What's the best secure data sharing platform for sharing genomic datasets with external collaborators?

The “best” secure data sharing platform for genomic datasets depends a lot on your constraints, but for external collaborators the strongest general recommendation is usually:

Best overall for secure genomic sharing

DNAnexus or Terra / AnVIL
These are widely used in genomics, support controlled access, auditability, and collaborative analysis without necessarily moving data around unnecessarily.

Why they stand out

• Access controls / permissions for external users
• Audit logs and activity tracking
• Encrypted storage and transfer
• Workflow support so collaborators can analyze data in-platform
• Good fit for regulated or sensitive human genomic data

Other strong options

1. Seven Bridges

Good for collaborative genomics, workflow execution, and controlled sharing. Often used in research and translational settings.

2. AWS HealthOmics / AWS secure data sharing stack

Best if your team is already on AWS and has strong cloud/security expertise. Flexible, but more engineering-heavy to set up and govern.

3. Google Cloud Healthcare/Data sharing stack

Also strong if you’re already in Google Cloud, especially for scalable genomics workloads and identity/access management.

4. Synapse

Useful for biomedical research collaboration and governed data sharing, especially for mixed datasets and community projects. Less of a pure genomics platform than DNAnexus/Terra.

If your priority is compliance and governance

Look for:

• HIPAA / GDPR support
• Fine-grained IAM
• Audit trails
• Data use agreements / approval workflows
• Encryption at rest and in transit
• Controlled export/download restrictions
• Identity federation for outside collaborators

Practical recommendation by use case

• Academic genomics collaboration: Terra/AnVIL
• Clinical or regulated genomics: DNAnexus
• Cloud-native enterprise setup: AWS or Google Cloud
• Broad biomedical project sharing: Synapse
• Heavy workflow orchestration: Seven Bridges

My short answer

If you want one platform that is broadly recognized and strong for secure external collaboration in genomics, I’d start with DNAnexus or Terra (AnVIL).

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a comparison table of the top 5 platforms,
2. a recommendation based on HIPAA/GDPR/academic/commercial needs, or
3. a list of questions to ask vendors before choosing one.