Data Risk Level 3 Computing (Stronghold)

Stronghold is a secure computing and storage environment that enables Brown researchers to analyze sensitive data while complying with regulatory or contractual requirements. It has been established by Brown University to be compatible with Federal and Rhode Island Law standards for data privacy and protection.

Each Principal Investigator (PI) is given a dedicated environment for their project to support their researchers, graduate students, and collaborators. To view the Stronghold documentation and learn more about the offered features, please follow this link.

Key Features

  • Environments - Linux or Windows compute environments available
  • Software - Workstations come preinstalled with our Windows Standard Software or Linux Standard Software packages
  • Automated Git Sync - Changes made to remote git repositories are automatically pulled to local repositories in Stronghold after initial configuration
  • Remote Access - Access system on campus through Brown Wireless or off campus through the Brown VPN
  • Secure Transfers - Transfer data in and out of Stronghold between whitelisted agencies or personal computers for permitted users though a secure, virus scanned transfer server via SFTP
  • Data Downloads - Download data directly through your browser from whitelisted agencies via HTTPS and SFTP
  • Box.com - Transfer data between workstation and Box.com via FTPS
  • Slurm - Schedule and manage jobs running in Linux environments
  • Storage - Store data in encrypted or unencrypted storage arrays
  • Databases - Manage data with MySQL or Oracle databases
  • REDCap - Secure database and survey builder and manager webapp for risk level 3 data residing in Stronghold
  • Automated Reports - Receive automated reports as the PI of the environment on security group membership, user login times, and user file transfer activity Dual Firewall - Provides added layer of security for traffic coming in and out of your system

Request an Environment OIT Risk Classification

High-Performance Computing (Oscar)

The high-performance computing (HPC) resources at CCV equip the Brown research community with the tools they need to perform complex numerical simulations, modeling, and data analysis. Oscar, CCV's primary research computing cluster, consists of more than 300 multi-core nodes sharing a high-performance interconnect and file system. For more technical details, please see Oscar's system overview.

A large collection of software is available on Oscar, and CCV staff can help acquire and install most applications upon request.

  • MATLAB
  • R
  • Python
  • CUDA
  • Perl
  • Julia
  • TensorFlow
  • Blender
  • Paraview

Request an Account

Virtual Machine Hosting

Virtual Hosting is aimed at departments or researchers who want access to a Server but don’t want to purchase or maintain the hardware. The virtual machines (VMs) can be either Windows or Linux servers. Depending on your needs, we can assist with basic system administration and maintenance.

To Request this Service

Please complete this form.

We do not currently support GPUs in this environment.

VM Environment sizing limits:

Hosting DMZ - is an internet facing environment with a CPU sizing limit of 16 cores and a Memory sizing limit of 128GB RAM for your virtual machine

Hosting Internal - is an internal environment with a CPU sizing limit of 24 cores and a Memory sizing limit of 384GB RAM for your virtual machine