The Platform as a Service is an alternative way of deploying a REDCap instance using the Azure platform. By default, REDCap is built in such a way that it is essentially a single stack: a single database with a single frontend.
Cons of the traditional server-based deployment:
- Database storage is fundamentally limited to the hardware accessible to the server you deployed REDCap on.
- The singular frontend/database means that both HIPAA protected data and anonymous data need to be kept in the same system.
Pros of the Platform as a Service:
- Azure maintains the database in the cloud, transferring the data into a BLOB format. This means that you can scale your storage as you go, using familiar cloud infrastructure like S buckets.
- Azure allows for creating virtual subnets, which means you can have data stored in secured and unsecured areas in demarcated networks for each with their own securities.
- Azure’s web app platform allows for you to generate multiple frontends and interface with any of the backends you have generated for your platform.
Additionally, in our testing the Platform as a Service model, we are addressing one of the more prevalent issues with using REDCap collaboratively. The University of Kentucky’s enterprise REDCap instance currently utilizes Azure authentication based on the UK organization. This means that anyone with a UK email has access. However, when we want to collaborate with researchers outside our organization, it can create difficulty and lead to red tape that holds up research. To address this issue, we began testing CILogon which is another form of Oauth 2.0 authentication. The benefit to using CILogon here is that it allows you to authenticate users from any of its over 5000 partnered identity providers. These providers include universities, foundations, and more.