Will cloud computing change our desktop behavior for PLM in the future?

We have seen many technological changes over the past 20 years of PC. We changed different versions of Windows and browsers. We moved between one-two-three-many tiers of architecture. Recently,  we moved from client-server to SOA… and now we are going to move to Cloud Computing. But looking back, our computer experience has remained unchanged, for the most part. I’d say “desktop behavior”, since we are continuing to keep folders and files on our PC. We continue to look for files on disks and server locations. Finally, we continue to organize  virtual folders and files for documents and other objects on virtual disks and locations… Our PLM user experience mostly focuses on the ability to save product assemblies, parts, Bill of Materials and… our metaphor for storage continue to be folder/file-oriented. Do you think that the introduction of cloud computing and cloud applications will change the desktop-oriented behavior that we have been demonstrating for the last two decades?

 The table below illustrates my prediction about how cloud computing will change the way people work with PLM:

 The bottom line is that I think cloud computing provides a huge opportunity to change the way we interact with applicationsin general. Of course, it will also create a great impact on PLM software. People in manufacturing organizations and supply chains will be able to change the way they work with design, other aspects of engineering, and overall PLM-related activities.