Establishing an infrastructure for remote access to microdata at Eurostat

Eurostat is pursuing the establishment of an infrastructure for remote access for researchers in order to satisfy the growing demand for microdata. Some European countries already implemented such solutions. This paper compares the systems which can be categorized in (1) terminal server, (2) distance network and (3) job submission systems. They differ in IT infrastructure, workstation control, user management and authentication, file systems and disclosure control activities. The second part of the paper describes the efforts and outlook as well as options and challenges for Eurostat when building such a system.