Cloud and Traditional PLM Industries Trajectories

The cloud trend is shifting the direction. Only few years ago, we’ve been saying cloud focus is on consumer applications and public web. Lately we said – cloud clearly will impact small and medium business first. However, it looks like cloud will are going to see future shifts sooner than later. PLM cloud switch finally happened to all (I have to say almost all) PLM vendors. It made me think about what will happen to traditional PLM industries such as automotive, aerospace and defense.

My hunch, automotive industry will be the first “ready to go” with cloud from traditional PLM industries. Automotive Engineering and Technology Forum by AIAG can give you some confirmation to think about that. Navigate to the following link to read about coming forum in Southfield, MI in October. The name of the discussion panel is intriguing – Impact of Cloud Computing on Automotive Engineering. The name of moderator (Mike Payne) is even more intriguing. Mike’s name was behind well known companies such as PTC, SolidWorks, and SpaceClaim. The following passage outlines the future panel:

Computing has evolved over the years from one platform to the next. New approaches are catalyzed by the next platform. As it was in previous generations, there are naturally the early adopters and the followers. While this new platform offers the promise of enterprise-wide interoperability, and even beyond the enterprise to the ecosystem, there remain the challenges of the huge base of installed software. In this session we will explore with some of the movers and shakers in the software industry the opportunities offered by this new platform. We also discuss the barriers to having the cloud technologies used by everyone in an organization, just like many people already use cloud-based e-mail today, instead of the installed Exchange clients on their own premises.

What my conclusion? To adopt new technology platform is a risky game. Many industries were playing safe strategies. Which means to come late in the game. It worked in the past for some of them. However, 21st century proves to be different. It introduces new speed of success and failure we never seen before. Think about Google, Facebook, Kodak, Nokia and RIM. These are good examples of fast success and very fast failures. Speaking about automotive industry, think about Tesla and Detroit city… It will be very interesting to see what trajectories automotive and other traditional PLM industries will take with cloud PLM in a near future. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg