Cloud is trending and it is hard to find a company who is not thinking how to leverage new cloud technologies and business models. However, just to say “cloud” these days means probably nothing. The right question is how to implement cloud. I guess many companies these days are coming to that question. It goes in parallel with the discussion about what is “cloud” and what is “not cloud”, which has some technical and some marketing aspects.
Long time ago, PTC introduced PLM “On Demand“. You should remember this marketing name that later was replaced by SaaS and cloud. According to the PTC website, the solution is available and hosted by IBM. I noticed some indication of PTC move to the cloud back in 2013 after acquisition of NetIDEAS. My writeup about that is here. According to PTC press release NetIDEAS allowed to PTC to develop a better foundation to offer multiple deployment options.
Earlier today, my attention was caught by PTC announcement – PTC Introduces PTC PLM Cloud New PTC Windchill SaaS offerings for small and midsized companies. The following passage is explaining the reason why PTC is coming with cloud product offering
Recognizing that many SMB organizations may lack a dedicated IT staff but still want to adopt a proven PLM environment, PTC designed PTC PLM Cloud specifically to enable team collaboration and data management in the cloud. This flexible offering eliminates the typical, but risky, SMB practice of shared folders and file naming conventions which hamper product development. With more effective and reliable data sharing in the cloud, customers are able to improve product development across teams in different locations, teams working with varying CAD applications, and with external teams such as partners and suppliers who are a growing part of the product development process.
I tried to dig inside of materials available online to see how PTC will provide cloud PLM and what options are available. Navigate here to learn more. It is available with 3 options – standard, premium and enterprise. While names mean nothing, the following definition caught my attention – “instant access” for standard vs. “dedicated database” for others. In addition to that, the differences between options down to “workflow customization” in premium “new business objects and UI customization” for enterprise. It looks like PTC recognized the importance of MCAD data management – all versions are coming with integrated viewing solution and support for Creo, AutoCAD, Inventor and SolidWorks.
The questions that remaining open me at this moment are price and cloud (hosting) architecture. It is essentially important for customers today as I mentioned earlier in my post – Why you should ask your cloud PLM vendor about Devops and Kubernetes.
What is my conclusion? Manufacturing companies are not implementing PLM because of high cost and availability of IT resources. To many customers and vendors today, cloud seems like a right path to remove IT cost and make implementations less painful. From that standpoint, PTC is taking right trajectory by delivering Windchill based PLM solution using cloud. However the devil is in details. I’m looking forward to learn more about “how” PTC on the cloud will be delivered and how it will be different from other PLM clouds from Autodesk, Aras, Dassault Systemes and Siemens PLM. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
