Federated OmicsDI: Cloud-based architecture for omics data discovery

Motivation: Omics Discovery Index (OmicsDI - www.omicsdi.org) is an integrated and open-source platform to facilitate the discovery and dissemination of omics datasets metadata. It provides a unique infrastructure to integrate datasets coming from multiple omics studies, including at present proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and systems biology. The OmicsDI architecture was originally implemented and deployed in a dedicated high-performance computing cluster, limiting scalability and dynamic allocation of resources by the data processing pipelines. In addition, the original OmicsDI resource could not be reused by independent laboratories and research groups to share and disseminate their data.

Results: Here, we present a new version of OmicsDI that can be easily deployed in cloud architectures and local infrastructures enabling the development of a Federated OmicsDI. The new architecture can be automatically synchronized with the main OmicsDI resource, increasing the integration with other omics data providers. Also, the proposed Cloud-based architecture is more scalable, providing better capabilities to manage the increase of data providers and datasets.