Case Study: Stanford University accelerates scientific data management and discovery with Google Cloud Platform and Flywheel

Stanford University improves scientific data management using Flywheel on Google Cloud Platform

Stanford University’s Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging (CNI) and VISTA Lab needed a better way to manage, analyze, and share growing volumes of neuroimaging and research data. Using Google for Education’s Google Cloud Platform, along with Flywheel, they aimed to replace slow, hardware-dependent workflows while meeting HIPAA compliance requirements for sensitive healthcare-related information.

With Google for Education’s Google Cloud Platform, Stanford moved Flywheel to the cloud using services like Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, and Kubernetes. The result was faster time to discovery, the ability to process multiple large datasets in parallel in one day instead of a month or more, reduced infrastructure costs, and a major reduction in IT maintenance—freeing well over half of an FTE’s time. The cloud setup also improved collaboration and reproducibility by making it easier to securely share data and methods with researchers worldwide.

Stanford University

Brian Wandell

Faculty Professor and Director