A review of Cloud computing technologies for comprehensive microRNA analyses

Cloud computing revolutionized many fields that require ample computational power. Cloud platforms may also provide huge support for microRNA analysis mainly through disclosing scalable resources of different types. In Clouds, these resources are available as services, which simplifies their allocation and releasing. This feature is especially useful during the analysis of large volumes of data, like the one produced by next generation sequencing experiments, which require not only extended storage space but also a distributed computing environment.

Researchers from the Silesian University of Technology show which of the Cloud properties and service models can be especially beneficial for microRNA analysis. They also explain the most useful services of the Cloud (including storage space, computational power, web application hosting, machine learning models, and Big Data frameworks) that can be used for microRNA analysis. finally, the researchers discuss several solutions for microRNA and show that the utilization of the Cloud in this field is still weak, but can increase in the future when the awareness of their applicability grows.