About the SHIRE

If you have ever worked with EHR data from the Carolina Data Warehouse for Health (CDWH) in the past, the SHIRE is our eventual replacement for the network drive where you’re used to finding your datasets.

For users, the SHIRE looks and feels just like working on a Windows or Linux personal computer. You will get to that computer using your web browser. Once you log in, your research data will be there waiting for you. A large variety of analytical tools are pre-installed or easy for users to install themselves (e.g., RStudio, SAS, Jupyter, VSCode, Databricks, etc.), so that you can do all your work inside the SHIRE. The SHIRE can also support multiple users on one project, all working on the same shared data.

The SHIRE is unique in that it supports scalable computing. For small, straightforward projects, researchers can use a small amount of compute, akin to the power of a laptop. For big data projects or projects using AI or machine learning, the SHIRE can offer access to compute clusters and even GPUs. Users only pay for the amount of computing appropriate to their project.