Accessing your data
Few researchers work from a single location, so you probably need remote access to your data. The kind of storage you use will affect how easy and secure it is to work remotely.
You may also want to give others access to data, or explore options for Data sharing.
How can you access your data when you're not at the University? You can either:
- Keep a central copy that you can access from elsewhere (via the web);
- Have a secondary copy that you send / keep with you (using email or portable storage media). If you choose this option, you'll need to practice good version control.
Our remote access guide covers University services and external options.
There are various storage options available to you.
- The University offers networked storage in the form of personal H: drives and shared drives;
- Your desktop machine and laptop have hard drives on which data can be stored;
- There are lots of portable storage media, e.g. external hard drives, CDs and USB sticks;
- Online services such as Dropbox and SkyDrive provide some free storage.
Our storage guide highlights the advantages and drawbacks of each, to help you choose what to store where.
There are many threats to data security, so you should:
- Manage physical controls such as door and window locks;
- Apply technical access controls such as user privileges and passwords;
- Use appropriate storage;
- Use encryption or secure transfer methods if necessary.
Our security guide outlines the main risks to data security and how to protect your data.