I’m continue to explore the topic of cloud PLM options. My last blog post about it covered delivery options for cloud PLM. It raised few interesting discussions showing that vendors are closely following up any opportunity to leverage a combination of existing PLM platforms and cloud infrastructure. IaaS is a technical buzzword behind this option. It researched by many PLM vendors. I discussed one of them in my Azure Cloud Box blog post.
Today, I want to speak about another option. My attention caught Minerva blog post – Tutorial : How to start an Amazon EC2 cloud server all prepared to install Aras Innovator! It provides step by step instruction how to make your first step in cloud PLM strategy. As I mentioned many times, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is remaining one of the most widely used option to deliver IaaS strategy. If your cloud PLM vision is mostly focused on how to reduce a burden of IT and infrastructure, you may consider “Do It Yourself” cloud option by deploying your existing PLM system to Amazon based servers. The following passage below says it is sometimes tricky to install Aras, but if you will follow steps explained in this blog, in 1 hour you will have Aras running from AWS cloud.
The Aras Innovator install is still extremely simple. Of course I say that because I already tried to install other solutions and I went in some training for other solutions and it has always been a disaster to uninstall these. The first day, you spend it installing the solution, the day after you copy the virtual machine of another trainee as it failed… This doesn’t happen in an Aras training. But Aras Install can fail sometimes, it always rely on your windows server and IIS configuration. But as long as you follow the tutorial you should be just fine. In less than 1 hour you should have Aras Innovator Up&Running starting from scratch!
The idea of Aras on AWS made me think again about IaaS approach in cloud PLM. The biggest advantage – you can get rid of infrastructure and IT by moving to Amazon. Aras Innovator is an interesting option. If you opt out Aras subscription and limit yourself to Aras enterprise open source, the cost of solution will be equal to your Amazon bill. Of course, I’m not counting implementation cost and cost to handle Amazon servers. It can give you some idea about fundamentals of cloud PLM economic related to potential of infrastructure sharing and servers utilization.
What is my conclusion? In the past, I’ve been discussing “DIY PLM option” by combining Excel spreadsheets, email and multiplying it by some database development skills. That was DIY PLM circa 1995. These days, cloud PLM also has its DIY option – to reuse existing PLM software from IaaS based cloud servers. This is a very real option you can explore to learn about benefits and pitfalls of cloud PLM. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
