1. A computer program product for driving genomic data processing workflows using metadata, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to: initiate, by the processor, a workflow configured to process data, wherein the workflow comprises one or more genomic analysis operations selected from the group consisting of: base calling, variant calling, phylogenetic analysis, primer design, and amplicon design; receiving, at the processor, a request to manage the workflow using metadata comprising: anchoring metadata configured to uniquely identify the workflow by using an alphanumeric string; common metadata comprising one or more characteristics selected from the group consisting of: sample characteristics, processing site characteristics, laboratory characteristics, instrument characteristics, assay characteristics, temporal characteristics, security characteristics and project characteristics; and custom metadata comprising workflow characteristics and/or data characteristics; and associate, by the processor, the metadata with the genomic data; drive, by the processor, at least a portion of the workflow based on the metadata, wherein driving the workflow based at least in part on the metadata comprises: determining new data and/or at least one new processing setting to use in connection with repeating at least a portion of the workflow; and repeating the portion of the workflow using the new data and/or the new processing setting, wherein the determining is based at least in part on the common metadata and/or the custom metadata; and wherein the new data and/or the new processing setting comprise a modified number of permissible gaps in an alignment based at least in part on an average sequence length of input sequence data.