iRODS 4.0 Data Management Tool Broadens Appeal

irodsThis week the iRODS Consortium announced the release of the iRODS 4.0 data management platform. Based on open source, iRODS is a highly configurable technology used in high-demand production sites around the world for data management, sharing and integration. Originally developed by DICE group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCSD, iRODS functions independently of storage resources and abstracts data control away from storage devices and device location, allowing users to take control of their data.

This is a major release that brings enterprise-quality production, using industry-accepted best practices for development and testing, to the open source data management community,” said Brand Fortner, PhD, executive director of the iRODS Consortium. “iRODS 4.0 is easy to install, easier to use, and makes iRODS a suitable data management solution for a much wider group of customers.”

Key features of the new iRODS release include:

  • A plugin architecture, which enables easy customization of iRODS installations without recompiling the core code
  • A binary distribution, allowing users to click and use iRODS, eliminating the need to compile the installation
  • Resource composition, which allows users to create a hierarchy of iRODS resources

The 4.0 release merges what was previously known as the iRODS community version with the version of iRODS developed at RENCI, called E-iRODS. The Consortium will assist users of all previous versions of iRODS in their transition to iRODS 4.0, said Fortner.