Cloud PDM ban lifted. What next?

Once upon a time “cloud” was a taboo word in PLM domain. It was hard to believe manufacturing companies will share product information and manage processes using cloud tools. The situation is different today. For the last two years all major PLM vendors announced their support for cloud and developed their own cloud strategies. Some of my previous posts outlined my take on diversity of cloud PLM strategies: Autodesk enters PLM. Everything changed…; Why Siemens can develop PaaS option; Dassault is going to support all PLM cloud option by 2015+; PLM cloud switch and PTC final click. Some of CAD and PLM companies are mentioned on the top 500 cloud apps vendor list.

At the same time, one aspect of cloud and PLM was long time undeniable. It will be very hard (or even impossible) to think about using cloud system to manage CAD data. In other words, cloud PDM possibility was questionable. In the early days of On-demand (or SaaS) software, development of CAD integration between desktop CAD systems and web (on-demand) PLM tools was quite complicated. Several companies tried to do so, but results were questionable. Most of cloud collaboration and PLM tools developed for the last few years avoided management of CAD files and limited their functionality to publishing of CAD data mostly in CAD-neutral formats.

GrabCAD was first company eager to market cloud PDM solutions. GrabCAD Workbench was introduced earlier this year and focused on providing simple CAD data management solution to engineers in GrabCAD community and other companies.

You can read one of my takes on how GrabCAD wants to disrupt CAD file management few months ago.

Last week, at Autodesk PLM360 customer event in Boston, Autodesk’s Brian Roepke made an early preview of cloud (PDM) document management capabilities. Navigate to my blog from last week to learn more. Below you can see few pictures from demonstration.

By introducing PLM360 CAD data management capabilities such as versioning, relationships and embedded viewing, PLM360 is going to provide an alternative to traditional PDM systems. One of biggest challenges of the cloud is connection speed and ability to work with large files. Autodesk provided some hints on how the problem of large CAD files transfer will be solved. Trademarked as “Transfer Avoidance (TM)”, this technology will optimize data transfer between desktop and cloud servers.

For long period of time, CAD and PDM integration was a very boring place. All PDM/PLM vendors developed their versions of CAD integrations. Competition was mainly focused on how to access CAD APIs in a timely manner as well as to support right versions and features of new CAD packages. I covered challenges of CAD/PDM integrations few months ago – How to re-invent CAD/PDM integration? After long period of time, GrabCAD was a first company introduced new concept of CAD integration. In my view, PLM360 document management capabilities open a new page in CAD/PDM innovation including new technological solution to optimize data transfer.

What is my conclusion? You cannot stop innovation. It was only matter of time for CAD/PLM companies to discover how to leverage cloud to improve CAD/PDM integration. My hunch, it is just a beginning of “cloud PDM” revolution. Cloud PDM ban lifted. Both GrabCAD and Autodesk are pioneers in this domain. I have no doubt, sooner than later, we are going to see what other PLM vendors will develop. There is a certain advantages to be “first mover“. However, coming later to the game will allow to other PLM companies to learn from mistakes. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m Autodesk employee. However, the views and opinions expressed in this blog are my own only and in no way represent the views, positions or opinions – expressed or implied – of my employer.