It is not unusual to hear about problems with PLM systems. It is costly, complicated, hard to implement and non-intuitive. However, I want to raise a voice and speak about data management (yes, data management). Most of PDM/PLM software is running on top of data-management technologies developed and invented 30-40 years ago. The RDBM history is going back to the invention made by Edgar Codd at IBM back in 1970.
I was reading Design News article – Top automotive trends to watch in 2012. Have a read and make your opinion. One of trends was about growing complexity of electrical control units. Here is the quote:
As consumers demand more features and engineers comply, automakers face a dilemma: The number of electronic control units is reaching the point of unmanageability. Vehicles now employ 35 to 80 microcontrollers and 45 to 70 pounds of onboard wiring. And there’s more on the horizon as cameras, vision sensors, radar systems, lanekeeping, and collision avoidance systems creep into the vehicle.
It made me think about potential alternatives. Even if I cannot see any technology these days that can compete on the level of cost, maturity and availability with RDBMS, in my view, now it is a right time to think about future challenges and possible options.
Key-Value Store
These types of stores became popular over the past few years. Navigate to the following article by Read Write Enterprise – Is the Relational Database Doomed? Have a read. The article (even if it a bit dated) provides a good review of key-value stores as a technological alternative to RDBMS. It obviously includes pros and cons. One of the biggest “pro” to use key-value store is scalability. Obvious bad is an absence of a good integrity control.
NoSQL (Graph databases)
Another interesting example of RDBMS alternative is so-called noSQL databases. The definition and classification of noSQL databases is not stable. Before jumping into noSQL bandwagon, analyze the potential impact of immaturity, complexity and absence of standards. However, over the last 1-2 year, I can see a growing interest into this type of technology. Neo4j is a good example you can experiment with in case you are interested.
Semantic Web
Semantic web (or web of data) is not a database technology. Opposite to RDBMS, Key-value stores and graph databases, semantic web is more about how to provide a logical and scalable way to represent data (I wanted to say in “semantic way”, but understand the potential of tautology ). Semantic web relies on a set of W3C standard and combines set of specification describing ways to represent and model data such as RDF and OWL. You can read more by navigating to the following link.
What is my conclusion? I think, the weak point of existing RDBMS technologies in the context of PLM is a growing complexity of data – both from structural and unstructured aspects. The amount of data will raise lots of questions in front of enterprise IT in manufacturing companies and PLM vendors. Just my thoughts…
Companies are looking for differentiation in the way they are making business. PLM companies are not different. Dassault, PTC, Siemens PLM, Aras, etc. Nobody wants to sell “me too” cocktail nowadays. With the last Autodesk PLM announcement, it became clear that Autodesk is targeting a “cloud PLM” place. During the recent AU 2011 conference in Las Vegas, Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO, made it very clear that Autodesk wants to accomplish the following triad – Cloud ERP, Cloud CRM, Cloud PLM.
I was reading Michael Fauscette blog article – The Cloud Wars -2012. I found it interesting. Take a moment of time during the next week holiday slowdown and have a read. Make your conclusion. The names of companies on the list were quite predictable – Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Workday, Facebook. I especially liked the part related to salesforce.com in the list. Salesforce clearly having an ambition to come with strong enterprise solution and growing in multiple directions via acquisitions and partnership. Few months ago, during the Dreamforce 2011 event, I came across an interesting presentation made by Kennady – manufacturing solution built purely on top of Salesforce.com platform.
The cloud wars -2012 article and Autodesk cloud ambitions made me think about some potential in dynamics between Autodesk PLM platform and other “big cloud” players. Autodesk didn’t announce about what technology is running behind Nexus PLM. Amazon was mentioned, but it doesn’t mean anything about Autodesk cloud PLM platform. Another interesting Autodesk innovation is to integrate on premise Autodesk PDM (Vault) with future cloud solution – Autodesk Nexus.
What is my conclusion? Cloud competition becomes interesting in manufacturing. It is still far away from Google vs. Facebook clashes. However, who knows what we are going to see in 2-3 years from now? Just my thoughts…
As you know, I’m in Las Vegas these days attending AU 2011. Autodesk is preparing some big messages these years, and I hope to share my opinion about that with you very soon. Yesterday, I was attending media and press meeting with Autodesk execs, including Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, Manufacturing division VP Robert (Buzz) Kross and Autodesk Labs Director Brian Mathews. Below few pictures that can give you in impression of what I’ve seen in connection to manufacturing and PLM.
CAD is done. Cloud is coming.
There is only one company in the world, I know that use word “cloud” more extensively than Autodesk these days. This company is Salesforce.com. Autodesk is aggressively coming with large amount of solutions that use cloud. PLM will be one of them.
Manufacturing: Global and Faster
It seems to me Autodesk is understanding the challenges of manufacturing these days. Global, Complex, Fast. You can see it from the slide presented by Robert (Buzz) Kross.
Q&A with Carl Bass
Carl Bass made his long Q&A with press and media. His appearance was very friendly. You can see a picture of Carl I made during the Q&A. I processed photo with “hipster” filter on my Camera+ app In my view, it reflect Carl’s mood during this Q&A. Carl answered on multiple questions about design, modern technological and industrial trends, software, cloud, etc.
What is my conclusion? I’m trying to make my conclusion about what I’ve heard in the connection with PLM. Autodesk is definitely recognizing PLM as a future opportunity. After what was done in PLM by Dassault, Siemens PLM and PTC, to democratize PLM will be probably a biggest challenge for Autodesk. Just my thoughts…
I have a feeling “cloud” topic got some dominance for the last days and week. However, the following article about Dynamics AX 2012 and cloud was something I considered important enough to mention. Navigate your browser and read – Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Dips Its Toes In the Cloud, Carefully. Microsoft is pushing their Dynamics [...]
Let me talk again about Part Numbers. The last time I wrote about Part Numbers, it created a healthy discussion. I’d encourage you to refresh your memory and read one of my blog post back one year ago – PLM Data, Identification and Part Numbers. I found some interesting facts specially reading all 51 comments [...]
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Integration between design and manufacturing is one of the topics that normally hits a lot of discussion in the product development and PLM space. To support this process becomes more and more important in a modern enterprise manufacturing organization. You can ask me why? Let me put is simple – this is one of the [...]
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I’m continuing to think about Amazon cloud failure. As you may have noticed, the “cloud” is a frequent topic on my blog. I’ve been talking about the cloud with many people and organizations during the last couple of years and learning what are best practices in delivery of stable cloud solutions with a high level [...]
I had a chance to watch Jason Green’s video interview by TechCrunchTV Sarah Lacy. Take a time, watch and make an opinion. I found interesting to listen to Valley VC, which is strategically focusing on cloud and enterprise opportunities. This is not a common trend, in my view. This is not a first time I’m writing [...]
). Semantic web relies on a set of W3C standard and combines set of specification describing ways to represent and model data such as RDF and OWL. You can read more by navigating to the following link.
