# Introduction

## What is Workbench?

Workbench is a standards-compliant solution for performing omics data analysis in your own environment.

Workbench enables you to run workflows reproducibly and at scale on major cloud computing platforms as well as on on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) installations.

## How It Works

Workbench breaks the model of data-centralization by bringing compute to your data—all managed through a centralized workflow management interface.

You can run workflows reproducibly and at scale on major cloud platforms (Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud) or on-premises installations.

## Key Features

* **Simplified Workflow Access:** Choose from community-developed pipelines or create and run your own
* **Flexible Deployment:** Connects to engines that live in your own environment, either on-premises or in the cloud
* **Multi-Platform Integration:** Works with Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and on-premises installations
* **Unified Analysis:** Process data from any sequencer, with streamlined experience for running meticulously developed and tested pipelines
* **Command Line Tools:** Programmatically submit runs and automate analysis by responding to events, like new samples coming off a sequencer
* **Visual Dashboard:** Monitor analyses, showing critical metrics like successes and run times, with ability to search, filter, and manage large batches of runs using tags

### Data Control

Workbench connects to engines that live in your environment, keeping data under your control or that of the controlling data steward at all times.

## Getting Started

To use Workbench, you can either:

* Use the Workbench web application
* Use the [downloadable command-line interface (CLI) package](https://docs.omics.ai/products/cli-overview-install) to connect to one or more **workflow engines** deployed in a **compute environment**.

When you submit a [workflow](https://docs.omics.ai/products/workbench/workflows), Workbench coordinates with the workflow [engine](https://docs.omics.ai/products/workbench/engines) to:

1. Interpret the workflow
2. Generate commands for individual tasks
3. Dispatch commands to cloud/local backend
4. Monitor progress and communicate status

{% hint style="success" %}
If you are interested in getting access to Workbench please [contact our support team](mailto:support@dnastack.com)
{% endhint %}


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