Future-Proofing Genomic Infrastructure: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Amazon EC2 F2 Instances for Large-Scale Genomic Processing

Genomic research demands massive computational power to process and analyze DNA sequences. As cloud infrastructure evolves, organizations face the challenge of migrating to newer, more powerful instances while maintaining research integrity and managing costs. AstraZeneca's Centre for Genomics Research (CGR) has integrated large-scale genomic and clinical data, making it one of the largest and most diverse datasets globally. The team evaluated Amazon EC2 F2 instances as the next-generation solution for continuing workloads without disruption. The comprehensive evaluation used sample analysis, architecture, Illumina DRAGEN versions, multi-region validation, performance metrics, and validation to ensure global scalability. The results showed that F2 instances can process genomic workloads efficiently and sustainably, providing a clear path forward for organizations relying on FPGA-based instances.