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iRODS

Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI)
United States of America
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About

Launched: 2006
Record Updated: Sep 26, 2025
Data management planning tool or service
Digital preservation system
Discovery system
The Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) is open source, policy-based data management software used by research, commercial, and governmental organizations worldwide.
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Mission

The iRODS Consortium brings together businesses, research organizations, universities, and government agencies to ensure the sustainability of iRODS by:
• Guiding further development of the software;
• Growing the user and developer communities; and
• Facilitating iRODS support, education, and collaboration opportunities.

Key Achievements

iRODS abstracts storage technologies and provides both findability and programmability around an organizations' data. Recent activity has included adding an HTTP API and S3 API and libraries in various languages to facilitate greater developer engagement with this longstanding research data management platform.
The Metadata Templates Working Group has produced server-side verification codes and the Authentication Working Group has released a generic PAM Interactive plugin as a flexible front door to give organizations full control over access to their iRODS Zone.

Technical Attributes

Maintenance Status

Actively Maintained

Open Code Repository

Implemented
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Technical Documentation

Implemented
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Code License

Implemented
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Open API

Implemented
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Open Product Roadmap

Implemented
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Technical Attribute Statements

Programming Languages

  • c
  • c++
  • java
  • python

Technology Readiness Level

  • Actual system proven in operational environment

Code Licenses Used

  • BSD licenses

Standards

Metadata

As a filesystem, all formats are valid. API payloads are primarily JSON and XML. Metadata can be interpreted as RDF.

Hosting Options

  • Through solution or third party vendor

Service Providers

https://irods.org/general-support/

Integrations

With an open API and numerous client libraries, many integrations exist in the community.

Community Engagement

Code of Conduct

Implemented
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Community Engagement

Implemented
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Contribution Guidelines or Fora

Implemented
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Community Statements

User Contribution Pathways

  • Contribute funds
  • Contribute to code
  • Contribute to documentation
  • Contribute to education or training
  • Contribute to governance
  • Contribute to user research or user testing
  • Contribute to working groups or interest groups

Community Engagement Activities

  • Annual meetings
  • Community calls
  • Conference participation
  • Interest, working, user, or advisory groups
  • Mailing lists and discussion forums (including Slack)
  • Social media
  • Staff roles with responsibility for community engagement
  • User research
  • Volunteer or ambassador network
  • Webinars and training

Engagement with Values Frameworks

  • FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship

Policies & Governance

Governance Summary

Governance is determined by Consortium Membership.

Policies

Bylaws

Implemented
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Governance Structure & Processes

Implemented
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Transparent Pricing and Cost Expectations

Implemented
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Policy Statements

Board Structure

  • Advisory board or steering committee
Other:
In addition to the Executive Committee (which makes decisions on budgets and by laws), there is an Advisory Board that is advisory/strategic: https://irods.org/advisory-board/

Board Level

Executive Board members are expected to aid the Consortium through the following actions:
- Aiding in fundraising, public relations, and acquisition of new Consortium Members;
- Making amendments and alterations to the Consortium Bylaws;
- Providing oversight and approval of Consortium activities, staffing, budgets, and deliverables as detailed in the Bylaws.

Community Governance

  • Ad hoc

Additional Information

Organizational History

In 1995, the Data Intensive Computing Environments (DICE) group at the San Diego Supercomputer Center kicked off a data management project known as the Storage Resource Broker (SRB). The Storage Resource Broker demonstrated the promise of a logical distributed file system that presents users with a single global logical namespace.
The integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS), was created by the DICE group in 2006 to advance the concepts explored in SRB, but re-written from scratch, as open source software, around a highly-configurable Rule Engine. In 2008, the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) formed a dedicated iRODS software engineering team to explore enterprise-grade iRODS technology development. In 2013, RENCI founded the iRODS Consortium, to further the mission and sustainability of iRODS technology.

Organizational Structure

Business or Ownership Model

Fiscal sponsorship (academic institution)

Full-time Staff

6-10

Volunteers

0

Current Affiliations

Executive Board Members (Premier Level)

Funding

Primary Funding Source

  • Program service revenue

Funding Needs

The goal of long-term sustainability of the software within the University environment requires membership and support contracts.
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