Amazon has been pushing its cloud services for scientific researchers in the last several months and has recently focused on the use of the cloud for biologists and genomics researchers among others. While there are still a great many questions about whether or not the public cloud is well-suited to many of these applications from a performance standpoint (not to mention security if the user is dealing with any sensitive information) there are some solid use cases demonstrating Amazon’s value to scientific users–assuming their applications are uniquely prime in the first place. What Amazon does understand is that data keeps growing and accordingly, cash-strapped strapped startups in this field are not going to have the capex required to buy their own clusters each time load demands. It has recently been promoting its value for these users with cost as the top priority, followed next by a rich host of use cases highlighting successful cloud research projects. One has to wonder if Amazon will offer a more HPC-oriented service with improved performance or if it will continue reeling in those who need the compute without the cost at the sake of performance, especially in an area where many applications do not require tightly coupled systems.
Amazon Sees the Future of Biology in the Cloud
July 7, 2010