access shared computing power and storage on demand. You pay for what you use, with the convenience of a small local infrastructure to maintain security of data. For data-driven companies, what was once a capital expense has become largely an operational expense.
This is a boon for hospitals, for example, that want the ability to quickly sequence a critically ill newborn’s whole genome to determine the best course of care, but don’t have the space or budget for massive computer servers. The hybrid cloud also enables data to be easily shared among organizations that can advance research and clinical applications.
The innovation that’s enabling big-data applications, and specifically genomic data applications, is a hardware technology known as FPGA (field-programmable gate array), which opens up a new era of computing power that will get us to where we need to be in genomics.
FPGAs are small-but-mighty computer chips that can be reprogrammed again and again to accomplish time-sensitive, data-intensive tasks. Already, they’re powering search engines, filtering junk mail, and enabling real-time face recognition. They’re accomplishing things that were impossible on yesterday’s circuit boards—and they are especially relevant in the world of genomics, as they provide the computing power the industry desperately needs. Skilled hardware engineers who can optimize FPGAs for DNA sequencing data will become indispensible for companies working in our field.
We are living at a time when good health care is dependent on good data. Our ability to process genomic data quickly and make it accessible to the right organizations will determine the extent to which personalized medicine will take shape.
Many pieces must be in place for genomic-driven healthcare to reach its fullest potential. Already, groups such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health have made great strides in setting standards for responsible and secure sharing of genomic and clinical data. Now, with the advent of more powerful cloud computing strategies, we have the technology that can get us through the next decade and beyond.
So if you’re one of the 2 billion people to have your DNA sequenced in the next 10 years, you can have peace of mind knowing that the backbone of computing technology and global data-sharing standards are finally coming together to account for every last byte.
And if you are a chip designer, network developer or have another specialty within hardware or software engineering, there’s a whole new realm of opportunities opening in the life sciences.
