A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

PLM Architecture: Get Off My Cloud?

PLM Architecture: Get Off My Cloud?
olegshilovitsky
olegshilovitsky
15 September, 2009 | 2 min for reading

In the past, I already discussed many cloud-related topics. Today, I want to get “down to the earth” and ask your opinion about PLM system architecture that will follow successfully future cloud development and architecture.

plm-get-off-my-cloud

My thought is that key enablers that will support PLM movement on cloud from the architecture standpoint, will be an ability to support dynamic collaboration between PLM system components and other elements of Cloud infrastructure. When I’m thinking about how to enable PLM for cloud, I don’t see one ultimate holy grail product that can enable everything we need. I do see a flexible combination of services that can be re-used and assembled to provide a specific customer solution. Similar to EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) in the past and SOA/ESB today, I think PLM services on the cloud will be a right way to go.

In addition, I think, we need to keep in mind three important characteristics of these components to make PLM cloud services successful:

Content
Whatever services supposed to do, they need to enable a particular PLM content to become available on cloud Design Assembly, Product Requirement, Bill of Material etc. When I’m thinking about content enabling, I think to apply REST architecture will be very beneficial to deliver right content in the way customer or service supplier can integrate on cloud.

Context
In order to make it efficient, we need to think with “context in mind”. It means all content services need to be enabled to act in the context of a particular process or other services. This will allow to build flexible adaptable applications.

Integration
Finally, when we have REST services able to deliver content and able to act in a context, we need to think what will be a glue that connects everything together. I envision cloud integration services allows to bind services together. We already have movement in the market of Integration on Cloud services, and I think this segment will grow in the future.

Finally, I don’t think, future PLM on cloud will remain complex and not-separated set of products. So, don’t expect “PLM cloud” in the future. However, you can expect dynamic collaborative PLM infrastructure on cloud.

Best,
Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
3 July, 2020

I’m catching up more on Siemens RealizeLIVE and today I want to talk about flexibility and customization. I learned about...

4 June, 2009

I’d like to discuss a topic which is probably the most “non technological” topic I have ever discussed in this...

3 October, 2020

A single source of truth is the paradigm that sells PLM and many other systems. PDM and PLM providers used...

9 June, 2015

Enterprise resource planning is well established domain for many years. ERP in manufacturing made a very long history of transformation...

1 March, 2016

Collaboration is such a fancy word in a lexicon of technology and software. Looking backward we discovered variety of ways...

8 July, 2019

Digital transformation is big marketing hit these days. Everyone is obsessed with how to transform companies, tools, and customers “digitally”....

5 March, 2015

To measure ROI is important part of PLM implementation decision. These days companies are less interested in 3-5 years implementation...

3 February, 2025

Have you ever tried to eat an apple but only managed to finish half? It’s still better than not having...

30 October, 2012

Last week I attended PLM Innovation event in Atlanta. If you haven’t had a chance to follow my blog last...

Blogroll

To the top