Centralized Lab Data Management for the ELN Suite.
LabDrive is the scientific data management system built into ELabELN Suite. The files, datasets, and documents your lab actually produces, stored with the experiment, sample, and instrument context that makes them findable years later.
Included with ELabELN Suite
Unlimited users
Migration support available
Where research data actually lives, and where it should.
In most research labs, data lives in too many places. The ELN holds notebook entries, the instrument PC holds raw output, a shared drive holds analysis files, someone's laptop holds last month's manuscript figures, the freezer inventory is a spreadsheet, and the protocols are in a doc that one person owns. When that person leaves, half the system goes with them.
Generic cloud storage does not fix this. Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive treat a Western blot image, a sequencing run, a plate-reader CSV, and a draft manuscript as the same kind of file. They are not. Each has a context that matters: the experiment, the protocol, the instrument, the sample, the project. LabDrive is the data layer of ELabELN Suite. It sits underneath the notebook and holds the files the notebook references, organized the way research actually works.
Lab files, organized the way research works.
01 Metadata search
Files that know what they are.
Every file in LabDrive carries metadata: the experiment, the sample, the protocol, the instrument, the researcher, the date, the project. Search runs against that metadata, not just the filename. A query for every Western blot from a given anti-tubulin lot in 2024 returns those files in seconds, no matter what they were called when they were saved.
02 ELN Linkage
One click from notebook to data.
Files in LabDrive are referenced from ELabELN notebook entries, and notebook entries link back to their underlying data. When a researcher opens an experiment from two years ago, the raw data is one click away in the same environment. Nothing has to be hunted down from a separate system.
03 Versioning and locking
Every version of every file, kept.
Versioning is automatic. File-locking prevents two people from overwriting each other on an SOP or report. The version used in the published paper is preserved alongside the version that was edited last week. The audit log records who changed what, when, and from where. Reverting is a click, not a recovery operation.
04 Lab-shaped permissions
Built for multi-PI labs and core facilities.
Role-based access at the project, sample, and file level. A core facility can give each PI access to their own data without seeing the others. A collaborator at another institution can see one project without seeing the rest of the lab. A rotating student can be added and removed without an IT ticket.
05The compounding outcome
Grant compliance and reproducibility, by default.
The NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy, journal-mandated data sharing, and internal reproducibility reviews all require the same thing: data that can be retrieved with its provenance and version history intact, and shared selectively without exposing the rest of the lab's work. LabDrive holds the data in that form from the first day it is saved, which means the grant-compliance work is the work the lab is already doing, not a separate project two months before submission.
How LabDrive fits inside the ELN Suite.
ELabELN
The notebook layer. Captures the experimental record.
LabDrive
The files, datasets, and documents the notebook references, with metadata and versioning.
LabVia
Direct connectivity to instruments over serial, USB, and network. AI anomaly detection.
LabVista
Dashboards and reports across the ELN, LIMS, and connected business systems.
Together, they replace the patchwork of shared drives, lab servers, instrument PCs, and ad-hoc folders that most research labs are running today.
What lab-native storage does that Google Drive cannot.
| Capability | Generic cloud storage | LabDrive |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Filename, folder path, and file body text. Metadata is a name-and-modified-date afterthought. | Full metadata search across experiment, sample, protocol, instrument, researcher, project, and date. Filenames are secondary. |
| Notebook integration | External link or copy-paste reference. Breaks when files move. | Bidirectional links between ELabELN notebook entries and LabDrive files. Files and entries stay synchronized. |
| Versioning | Per-file revision history, often capped or aged off. No locking during co-authoring. | Automatic versioning with file-locking. Every version retained with full audit trail. |
| Permissions model | User and group access on folders. Forces lab structure into a generic hierarchy. | Role-based access at the project, sample, and file level. Designed for multi-PI labs and core facilities. |
| Instrument data | Manual upload. No experiment context unless someone adds it by hand. | Captured by LabVia with experiment, sample, and instrument metadata already attached. |
| Co-authoring | Real-time edits in the vendor's own document format. Limited for scientific documents. | Real-time co-authoring of SOPs and reports with file-locking and version preservation. |
| Grant and journal data sharing | Manual export and re-upload to an external repository. | Selective sharing at the project, sample, or file level with provenance intact. |
| On-premises option | Usually not, or available only at enterprise pricing. | On-premises deployment with full feature parity, included with Suite. |
| User accounting | Per-seat pricing, with cost growing as the lab grows. | Unlimited users on every Suite plan. No per-seat fees. |
When labs outgrow shared drives.
Most research labs start with a shared drive and grow into it. The shared drive works until it doesn't. The breaking points are predictable, and most labs hit several of them before they act.
LabDrive is the file layer for labs at that point. It holds what the shared drive held, with the structure, metadata, and permissions a shared drive cannot provide.
Files live with their experiment, protocol, sample, and project context.
Search works on metadata, not just filenames and folder paths.
Permissions set at the file, folder, or project level.
Version history kept automatically, tied to the published result.
People leave; files stay; access transfers; institutional memory survives.
See LabDrive inside ELabELN Suite.
A 30-minute walkthrough with a LabLynx expert. Bring an example of how your lab's data is organized today, and we will show you how LabDrive would hold it instead. No slide deck.