iRODS
Open-source, policy-based data management middleware maintained by the iRODS Consortium at RENCI/UNC Chapel Hill, virtualizing storage and enabling metadata discovery, workflow automation, and secure federated collaboration for research, government, and commercial organizations worldwide.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2000
- HeadquartersChapel Hill, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What iRODS does
iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) is open-source, policy-based data management middleware originally developed in 2000 by the Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) team at the University of California, San Diego. It is sustained by the iRODS Consortium, a member-funded organization housed at RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with trademark rights held by UNC Chapel Hill. The platform is written in approximately 250,000 lines of C++ and is released under a 3-clause BSD license, with a plugin architecture spanning microservices, storage systems, authentication, networking, databases, rule engines, and APIs. Its four core competencies are Data Virtualization (unified namespace over heterogeneous storage), Data Discovery (user-defined AVU metadata triples indexed in a relational ICAT catalog on PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle), Workflow Automation (event-triggered rule engine with Policy Enforcement Points), and Secure Collaboration (Tickets, Permissions, and cross-Zone Federation).
iRODS firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- iRODS
- Legal name
- iRODS Consortium
- Website
- https://irods.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2000
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Open-source, policy-based data management middleware maintained by the iRODS Consortium at RENCI/UNC Chapel Hill, virtualizing storage and enabling metadata discovery, workflow automation, and secure federated collaboration for research, government, and commercial organizations worldwide.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
iRODS industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Enterprise Data Management Middleware
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Object Storage Platforms (HDABAEAC)
Keywords
Where iRODS is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Chapel Hill
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
iRODS business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Consortium Membership Fees: iRODS Consortium members pay membership fees to direct technology and governance of iRODS, receive priority access to support, training, and consulting, and participate in monthly Technology Working Group and Planning Committee meetings.
- Commercial Support Contracts: The iRODS Consortium provides commercial support through Consortium membership and on contract. Commercial support is also available through the iRODS Partner Program.
- Training and Consulting: Consortium members receive priority access to training and consulting services. Consortium staff are available to educate and co-present with member sales teams on iRODS and data management topics.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Annual | Open Source - Free |
| Subscription | Annual | Consortium Membership |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
iRODS product offering
Product offeringCore offering
iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) is open-source, policy-based data management middleware that virtualizes heterogeneous storage resources under a unified namespace. It delivers four core competencies: Data Virtualization, Data Discovery via a metadata catalog, Workflow Automation through an event-triggered rule engine with Policy Enforcement Points, and Secure Collaboration via Tickets, Permissions, and Zone Federation. The core software is released under a 3-clause BSD License; paid offerings include iRODS Consortium membership subscriptions, commercial support contracts, and training and consulting services delivered through the iRODS Partner Program.
Product overview
iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) is an open-source, policy-based data management middleware platform deployed at thousands of locations worldwide. The core platform virtualizes data storage resources under a unified namespace, enabling four core competencies: Data Virtualization (treating distributed storage as a single collection hierarchy), Data Discovery (metadata catalog with rich user-defined metadata in AVU triples stored in a relational ICAT database on PostgreSQL/MySQL/Oracle), Workflow Automation (event-triggered rule engine with PEPs supporting Python, C++, and R), and Secure Collaboration (Tickets, Permissions, and Federation for cross-organizational data sharing). The product portfolio includes: the iRODS core server; iCommands (CLI tools); multiple client libraries in Python (PRC), Java, TypeScript, and R (rirods); the iRODS REST/HTTP API; Metalnx (web UI for metadata); the iRODS Zone Management Tool (ReactJS-based); iRODS S3 API; NFSRODS (NFSv4.1 client); iRODS CSI Driver for Kubernetes; GenQuery2 (enhanced SQL-like querying); Automated Ingest framework; iRODS Federation for cross-zone data sharing; and the AMQP Audit plugin for ELK integration. The iRODS Consortium, housed at RENCI at UNC Chapel Hill, maintains and supports the platform through annual User Group Meetings and technology working groups.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- TRiRODS: TRiRODS was a quarterly iRODS meetup that ran from 2016 through 2025, featuring presentations from the iRODS community and consortium.
- Metalnx
- NFSRODS
- S3 API
Products and services
- iRODS Core Platform Open-source, policy-based data management middleware that virtualizes data storage resources under a unified namespace. Delivers four core competencies—Data Virtualization, Data Discovery, Workflow Automation, and Secure Collaboration—via plugin architecture, an ICAT metadata catalog (PostgreSQL/MySQL/Oracle), and an event-triggered Rule Engine with Policy Enforcement Points. Released under a 3-clause BSD License, free for download and use by enterprise IT and research organizations.
- iRODS Consortium Membership Annual subscription tier for organizations that want to direct the technology and governance of iRODS. Members receive priority access to iRODS support, training, and consulting, and participate in monthly Technology Working Group and Planning Committee meetings. Pricing is published as annual; tier-specific fees are available by contacting [email protected].
- iRODS Commercial Support Contracts Contracted commercial support delivered by the iRODS Consortium and through the iRODS Partner Program. Provides organizations with planning, integration, deployment, and ongoing operational support for iRODS deployments, including access to iRODS experts via partners such as Daystrom Technology Group.
- iRODS Training and Consulting Services Professional services offering including education, hands-on training, and consulting on iRODS and data management topics, delivered by Consortium staff and via the Partner Program. Consortium staff are available to educate and co-present with member sales teams; priority access is reserved for Consortium members.
- iRODS Partner Program Channel program connecting organizations needing iRODS help with independent partners who know iRODS. Partners deliver planning, integration, deployment, and support services, including offerings such as Daystrom's Meridian Data Grid Controller (built with storageFOUNDRY) for high-performance, enterprise, and long-term archival storage.
Quantifiable outcome
- 80 million files managed at peak access rate of 800k files per day at single deployment (CC-IN2P3)
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use iRODS
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
iRODS technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration15 records
Feature6 records
iRODS partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
22 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.
- RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute)coreRENCI, an institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the host organization for the iRODS Consortium. RENCI develops and deploys advanced technologies to enable research discoveries and partners with researchers, policy makers, and technology leaders.
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) / NIEHScoreNIEHS is a Consortium member working to employ FAIR and policy-based data management principles through the NIEHS Data Commons using iRODS technology.
- Wellcome Sanger InstitutecoreOne of the world's leading genome centres, using iRODS to host over 24PB of data (replicated to nearly 48PB). Contributes to iRODS development and hosts User Group Meetings.
- Utrecht UniversitymajorInternational research university and founding member that has hosted multiple User Group Meetings. Contributes to iRODS development through the Consortium.
- University of GroningenmajorResearch university with global outlook, top 100 ranking, and strong international orientation. Consortium member contributing to iRODS technology development.
- SURFmajorDutch research ICT cooperative. Has hosted User Group Meetings and contributed to iRODS development including OIDC integration work with pam_interactive plugin.
- Maastricht UniversitymajorMost international university in the Netherlands with DataHub providing data management services for research. Consortium member.
- KU LeuvenmajorEurope's most innovative university (Reuters) ranking 48th worldwide. Hosted User Group Meeting 2022 and contributes to Consortium governance.
- University of Arizona / CyVersemajorHome of iRODS FUSE client, CSI Driver, and iRODS Container Storage Interface development. CyVerse provides research data management using iRODS.
- GlobusmajorResearch cyberinfrastructure platform operated by University of Chicago. Provides secure, reliable file transfer and data management. Partner in iRODS ecosystem with integration capabilities.
- IBMminorConsortium member contributing to iRODS technology development.
- CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)minorWorld-class African research and development organization. Consortium member bringing international perspective to iRODS development.
- IT4Innovations National Supercomputing CenterminorLeading HPC research center in Czech Republic. Consortium member contributing to high-performance computing integrations.
- NCHC (National Center for High-Performance Computing, Taiwan)minorTaiwan's national HPC center. Consortium member supporting iRODS development.
- Scripps ResearchminorLeading independent biomedical research facility. Consortium member.
- Leiden UniversityminorMajor Dutch research university. Consortium member.
- Wageningen University and ResearchminorLeading life sciences university in Netherlands. Consortium member.
- George Washington UniversityminorMajor research university in Washington DC. Consortium member.
- Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI)minorLeading cancer research institute in Netherlands. Consortium member.
- Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)minorNational library and archives of Quebec. Consortium member bringing archives and records management expertise.
- CUBI at Berlin Institute of HealthminorCore Unit Bioinformatics providing bioinformatics and data analysis expertise. Uses iRODS in its F.A.I.R. data management system SODAR.
- Daystrom Technology GroupminoriRODS Partner providing clients with highly optimized solutions for high performance, enterprise and long-term archival data storage. Has incorporated iRODS into its Meridian Data Grid Controller in collaboration with storageFOUNDRY.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
iRODS competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Panzura: Panzura provides cloud-based global file system and data management across distributed storage. It competes at the data-virtualization layer where iRODS operates, particularly for multi-site enterprises, though its focus is more commercial than research.
- Weka: WekaIO provides a high-performance, distributed file system for AI and HPC workloads. It is an emerging alternative for research data storage and analytics, overlapping with high-end iRODS deployment workloads such as the Sanger Institute's 48PB deployment.
Direct peers
- MinIO: MinIO is an open-source S3-compatible object storage platform. It directly overlaps iRODS' S3-compatible storage layer and ships a MinIO-Gateway for iRODS, making it both a complement and a substitute for iRODS' storage virtualization.
- OpenStack Swift: OpenStack Swift is an open-source, highly available object storage system. It serves the same object storage abstraction as iRODS' S3 API and is commonly deployed in research computing environments where iRODS is also used.
- Globus: Globus is a research-focused data management and transfer platform operated by the University of Chicago. It directly complements and competes with iRODS in the research cyberinfrastructure market, serving similar institutional customers and is itself an iRODS ecosystem partner.
- Hammerspace: Hammerspace is a global data orchestration platform that virtualizes data across heterogeneous storage. It offers similar policy-based, multi-storage orchestration capabilities to iRODS, targeting enterprise research and life-sciences use cases.
- dCache: dCache is an open-source distributed storage system widely used in high-energy physics (DESY, Fermilab) for managing petabytes of scientific data. It overlaps iRODS' scientific data management niche with similar scale requirements and federation characteristics.
- CERN EOS: CERN EOS is a disk-based storage system used at CERN and replicated at other major physics labs for exabyte-scale scientific data. It serves a similar large-scale research data management function and competes for the same research computing buyers as iRODS.
Broad incumbents
- NetApp ONTAP: NetApp provides enterprise storage arrays and ONTAP data management software used by major research institutions (including Wellcome Sanger). It is a broader incumbent in storage infrastructure that competes at the storage-resource layer beneath iRODS' virtualization.
- IBM Spectrum Scale: IBM Spectrum Scale is a high-performance parallel file system used in HPC and research environments. IBM is an iRODS Consortium member, and Spectrum Scale competes for the same large-scale research storage workloads that iRODS targets.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
iRODS social profiles
Digital presenceiRODS financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
iRODS leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
iRODS funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
iRODS M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about iRODS
What does iRODS do?
iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) is open-source, policy-based data management middleware that virtualizes heterogeneous storage resources under a unified namespace. It delivers four core competencies: Data Virtualization, Data Discovery via a metadata catalog, Workflow Automation through an event-triggered rule engine with Policy Enforcement Points, and Secure Collaboration via Tickets, Permissions, and Zone Federation. The core software is released under a 3-clause BSD License; paid offerings include iRODS Consortium membership subscriptions, commercial support contracts, and training and consulting services delivered through the iRODS Partner Program.
Is iRODS a public or private company?
iRODS is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was iRODS founded?
iRODS was founded in 2000. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is iRODS based?
iRODS is headquartered in Chapel Hill, United States, in the North America region.
How does iRODS make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Consortium Membership Fees are the primary driver. The others are commercial Support Contracts and training and Consulting.
Who are iRODS's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Panzura and Weka. Direct peers are MinIO, OpenStack Swift, Globus, Hammerspace, dCache and CERN EOS. Broad incumbents are NetApp ONTAP and IBM Spectrum Scale.
Does iRODS have an API?
Yes. iRODS provides a REST API (iRODS HTTP API) and a native RPC API. The iRODS C++ REST API enables web developers to interact with the iRODS server via HTTP. Multiple client libraries wrap this API, including Python (Python iRODS Client / PRC), Java, TypeScript, and Go (GoRODS). The Python iRODS Client supports atomic metadata operations and experimental parallel file transfer. The iRODS REST API exposes entity rename, delete, replication, and trim functionality, as well as metadata AVU operations. A ZoneReport schema provides zone introspection for clients to discover zone capabilities, servers, and installed plugins. Developer documentation is at docs.irods.org.
What industry is iRODS in?
iRODS's product category is Enterprise Data Management Middleware. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAEAC, Object Storage Platforms. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7374.