HP, PLM Cloud and Services Aggregation

Following my yesterday post about Facebook and data centers infrastructure, I thought it will be an interesting to discover more trends around enterprise and cloud. I read about HP Summit and about HP cloud strategy in the following article – HP Summit, HP’s Cloud strategy disclosed. Cloud is a hot place, and this is pretty much open these days. Companies are experimenting a lot, but there is no real solution out at market yet. Let think about manufacturing companies as, an example. These companies are running a big chunk of IT infrastructure and thinking about how to find what is the right pathway to the cloud. One of the ideas mentioned by HP in their disclosure was the idea of aggregation. The idea of organizing transparent services to delivery various types of PLM functionality can be interesting. This is my favorite passage from the HP blog explaining HP cloud strategy:

“Build an open cloud marketplace to deliver cloud services and infrastructure solutions for businesses and consumers,” highlighting the fact we are delivering private clouds for enterprises, allowing them to consume cloud services in a secure manner, developing a public cloud offering and delivering many cloud services for consumers.

Complexity, Integration and Cloud

The pain of system integration in CAD/PLM world is not a new story. For many years CAD, PLM and ERP companies are building different type of solutions in this space. It was started from EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) strategies back 10-15 years ago, moved to various SOA/ESB related activities. PLM and ERP companies were acquiring companies and leveraging technologies coming from large IT companies to solve an integration problem.

The complexity of integration is growing. Few weeks ago, I had a chance to read a Cideon’s press release talking about the integration services to connect a new Catia V6 product to SAP by Cideon. This type of solution is not unique in my view. You can find similar products connecting TeamCenter to SAP made by Tesis and many others.

The question of solution migration to the cloud (private and public) can be interesting and challenging at the same time. The optimization and cost reduce can bring ITs of companies implementing PLM software to think about future migration.

Cloud Services and Aggregation

What will be the next move PLM companies make to simplify integration of their system within the enterprise? Few years ago it was SOA. Back that time, PLM companies were making bold statements with regards to their SOA architectures and frameworks. It seems to me “cloud services” can bring the next wave transformations. The question of security, multiple services and connection to public cloud will be on the table as the most important. PLM software will have to connect to private cloud inside a company, public cloud SaaS providers like salesforce.com, create a connection with with growing number of other cloud-based offerings. Aggregation of services can be an interesting strategy to solve these problems.

What is my conclusion? I think, cloud has a chance to shake enterprise software grounds in coming years. The activity of vendors like HP and others demonstrates that “cloud battle” is in front of us. PLM vendors and IT of companies running PLM software need to be prepared to this battle to identify the right “cloud pathway” for the coming years. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg