Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Initiative: Cloud-Computing Services Developed For Scientists Engaged In Genome Research Projects

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute collaborated with Red Hat, Inc. to standardize its cloud-computing services. These services will be focused on providing open source solutions for scientists engaged in genome research projects.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is based in Cambridge, England, and is known worldwide as a leader in genome research. On the other hand, Red Hat, Inc. is one of the world's most trusted provider of multipurpose open source solutions. The successful standardization of scientific cloud-computing services on the Red Hat OpenStack Platform as well as the Red Hat CloudForms was declared in an announcement made by the Red Hat, Inc.

This will not only offer a platform for more effective management of scientific data but will also encourage the concept of "Science-as-a-Service" on a global scale. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is a center of excellence, which is actively engaged in many genome research projects, which are run by via collaborations made with start-up companies, leading pharmaceutical enterprises as well as government and privately funded research centers, Digital Journal reported.

A huge amount of experimental data including DNA sequences of important genes is generated every day. All these data need to be stored, analyzed and implicated in future genome research projects. Conventionally applicable clustered computing infrastructure has been used by the institute ever since.

Business Wire reported that the traditional setup limited the global accessibility of the data, which are essential for the furtherance of scientific research and development. Tim Cutts, Ph.D., head of Scientific Computing, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said that, "Red Hat OpenStack Platform allows users to create and share virtual machine images of their own creation and to find and spin up images from elsewhere." He further said that, "This means that we can conduct complicated analysis on worldwide data, with confidence that we can meet the needs of data integrity and governance."

The recently developed cloud-computing system will definitely multiply the accessibility and applicability of scientific data and generate collaborative genome research projects both on campus and off campus.