As you know, cloud is one of the topics that near and dear to me already long time. I’ve been covering PLM vendors and their cloud strategies for few years now. Maybe you remember my very old post from 2009 speaking about How will PLM applications change when they move to a cloud? Today it is almost history. Couple of other historical posts related to different phases of CAD and PLM cloud development – PLM Vendors, IT and Cloud strategies, PLM Cloud: Differentiations and anti-cloud rant? and Will Enterprise PLM embrace hybrid cloud?
While I was taking few days off with my family on Cape Cod, I found the following announcement made by Dassault Systems quite significant. Navigate to the following link to read more. In a nutshell, Dasasult announced new cloud portfolio of products available on premise, public cloud and private cloud. Here is my favorite passage explaining what cloud means for Dassault:
…the cloud is more than infrastructure and a delivery mechanism. The cloud is a way of working. It is where consumers voice their needs, their ideas, their feedback. It is where innovation is fostered and ideas take hold.
Dassault released the following video previewing IFWE Compass presenting the cloud portfolio in interconnected way. Take a look – the video is inspiring and provides compelling messages. I’d be very interested to see products when they will become available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7myZ4SiS_Hw
Dassault announcement made me think about PLM cloud switch. Looking on a perspective of cloud technologies and PLM trajectories for the last 4-5 years, I can confirm that PLM cloud switch actually happened. Practically all leading CAD/PLM companies confirmed in a certain way their commitment to have cloud strategy. Aras cloud, Autodesk cloud, Dassault cloud, Siemens PLM TeamCenter cloud. It would be interesting to see potential future announcement coming from PTC about their cloud strategies sooner than later.
What is my conclusion? PLM Cloud Switch happened. The devil is in details now. PLM comes to the phase when cloud/no-cloud won’t be a decision point anymore. Customers will have to explore the differentiation of cloud strategies, functions, implementations and make a decision. Functionality will be important, but implementation speed will make a difference as well. In the past, PLM implementations took long time. It was bad, but on the other side it locked down many customers from migrating to another (sometimes competitive) solution. It is interesting to see how new cloud switch strategies will make a difference now. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
