Figure 2.

An example of federated data sharing using BIRN. The figure depicts two sites federating local storage systems and sharing with local and remote users. Each site (large circled) is composed of a storage server, data producing instruments, local users of data, and institutional firewalls. Typically, instruments rapidly produce large volumes of data and store the data on the local storage server. As data are stored, the system registers file locations at a location registry, often at a third-party location (small circled). When accessing data, client software queries the location registry to find the storage locations of the data. Users retrieve data from local or remote storage systems transparently. All communication between services and clients is secured with cryptographically strong methods that ensure authenticity, privacy, and integrity.