Additional Computing Resources
Whether you’re looking to set up a database or build a data processing pipeline for a piece of scientific equipment, we can help you evaluate options, estimate costs, and develop support models.
Examples include:
- Web applications
- Secure computing environments
- Databases
- Data processing pipelines
Available Resources
Research Secure Data Enclaves for Regulated Data
Protected health information (PHI), data subject to specific restrictions from a data use agreement (DUA), government-controlled unclassified information (CUI), data with NIST SP 800-171 or NIST SP 800-53 requirements, and other data that could put research subjects at risk if publicly exposed must be processed on specialized, secure systems. Quest cannot support such data.
Northwestern offers scalable and compliant enclaves that meet federal data protection standards. For moderate computing needs, a secure environment in Google Cloud is available. For high-performance computing requirements, Northwestern is partnering with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to provide researchers access to the Nightingale cluster. This environment, NU@Nightingale, is expected to be available in Winter 2026.
For more information, see Available Options for Regulated Research, or contact us to discuss secure computing options.
Cloud Computing
Public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, can be a good option for computational workflows requiring resources not available on Quest. Use cases include databases, archival storage, secure computing, and application hosting.
Research Computing and Data Services staff can assist you with setting up cloud accounts under Northwestern contracts with the providers, estimate cloud computing costs, design cloud computing workflows, and advise on security and best practices.