From File Chaos to Unified Data Discovery with TileDB Carrara

Watch the Video: From file chaos to unified data discovery

If you're a scientist working with multimodal data, you know the struggle all too well. Your genomics files, research papers, assay data, and experimental results are scattered across storage systems with inconsistent naming conventions. You have no unified or easy way to filter and search through thousands of files using metadata. Finding that critical dataset from last month involves navigating complex directory structures, writing custom scripts, and relying on your memory to serve you well.

To complicate matters further, you can’t edit these data properties in S3 and other blob storage (cloud-native systems with large amounts of unstructured data saved as “binary large objects") without overwriting or copying the data itself. This makes seemingly simple changes costly when dealing with large files. Additionally, the scope of tooling required to preview and work with different files is significant. Each format often requires a specialized tool to read and work with the data it contains.

Sound familiar? You're not alone. When you spend more time retrieving and restructuring data than actually analyzing it, you know there's a problem that needs solving.

The Hidden Cost of Data Chaos

In modern scientific research, data management has become as critical as the research itself. Teams working with complex, multimodal data, from single-cell genomics to biomedical imaging, face mounting challenges that traditional databases simply weren't designed to handle. The result? Valuable research time is lost to mundane data wrangling tasks, collaboration bottlenecks between global teams, and potentially groundbreaking insights hidden in inaccessible data silos.

This is where TileDB Carrara transforms the landscape of scientific data management. You can store, access, and work with data across multiple modalities out of the box with Carrara.

Transform Chaos into Discovery in Minutes

TileDB Carrara represents a fundamental shift in how organizations handle complex scientific data. As demonstrated in our latest video, what once required hours of file navigation and custom scripting can now be accomplished in minutes through an intuitive, unified interface.

1. Unified Data Catalog: Your Single Source of Truth

With Carrara's Teamspaces, all your scattered files become organized, searchable assets with first-class previews. Teamspaces help you transform all your scattered files into an organized, searchable catalog that aggregates knowledge management, from pipeline results and raw files like VCFs and FASTQs, to notebook analyses, PDFs, and dashboards. Built-in previews enable you to inspect data directly in the UI, so summary reports, raw data, and analyses are no longer scattered across systems but are fully unified in one place.

Carrara Teamspaces transforms scattered files into organized, searchable assets, with instant previews.

Every file can be enriched with searchable metadata, including sample information, experimental conditions, and quality metrics. This rich metadata layer transforms simple file storage into a powerful discovery engine where you can quickly locate datasets based on any combination of criteria.

TileDB Carrara makes it easy to enrich files with searchable metadata: sample information, experimental conditions, and quality metrics, making discovery easier.

2. From Raw Files to Analysis-Ready Data

One of Carrara's most powerful capabilities is its seamless transition from file storage to active analysis. As shown in the demo, you can load single-cell output files directly into a notebook and convert them to structured TileDB-SOMA assets, optimized for both storage and query performance.

What used to require complex file navigation can now be handled in one space. Browse, preview, and query your data directly from Carrara’s unified interface.

3. Built-In Computational Environment

Carrara doesn't just store your data; it provides the complete computational environment needed to analyze it. Pre-built notebook environments come loaded with all the essential libraries for bioinformatics, data science, and machine learning. Whether you're working with Python or R, the platform supports your preferred tools while maintaining data governance and security.

The key innovation here is that your workspace is mounted as a local filesystem at launch time. This means you can reference files directly from their catalog location without downloading them first — a game-changer for teams working with large genomics datasets that can reach terabytes in size.

4. Collaborative Science in a Single Platform

Perhaps most importantly, Carrara enables scientists to access all of these capabilities and share their work without compromising data security or governance. Your entire team works with the same organized, governed data catalog. No more asking "Which version is the latest?" or "Where did you put that file?"

Teamspaces create data clean rooms for secure collaboration, while enabling aggregated and centralized knowledge management for scientific data. Carrara enables developers to work with raw files and pipelines, scientists to analyze the data, and technical leaders to report out to others using dashboards. With Carrara, this collaboration is governed, so all access to data is logged for monitoring and auditability.

The Technology Behind the Transformation

What makes Carrara uniquely capable of handling complex scientific data is TileDB's innovative multi-dimensional array architecture. Unlike traditional databases that force complex data into rigid tabular structures, TileDB uses arrays that naturally accommodate the multi-dimensional nature of scientific data.

This approach delivers several critical advantages:

• Efficient storage: Cloud-optimized array storage with advanced compression reduces storage costs while improving performance

• Flexible data modeling: Handles everything from simple CSVs to complex 4D genomics data (samples × genes × conditions × time)

• Distributed computing: Native support for parallel processing accelerates large-scale analyses

• Universal accessibility: Programmatic APIs, notebooks, dashboards, and integration with popular analysis tools

Beyond File Management: A Platform for Discovery

While the video demonstrates Carrara's file management capabilities, the platform extends far beyond simple organization. With the recent launch of TileDB Carrara, teams gain access to:

• Trusted research environments: Transform your object store into a secure, compliant research environment

• Economic scaling: Unit-based pricing makes it easy to start small and scale as needed

• Domain expertise: Dedicated success engineers with scientific backgrounds help maximize platform value

Ready to Transform Your Data Chaos?

Scientific progress shouldn't be held back by data management challenges. TileDB Carrara provides the infrastructure modern research teams need to accelerate from sample to insight, whether you're detecting rare diseases, discovering new drugs, or pushing the boundaries of precision medicine.

Watch our demo video to see Carrara in action, and discover how you can transform your data chaos into unified discovery in minutes, not hours.

Ready to accelerate your research? Talk to us to see how TileDB Carrara can transform your scientific data management.

TileDB Carrara is now available with flexible, unit-based pricing that makes it easy for organizations of any size to get started. Contact our team to learn more about how Carrara can accelerate your journey from file chaos to breakthrough discoveries.