PLM vendors are continuing to adopt cloud. I can clearly see a difference between people attitude for cloud solutions now and 4 years ago. Here is my simplistic definition of changes that happened for the last 4 years. The following sequence represents a typical reaction on “cloud PLM” for the last 4 years. 2009: What is cloud? 2010: Why I need cloud? 2011: Why not to use cloud? 2012: How to use cloud?
The last question, actually, has multiple angles. It means all – technology, implementation, product licenses and finally pricing model. The last one is obviously important and I can see some interesting dynamics between cloud and on premise software in coming years. The following Infoworld article caught my attention – Oracle’s faux IaaS now gets faux on-demand cloud pricing by David Linthicum. Take a read. I found it interesting. Oracle is a king of enterprise software market has a lot to lose when it comes to cloud adoption. I found the following passage the most interesting:
Oracle’s “on-demand private cloud” isn’t merely an equipment lease either. It’s an odd hybrid created because Oracle finds itself stuck between the rock and the cloud, reluctant to devalue its hugely lucrative enterprise software products by folding into cloud-service pricing. The rise of cloud computing very much goes against Oracle’s highly profitable way of doing business: enterprise license agreements, maintenance contracts, and all the other trappings of big software.
2013 is perhaps the first year where Oracle will feel real pain from public cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, and Google, as well as emerging private cloud providers such as Eucalyptus and those based on OpenStack or CloudStack.
I made me think more about what happens in PLM vendors ecosystem. Traditional PLM vendors (Siemens PLM, PTC and Dassault) are selling premium lucrative enterprise oriented packages with a lot of functionality and value behind that. Autodesk is a newbie of PLM market is playing “cloud alternative game” with SaaS prices and less functionality out of the box. Aras Corp. is providing Aras Innovator using disruptive enterprise open source. I can see some similarities in the attempts of traditional PLM vendors to embrace cloud technology and delivery models. You can see how Aras position their solution as “true cloud” with all advantages of cloud and on premise software. Aras leverages Microsoft Azure platform. Navigate to this link to read more. Siemens PLM introduced TeamCenter IaaS option delivery few months ago. I wasn’t able to get information about IaaS and cloud prices for both Aras and TeamCenter. Both website provided contact option to request the price, but no price.
What is my conclusion? Cloud plays a disruptive roles these days in many markets. Enterprise software is one of them. We can see an interesting combination of vendors, IT and infrastructure providers plays. IaaS vendors will keep existing technological platforms afloat by providing a seamless cloud infrastructure environment to support existing server-client and web technologies. Oracle is a good demo how vendor can reposition and tailor technology model to new conditions. I think, we will see lots of “cloud innovation” from traditional PLM providers in a near future. For a long run, cost matters. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
