Intel-NextBio Collaboration Aims to Perfect Hadoop for Genomics

Intel has teamed up with NextBio in a collaboration focused on perfecting the Hadoop stack for analyzing large-scale genomic datasets.

Hadoop is a Java-based programming framework that supports the processing of large datasets in a distributed computing environment. It was originally developed by Google and then later picked up and developed for enterprise scenarios by Yahoo.

Engineering teams from NextBio and Intel say they will offer up their solutions and innovations to the open-source community once completed.

In the quotes below, the phrase "big data" is apparently now being referred to as "Big Data" — with a capital "B" and "D." This IT marketing neologism is meant to ensure that proper respect is given to this data — which is of a very big nature.

"Intel is firmly committed to the wide adoption and use of Big Data technologies such as [the Hadoop Distributed File System], Hadoop, and HBase across all industries that need to analyze large amounts of data," says Girish Juneja, CTO and General Manager of Big Data Software and Services at Intel. "Complex data requiring compute-intensive analysis needs not only Big Data open source, but a combination of hardware and software management optimizations to help deliver needed scale with a high return on investment. Intel is working closely with NextBio to deliver this showcase reference to the Big Data community and life science industry."

Matthew Dublin is a senior writer at Genome Technology.