In combination with workflow management systems like Galaxy
\cite{Afgan2016}, bcbio-nextgen (
https://github.com/chapmanb/bcbio-nextgen), and Snakemake
\cite{Koster_2012} that interact directly with Conda, a data analysis can be shipped and deployed in a fully reproducible way, from description and automatic execution of every analysis step down to the description and automatic installation of any required software. While this ensures that exactly the same software is used, the underlying operating system and used hardware can still have influence on the obtained results. While in theory robust results should not be affected by such aspects, it is important to note that a Conda based approach can always be combined with virtual machines and container images. The hosting of Bioconda packages is guaranteed by Anaconda Inc. without time limit. Nevertheless, sustainability can be further improved by archiving a workflow together with all used packages via Zenodo (
https://zenodo.org), for example when using Snakemake (
http://snakemake.readthedocs.io/en/v4.3.0/snakefiles/deployment.html#sustainable-and-reproducible-archiving). Naturally, above notion of reproducibility only involves the ability to rerun
in silico experiments under the same technical circumstances and with the same data. It does not free the researcher from properly designing experiments.