Quick et al. demonstrate the benefits of rapidly available and accurate prospective typing results during the course of an outbreak of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) in Birmingham, United Kingdom, in June 2014. The authors obtained 43 S. Enteritidis isolates from hospital patients, community samples and the environment. They sequenced isolates from 16 patients using a new rapid draft sequencing protocol on an Illumina MiSeq platform that provides results within 6 hours. They used these data to reconstruct the history of the outbreak and identify transmission occurring between hospital wards, allowing for early implementation of control measures to prevent further spread. In addition, they sequenced two samples on the MinION platform (Oxford Nanopore Technologies), demonstrating real-time analysis of long reads and species classification within 20 minutes, as well as the use of phylogenetic placement for rapid serotyping and genotyping. In summary, this study demonstrates the potential of these two technologies for use during rapidly progressing outbreaks.