Since its invention in 1970s, nucleic acid sequencing technology has contributed tremendously to the genomics advances. The next-generation sequencing technologies, represented by HiSeq 2000 from Illumina, SOLiD from Applied Biosystems and 454 from Roche, re-energized the application of genomics. In this review, we first introduced the next-generation sequencing technologies, then, described their potential applications in the field of microbiology.