This document provides an overview of cloud bioinformatics and the challenges of analyzing large datasets from next-generation sequencing (NGS). It discusses how bioinformatics uses computational methods to study genes, proteins, and genomes. The advent of NGS has led to huge datasets that require high-performance computing. Cloud computing provides access to pooled computing resources in a cost-effective manner and helps address the bioinformatics challenge of assembling and analyzing NGS data. The document also outlines common bioinformatics software and resources available through WestGrid and Galaxy that can be used for sequence assembly, annotation, and other applications.