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Abstract. Increasing development in computer technologies, storage capabilities, networking, and multithreading as well as accelerated progression of computational chemistry methods in past decades have allowed performing advanced virtual screening (VS) methods to assist drug discovery. By employing virtualized computer resources and suitable middleware it is possible to support growing computer demands of VS with flexible cloud services adapted for High Performance Computing (HPC). This paper resumes the possibilities of cloud services for VS applications in drug discovery and shows possible track to move VS computing software to cloud environment. Keywords: Clouds · HPC · Virtual screening · Drug discovery · OpenStack IntroductionRapid advances in current computing technologies have offered higher effectiveness and cost-savings to many areas dealing with large-scale and data-intensive processes. Thanks to globally growing availability and decreasing price-performance ratio of computer resources, a novel paradigm of distributed task processing has actually formed as cloud computing. Besides the most widespread software cloud applications like Google Apps, Dropbox, Office 365, etc., important contribution is expected in bioinformatics, computational chemistry and similar fields where such virtualized technologies are able to deliver scalable computer performance for demanding scientific calculations. Despite attractive flexibility of cloud services, a challenging point will be to put cloud computing to the same footing with High Performance Computing (HPC) which has become a prominent tool to carry out large bioinformatic tasks. One of the most essential utilization of cloud services may be seen in rational drug discovery by virtual screening (VS) scenarios where extensive calculations gain steadily increasing proportion. Since all VS methods demand for efficient computational resources, their progress and success depend on development of computer technologies tailored to high performance computing. Amongst several lately developed cloud middleware, we focus in the present paper particularly on OpenStack implementation suitable for VS software methods.

Nowadays, biomedicine is characterised by a growing need for processing of large amounts of data in real time. This leads to new requirements for information and communication technologies (ICT). Cloud computing offers a solution to these requirements and provides many advantages, such as cost savings, elasticity and scalability of using ICT. The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of cloud computing and the related use of this concept in the area of biomedicine. Authors offer a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of the cloud computing approach in biomedical research, decomposed into infrastructure, platform and service layer, and a recommendation for processing large amounts of data in biomedicine. Firstly, the paper describes the appropriate forms and technological solutions of cloud computing. Secondly, the high-end computing paradigm of cloud computing aspects is analysed. Finally, the potential and current use of applications in scientific research of this technology in biomedicine is discussed.