Case Study: Stanford University accelerates discoveries and simplifies scientific data management with Google Cloud Platform

Stanford University Improving scientific data management

Stanford’s Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging (CNI) and the VISTA Lab faced growing challenges managing and analyzing large, compute‑intensive neuroimaging datasets used to study vision and reading development. With legacy on‑prem hardware, lengthy procurement cycles, heavy IT overhead, and the need to securely share HIPAA‑protected data with collaborators worldwide, the labs needed a more scalable, reproducible solution.

They moved the Flywheel scientific data‑management platform onto Google Cloud Platform under a Business Associate Agreement, enabling elastic Compute Engine resources, cloud storage, and integrated identity management. The result: parallel processing that cuts analysis time from months to days, reclaimed administrator time, easier global collaboration and data sharing, HIPAA‑compliant workflows, and accelerated, more reproducible research that speeds discoveries and interventions.

Stanford University

Michael Perry

Administrator and Software Developer