Research Sandbox
What is it?
The Research Sandbox is a VMWare-based hosting platform designed to provide University researchers and approved external collaborators with a secure, flexible environment for running bespoke server-side infrastructure. It is ideal for hosting custom websites, applications, deploying custom servers from ISO images, or any research-driven services that need isolation from central corporate systems.
Who can use it?
- Employees of the University (academic staff, researchers, post-docs, PhD students)
- Approved external collaborators or business partners
What do you get?
- Fully configurable virtual machines (Linux or Windows), with user-selected CPU, memory, disk size and OS version
- Network isolation by default (campus-only access), with the option to enable public-facing access after internal security review
- Support for snapshotting, rollback and version control to assist development and testing
- Nightly backups to tape, and ongoing security vulnerability scanning and remediation requests
- Full administrative access to your VM - you control the software, services, and configuration once provisioned
How long does it last?
Services are provided for the duration of a research project, with the option for longer-term hosting where this is supported by appropriate cost-recovery arrangements.
What do we (Digital Research) provide?
- Management of the underlying infrastructure (host servers, storage, backups, security oversight)
- A secure, University-managed hosting environment, helping with data governance and compliance
- Ongoing vulnerability scanning and security support
Why use the Sandbox?
- Flexibility & control: run whatever server-based research tools you need, without restrictions imposed by corporate web infrastructure
- Isolation and security: separate from core corporate systems, with restricted network access by default
- Cost-effective and efficient: no need to procure hardware or use public cloud: everything is managed within the University
- Supports collaboration and data governance: internal hosting makes data-sharing agreements, compliance, and ethical oversight easier than external or unmanaged solutions
- Development-friendly: snapshot/rollback and VM customisation make it ideal for development, testing, and bespoke research services