Azure SRE Service - FAQ

Any University of Pittsburgh account owner performing research at the University can gain access to an SRE using their PITT Username and Password.

Generally, if a research team is using an SRE – you can request access with the assistance of the SRE Project Data Steward through your Department RC Admin.

If you have an existing project, and this project is utilizing data governed by FERPA, GLBA, HIPAA, NIST, PCI, etc. and is not already in an approved, restricted environment.

Formal training is not required. Using the SRE is as easy as using your own computer.

The SRE is a virtual computing space specifically designed to secure sensitive data, such as PII and PHI, and intellectual property. PITT IT has built the SRE using the Microsoft Azure cloud computing infrastructure and is accessible via Azure Virtual Desktop. The Azure environment and selected tools do meet HIPAA’s standards for handling protected health information/patient data and other sensitive, personally identifiable data.

Software available within the SRE will depend on the intended use of the environment and determined through onboarding consultation. Example Data Science Virtual Machine configurations are made available through Microsoft.

Yes, it is possible to setup a VM and prepare it as an image for re-use. But certain steps must be taken to prepare for this during provisioning. You should indicate your intention to do this during onboarding.

Possibly. Depending on the requirements for the Services or resources. You should indicate your interest in these Services during onboarding.

Yes. Like the mechanism for accessing the Data Science VM through Remote Desktop, an SSH client (Putty, Command Line, e.g.) can be made available via the workspace on the SRE AVD Host.

Yes. If you are interested in scheduling the Power On/Off actions to manage availability of the Virtual Machines in the SRE, more information can be found here on using Azure Start/StopV2.

• MS Azure Documentation – VM Series (A/B/D/E/F/G/H/L/M/N)
• MS Azure Documentation – VM and Storage Disk Performance Details
• MS Azure Documentation – VM Size Nomenclature
• MS Azure Documentation – Storage Account (Blob) Scalability and Performance

No. Virtual Machines can be added to the SRE a fixed capacity (n VMs) and left powered off until needed.

SRE Research needs are discussed with an IT engineer who will consult with the PI as to the appropriate compute configuration and data storage needs required to support the project.

The data should reside in the SRE during the research project. After project completion, a cost-effective and secure approach to the data should be used, e.g., the data should be securely archived or deleted.

User authentication is configured to the existing PITT Azure active directory tenant and active directory service.

Private network access is isolated from existing PITT networks.

All access to the secure enclave resources will be via endpoints in AVD.

Monitoring, logging and reporting will be via Azure Log Analytics Workspace in the SRE Environment.

Approved data is brought in and out of SRE Projects via an Honest Broker/Data Steward.

Approved data is brought in and out of SRE Projects via an Honest Broker/Data Steward.

All Platform as a Service (PaaS) services will be deployed with private endpoints and public access disabled except where required.

Defender for Cloud enabled. It scans for any suspicious activity or potential problems and takes action to prevent or address them, making your cloud environment more secure.