Safe Haven Services Overview
The EPCC SHS
The EPCC Safe Haven Services (SHS) that enable researchers to work with sensitive data in a secure environment. These services are operated by EPCC in partnership with Safe Haven controllers who manage the Information Governance (IG) appropriate for the research activities and the data access of their Safe Haven service.
The SHS service offers secure data sharing and analysis environments allowing researchers access to sensitive data under the terms and conditions prescribed by the Data Providers. The service prioritises the requirements of the Data Provider over the demands of the Researcher, and is an academic SHS operating under the guidance of the Five Safes framework.
The SHS has dedicated, private cloud infrastructure at EPCC's Advanced Computing Facility (ACF) data centre and has its own high-performance file systems. When a new Safe Haven service is commissioned in the SHS, it is created in a new virtual private cloud providing the Safe Haven service controller with an independent IG domain separate from other Safe Havens in the SHS. All SHS service infrastructure and all SHS project data are hosted at ACF.
All Safe Haven Services can access services provided under the EPCC SHS umbrella, such as HPC and GPU clusters. These are exclusive to the SHS, and some such services, e.g. the HPC and GPU clusters, are shared across Safe Havens.
Roles and responsibilities
Safe Haven operator
It is the responsibility of EPCC as the Safe Haven operator to design, implement and administer the technical controls required to deliver the Safe Haven security regime required by the Safe Haven controller.
Safe Haven controller
The role of the Safe Haven controller is to satisfy the needs of the researchers and the data suppliers. The controller is responsible for guaranteeing the confidentiality needs of the data suppliers and matching these with the availability needs of the researchers.
Typically Safe Haven controllers will have research project co-ordination teams and may assign a research coordinator to a project as the main contact.
Researcher
Users of Safe Haven services must be researchers approved by the Safe Haven controller according to their IG requirements.
Users have a responsibility to use the service within the technical and IG constraints and regulations as defined by a user agreement between them and the Safe Haven controller.
Additional costs
The partnership documentation between EPCC and the Safe Haven Controller lists some computational resources that are included with the annual fee. For reasons of consistency, we refrain from providing the standard list here, but the documentation covers dedicated computing resource for a number of VMs, dedicated storage and perhaps access to some shared resources.
There are costs associated with increasing access to these resources and Safe Haven Controllers can explore these with EPCC in the rare occurrence when this is required. Similarly, EPCC can provide programming and data management skills and can partner on research proposals. Please contact us through the Safe Haven helpdesk or through the general EIDF helpdesk for more information.
SHS GPU Cluster price
The SHS GPU Cluster is not included in the standard bundle and all use incurs a per-use charge. The GPU-hour price is listed on the EIDF website and it differs based on whether the use is by a commercial organisation or not.
To find the price of the GPU-hour for the GPU Cluster, please check the specification of the GPUs on the GPU Cluster page and seek that on the EIDF Access page. For example, for A100, seek “NVIDIA A100 in GPU Service”, for the correct type of user.
Quotation and billing
Safe Haven Controllers: To agree use of resources not covered by the current agreement please contact your dedicated helpdesk with your requirements. Please include type of resource, number of units and period of access.
Researchers: Please contact your Safe Haven to discuss your requirements. They will benefit from knowing the type of resource, number of units and period of access. Feel free to use the EIDF Access page for an indication of the price.
Please note that EPCC has no contractual relationship with researchers and all pricing agreements and billing are between EPCC and the Safe Haven that hosts the research.
Contact
All user queries and requests must be directed to the Safe Haven controller who manages user access and communications to their Safe Haven service according to their specific IG requirements.
If you are a researcher looking for access to a Safe Haven, please contact the Safe Haven controller.
If you are an existing user of the Safe Haven services and are facing any issues, want to request access to additional services, or have any questions, please contact your assigned research coordinator.
For any general enquiries about the EPCC SHS or the Safe Haven services, please contact EPCC.