Sciebo

Sciebo
Name	Sciebo
Developer	Hochschulbibliothekszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen
Released	2016
Programming language	PHP, JavaScript
Operating system	Linux
Genre	Cloud storage, File synchronization

Sciebo Sciebo is a cloud storage and file synchronization service operated by a consortium of German academic institutions, providing collaboration, data sharing, and long-term storage for researchers, students, and staff. It integrates with institutional identity providers and supports interoperability with research infrastructures, offering compliance with European data protection standards while interfacing with international services and platforms. Sciebo is positioned among academic cloud initiatives and connects to broader ecosystems used by universities, research centers, and funding agencies.

Overview

Sciebo offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and collaborative editing tools to members of participating institutions, connecting to services used by universities such as University of Cologne, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, RWTH Aachen University, University of Bonn, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The platform supports federated authentication methods like Shibboleth and SAML 2.0, and integrates metadata workflows compatible with repositories such as DSpace, EPrints, Zenodo, and Dataverse. Sciebo aligns with data management requirements from funders including the European Commission, DFG, and Horizon 2020 programmes, while interfacing with identity federations like eduGAIN and regional initiatives in North Rhine-Westphalia.

History and Development

Development was driven by a consortium coordinated by regional library and IT services, inspired by projects in other countries such as Eduroam, LIBER, and national initiatives like DAAD cooperation schemes. Initial pilot phases involved integration tests with providers such as Nextcloud, ownCloud, and academic platforms used at institutions including Bielefeld University, University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Münster, and University of Paderborn. Funding and governance discussions included stakeholders like Land North Rhine-Westphalia, research libraries including University Library of Cologne, and technology partners such as Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf IT Services and commercial vendors encountered in procurement processes with organisations like Bundesdruckerei. Development milestones paralleled milestones in European data policy debates at venues like Berlin Open Science Conference and programmatic shifts introduced by European Research Council guidelines.

Architecture and Services

The technical stack employs web clients, desktop synchronization clients, and mobile applications interfacing with storage nodes distributed across data centers operated by partner institutions including University of Bonn IT Center, RWTH Aachen IT Center, and regional hosting facilities under state oversight. Sciebo’s architecture uses components common to cloud projects such as OpenStack, Ceph (software), LAMP (software bundle), and web frameworks comparable to Laravel, while client-side features reuse libraries found in Nextcloud and Collabora Online for collaborative editing. Authentication integrates with LDAP directories and federated identity providers like Shibboleth, while metadata exchange supports protocols including OAI-PMH and APIs compatible with services like ORCID and Crossref.

Privacy, Security, and Compliance

Sciebo operates within legal frameworks defined by the General Data Protection Regulation and German state data protection authorities including North Rhine-Westphalia Data Protection Authority. Security measures reflect standards promoted by organisations such as ENISA, Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, and compliance regimes influenced by directives from the European Union. Encryption practices, logging policies, and incident response procedures draw on guidance from institutions like Max Planck Society IT groups and national research computing centers exemplified by Gauss Centre for Supercomputing. Data residency and processing are structured to align with German court rulings and policies referenced by Federal Constitutional Court of Germany decisions relevant to digital rights.

Usage and Adoption

Adoption spans universities, research institutes, and libraries across North Rhine-Westphalia and partner institutions, with user communities similar to those engaged with arXiv, PubMed Central, OpenAIRE, and institutional repositories at University of Cologne Library. Researchers in fields hosted by institutes like Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Association, and discipline-specific centers such as Max Planck Institutes use Sciebo for project collaboration, while administrative units at universities like RWTH Aachen University and University of Bonn employ it for secure file exchange. Training and outreach activities have occurred alongside conferences and workshops organized by Deutsches Forschungsgemeinschaft-affiliated groups and at events like Open Science Conference gatherings.

Research and Education Integration

Sciebo supports integration with learning management systems such as Moodle and connects to research data management workflows used with tools like Jupyter Notebook, GitLab, and repositories including Zenodo and Dataverse. Collaboration features facilitate joint work among researchers from institutions including University of Münster, Bielefeld University, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and interoperability supports citation and researcher identifier systems like ORCID and publication registries such as Crossref and DataCite. The service has been referenced in discussions of digital infrastructure in academic policy forums involving German Rectors' Conference and regional consortia coordinating digital services for higher education.

Category:Cloud storage Category:Academic computing