linking Data Repositories to Preservation Storage” funded by CANARIE, a vital component of Canada’s digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation.
The purpose of the proposed project is to connect preservation storage services through a common deposit layer based on open source software from DuraSpace called DuraCloud to research data preservation in Canada.
DuraCloud is a package of software components — some server based and others web and desktop based — that provides brokering services for cloud-based storage as well as a set of deposit tools and APIs that standardize the way users interact with cloud storage providers.
These software components are made available under open source licenses by DuraSpace and have been used to set up national services such as DuraCloud in the US and DuraCloud Europe. Using the same model and a similar deployment approach, the project will create a service called DuraCloud Canada with the goal of connecting preservation storage services to data repositories and bridging the current gap that exists between both.
The proposed project will make DuraCloud available for research data preservation in Canada by contributing to the DuraCloud open source codebase in order to facilitate the integration of existing data repositories. In doing so, it will fulfill multiple goals relating to the preservation of research data in Canada. It will provide an
interoperability layer between different preservation storage providers, expose a relatively easy-to-use API that data repositories may use to integrate with preservation storage options, and expose the set of pre-existing integrations that are already part of the DuraCloud system.
Work on this project will begin in November of 2018 and continue into 2020. Initial work will make use of DuraCloud within the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment by adding storage integrations to existing Canadian data repositories. Once these connectors are in place, development will continue with the goal of allowing the DuraCloud software to be run within the University of Toronto data center rather than in AWS.
About CANARIE
CANARIE strengthens Canadian leadership in science and technology by delivering digital infrastructure that supports world-class research and innovation.
CANARIE and its twelve provincial and territorial partners form Canada’s National Research and Education Network. This ultra-high-speed network connects Canada’s researchers, educators and innovators to each other and to global data, technology, and colleagues.
Beyond the network, CANARIE funds and promotes reusable research software tools and national research data management initiatives to accelerate discovery, provides identity management services to the academic community, and offers advanced networking and cloud resources to boost commercialization in Canada’s technology sector.
Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the majority of its funding provided by the Government of Canada.
For more information, please visit: www.canarie.ca
About DuraSpace
DuraSpace as an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization provides leadership and innovation for open technologies that promote durable, persistent access to digital data. We collaborate with academic, scientific, cultural, technology, and research communities by supporting projects and advancing services to help ensure that current and future generations have access to our collective digital heritage. Our vision is expressed in our organizational byline, “Working together to provide enduring access to the world’s digital heritage.” DuraSpace is the organizational home of the DuraCloud open source software.
About The University of Toronto Libraries
The University of Toronto Libraries system is the largest academic library in Canada and is ranked sixth among peer institutions in North America. The system consists of 42 libraries located on three university campuses: St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough. This array of college libraries, special collections, and specialized libraries and information centres supports the teaching and research requirements of over 280 graduate programs, more than 60 professional programs, and about 700 undergraduate degree programs. In addition to more than 15 million volumes in 341 languages, the library system currently provides access to millions of electronic resources in various forms and over 31,000 linear metres of archival material. More than 150,000 new print volumes are acquired each year. The Libraries’ data centre houses more than 500 servers with a storage capacity of 1.5 petabytes.
Scholars Portal was formed in 2002 as a service of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) with the University of Toronto as service provider. The Scholars Portal technological infrastructure preserves and provides access to information resources collected and shared by Ontario’s 21 university libraries. Through the Scholars Portal online services, Ontario’s university students, faculty and researchers have access to an extensive and varied collection of e-journals, e-books, social science data sets, geo reference data and geospatial sets. Scholars Portal continues to respond to the research needs of Ontario universities through the creation of innovative information services and by working to ensure access to and preservation of this wealth of information.
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