University of Wisconsin–Madison

Computing Platforms

Computing & Analysis Environments

These environments support secure, scalable, and compliant research across SMPH. From high-performance computing to data transfer and storage, these platforms are designed to meet the technical needs of data-intensive research.

Platform X

A secure cloud computing environment hosted in Microsoft Azure that enables researchers to store, manage, and analyze sensitive data in a flexible, scalable research workspace.

  • Approved for PHI and other sensitive research data
  • Streamlined access to clinical research data from UW Health
  • Supports R, Python, Stata, ArcGIS, and other research tools
  • Access to Azure AI Foundry and 10,000+ AI models
  • Scalable computing resources with dedicated research support

Platform R

A HIPAA-compliant on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) environment.

  • Free to use for SMPH researchers
  • Compute servers providing 26000+ CPU cores, 100+ TB memory, and over 1 PB of scratch storage
  • NVIDIA data center class GPUs (L40S, H200)
  • Connected to campus storage systems, including Restricted ResearchDrive

ReAP

A secure research platform that aggregates data from multiple systems into a unified environment where researchers can access, validate, analyze, and work with their data using their preferred tools.

  • Secure research platform
  • Integrated secure data
  • User Friendly

Secure Data Storage Solutions

Choose a storage option based on your data classification level: 

Tool Classification Cost Purpose 
Platform X Restricted Varies HIPAA-compliant compute & storage 
Platform RRestricted Varies High-performance computing environment optimized
ResearchDrive Restricted 25TB free, $120/TB/yr Secure file storage, inputs/outputs 
ResearchDrive Sensitive 25TB free, $120/TB/yr Secure file storage, inputs/outputs 
S3 Object Storage Sensitive 50TB free, $60/TB/yr Scalable backup, application storage 
OneDrive Internal Free General academic collaboration 
Need help choosing a storage method? Request a consult with the Informatics team