College of Information ScienceComputing Resources Working Group · Point people: Barney Maccabe and Greg Chism
Repositories, hosting & databases¶
Supplemental reference · Browse supplements · Current report
Store the right thing in the right place. A Git repository, research deposit, object store, database and running web app have different jobs.
| Need | Routes to assess | Continuity requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Code and assignments | GitHub; eligible GitLab education routes | Institution-controlled organization, mirrored code and exported configuration |
| Research outputs and metadata | Campus Repository / ReDATA, Zenodo, Figshare, discipline repositories | Rights, deposit policy, limits, persistent identifiers and versioned exports |
| Library collections and exhibits | Omeka and institutional repositories | Original files, metadata/schema export, rights and a tested replacement host |
| Static sites | GitHub Pages / Cloudflare Pages | Local build, portable assets, domain control and an alternate host |
| Databases and app services | Neon, Supabase, MongoDB Atlas; eligible hosting routes | Current quotas, inactivity/expiry, permitted use, export and restore |
| Active data and delivery | Approved provider storage, OSN/OSDF where eligible | Independent backup; active storage/cache is not archival preservation |
What changed?¶
GitLab private Free group limits, Bitbucket aggregate storage caps and Google source-hosting onboarding restrictions constrain specific use. GitHub Free still offers unlimited repository counts. Heroku’s free tiers ended; Glitch hosting ended; several free database products closed or shortened their lifetime. These are distinct policies, not evidence that all repository accounts disappeared.
See dated changes and sources →
A practical repair plan¶
- Inventory code, files, metadata, app runtimes, databases and ownership separately.
- Choose a bounded route with an approved fallback; do not assume allocated compute is durable managed hosting.
- Keep portable environments, schemas, database dumps and rights-cleared file exports.
- Test restore on a second environment. Proposed targets: a 24-hour recovery point and one-business-day recovery; neither is achieved yet.
- Export student work, close permissions and use appropriate library archival routes for lasting outputs.