Subscriptions

What is a Subscription?

A Globus subscription is a paid, organization-level plan that enables additional capabilities across the entire Globus platform. It is not a personal account; the subscription is purchased by an institution, research group, or company and applies to all users in that organization.

While an organizational subscription is an add-on, many Globus features are available without one. For example, the core of Globus Compute — Compute endpoints and task submissions — requires only that users authenticate with Globus Auth.

Subscription Benefits

High-Assurance (HA) Subscription Benefits

High-Assurance (“HA”) refers to enhanced security protocols and more stringent authentication measures related to the specific Globus product. HA subscriptions are typically for those organizations who need extra assurances because of the nature of the data their members process. For example, Protected Health Information (PHI), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Compute implements the following features when associated with a HA subscription:

  • HA policies – policies that require extra authentication requirements. For example, authentication with specific (not linked) identities, periodic re-authentication, multi-factor authentication (MFA).

  • High-Assurance Functions – functions that may only be used by specific HA endpoints and that will be removed after 3 months of inactivity. (SDK access to the HA functions is similarly governed by the associated HA policy.)

  • Audit Logging – log the events of each task (started/completed, which user, etc.)

  • in-code assertions that verify endpoint settings are secure (e.g., encryption)

Tip

While use of HA policies requires an HA-enabled subscription, regular (non-HA) policies do not require a subscription, HA or otherwise.