Within the scope of the University Information Infrastructure Project supported by the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, the University Information Infrastructure Disaster Recovery Center (ULAKFKM) has been put into service nationwide by TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM. The center aims to enable universities to securely back up their critical data and maintain uninterrupted operations in the event of disasters.
In line with the efforts initiated after the February 6 earthquake, the infrastructure was opened to universities in the earthquake-affected regions in February 2025, to universities in the Marmara region in May, and as of November, it has been made available to all universities across Türkiye, becoming accessible at a national scale.
System Usage Status
System usage is carried out through the FKMPortal , developed by TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM. Through this portal, universities can manage user authorizations integrated with the Yetkim Identity Federation, complete their applications, and transfer data to the disaster recovery infrastructure. The system has been designed entirely using open-source software.
As of now:
- 61 universities have activated their users on the portal,
- 28 universities have started sending data to the system,
- 136 TB of data has been stored on the ULAKFKM infrastructure.
Resources and Services Provided to Universities
Within the scope of the project, 20 TB of S3 object storage is allocated free of charge to state universities. Data sent by universities is stored securely with hardware-level encryption, and thanks to the geographical redundancy provided by TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM, data is protected in secure off-campus data centers.
In addition to S3 storage services, OpenStack cloud resources are also allocated to state universities that successfully complete the integration/testing (onboarding) process.
Three-Phase Infrastructure Expansion Plan (2024–2026)
The ULAKFKM infrastructure is being expanded in three phases to ensure high availability and uninterrupted service:
2024 – Main System: METU MODSİMMER / ULAKBİM Data Center
2025 – Data Center Redundancy: Ankara University Data Center
2026 – Geographical Redundancy: A third data center outside Ankara
Through this structure, university data is geographically distributed and secured within an architecture where data centers back up one another.
Strategic Contributions of the ULAKFKM Project to Universities
Thanks to the ULAKFKM project, universities in Türkiye gain the ability to:
Securely back up critical data,
Maintain uninterrupted operations during disasters,
Access advanced cloud and storage infrastructure,
Use an independent and scalable platform based on open-source technologies, and
Participate in a nationally coordinated digital resilience ecosystem.
This comprehensive infrastructure significantly strengthens the Turkish higher education system in terms of disaster preparedness, business continuity, data security, and digital capacity.
