基于云的信息学解决方案已成为研究的组成部分。如今，云无处不在，每个新的信息学工具似乎都具有一定的云功能或功能。但是，这实际上对研究人员意味着什么？有了这份方便的列表，您会发现答案“很多”，因为我们探讨了云改变研究的四种关键方式。

A definition of the cloud

在开始之前，重要的是要准确地列出云计算的含义。云计算使用户可根据需求提供各种IT服务和资源，而这些资源必须由该用户直接管理或托管。云计算资源是typically defined bythe huge scale of the resources they provide, which take advantage of economies of scale, the elasticity of the platform (it can grow or shrink depending on the need of the user), and the sharing and flexibility of resources.

Cloud computing is typically divided into three types of service. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) models provide applications and software on a pay-as-you-go basis. Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provides the development tools necessary to design bespoke apps within the cloud infrastructure, whilst infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) allows users to leverage the power of high-performance computing through the cloud. To discover more information about how cloud-based informatics are designed, download our infographic, availablehere。For now, let’s delve into four ways that the cloud is changing research.

Increased access to applications

Cloud technologies开始随着SaaS的使用，过去五年来，这些软件模型变得司空见惯2012。SaaS消除了实验室的昂贵许可证的财务负担，并替换了便宜得多的付费模型，并允许研究人员使用所需的工具来完成所需的任务 - 仅此任务。PAAS模型为研究人员提供了使用云提供商的基础架构设计自己的应用所需的工具（我们将介绍以下基础架构的好处）。现在，通过云的付费模型提供的应用程序现在远远超出了基本文字处理器和电子邮件客户端。研究人员现在可以使用基于云的实验室信息管理系统，由供应商提供的电子实验室笔记本和色谱数据系统，并且借助PAAS解决方案的灵活性，可以利用云来用于专业应用程序。因此，云可以提供在整个生物医学科学中有益的应用程序。您命名，有一个基于云的工具：medical imaging到electrophysiology到mass spectrometry。

Supercomputers for everyone

IaaS is possibly the cloud application with the widest appeal – rather than offering specialized applications, IaaS makes high-performance computing resources available to any scientist that might need them. This has had two major impacts on research. First, opening the door to big data projects, which are increasingly important across science. The omics explosion has seen huge datasets become far more common; a single whole genome sequence fills up 100 gigabytes of data, and the time taken to analyse files of this size would be mind-numbing for even the most patient of researchers using classic computing methods. Instead, cloud-hosted tools like CloudAligner andCloudburst允许研究团队从自己的基础架构中减轻负担，并在后端服务器中分解工作。这使研究人员有可能利用以前过于笨拙的数据集。云技术中的同时繁荣才使《奥米奇革命》成为可能。

IAAS平台的第二个主要影响是对科学的巨大民主化。这些大数据项目不再仅仅是主要研究机构的储备，尽管它们仍然能够获得非常强大的内部技术。Blue Brain Project是一项神经模拟计划，以瑞士ÉcolePolytechniquefédéraledeLausanne为基础1800万美元到cover its new supercomputer, Blue Brain 5. With cloud computing, if your budget doesn’t quite cover a couple dozen Petaflops, you aren’t restricted from conducting the experiments you need to. A great example of the platforms that the cloud enables is the Broad Institute’sFireCloud, an open platform for scalable data analysis which is accessible to any researcher with a Google account. Firecloud’s elastic nature means researchers can use as much or as little power as they wish. The Broad Institute has also made their best practice workflows available to users.

满足您所有需求的数据库

在开始使用基于云的分析应用程序并利用基于云的超级计算机之前，研究人员需要访问数据，并且云在提供该访问方面起着越来越重要的作用。来自大规模基因组学项目的数据，例如1000个基因组可通过云提供商Amazon Web Services（AWS）获得。您会发现，即使云正在开放科学，云服务的提供仍然是寡头，亚马逊，Google和Microsoft拥有half the market对于它们之间的云基础架构。NIH决定在2015年开放其基因数据库对云存储的决定只帮助加速了云数据库的增长。作为参与PAN癌的整个基因组分析的研究人员，在最近的自然评论中详细介绍了piece, if a researcher wanted to download the International Cancer Genome Consortium’s dataset, which weighs in a two petabytes – equivalent to just under seven years of full HD video recording – then a typical university internet connection would have them waiting more than 15 months. Cloud technologies are the best way to store and download files in the new era of big data.

Sharing can become a reality

Building up huge piles of results and sitting on them like a data dragon doesn’t do anyone much good. Sharing data efficiently and effectively is essential in modern-day research, and the cloud makes that process infinitely easier. Cloud innovation is a key part of the NIH’s BD2K initiative, which aims to maximize biomedical sciences’ digital potential, whilst the欧洲开放科学云（EOSC）是一个欧洲范围内的项目，旨在为科学家建立数据共享。尽管对于EOSC，云术语是对开放数据的隐喻，但云技术对于项目制作数据的目标以及分析该数据所需的资源至关重要，可以在整个非洲大陆上访问。