All PLM vendors can delivery some sort of cloud solutions today. You can see my recent update to PLM cloud service comparison here. You can see solutions are simply divided between SaaS services and Hosted products.
Hosted solution are dominant since majority of vendors are simply upgrading and adjusting existing platforms to run in the virtual environment like AWS EC2, Microsoft Azure or using private hosting service providers. It seems to me a favorable competitive position for established PLM platforms. Majority of existing PLM customers are large companies and my hunch that IT departments are feeling comfortable with “hosting” message. It is cloud buzzword compliant and provide some sense of safety at the same time.
PLM SaaS vendors are talking about “true cloud”, but essentially it comes down to supported functionality and cost. CAD integration story is creating an additional mess for “true cloud” PLM SaaS companies. The cloud PDM story is not complete for PLM SaaS to compete with integration provided by hosted platforms.
So, what can change a status in this competitive standing between PLM SaaS and hosted PLM? Is there something that can bridge two options? My attention was caught by Oracle announcement – Oracle Private cloud machine for PaaS and IaaS.
Enterprises looking to combine the agility of the public cloud and the control of their data centers finally have a solution—Oracle Private Cloud Machine for PaaS and IaaS. The best of both worlds is coming soon to a data center near you.
To address this dilemma, Oracle CTO and Executive Chairman Larry Ellison announced the Oracle Private Cloud Machine for PaaS and IaaS at OpenWorld 2015. This new platform allows enterprises to combine the cloud benefits of agility, simplicity, and low operational cost with the control and security of running applications within their own data centers. Oracle Private Cloud Machine for PaaS and IaaS will be an on-premises Oracle Cloud Platform running the exact same software and hardware as Oracle Cloud and will offer 100 percent compatibility with Oracle Cloud. Using a platform deployed at the customer’s data center, Oracle Private Cloud Machine for PaaS and IaaS will deliver the identical PaaS and IaaS software used on the Oracle Cloud, enabling customers to address their specific business or regulatory requirements, data control, and data location requirements.
The following video shows Oracle’s Larry Ellison speaking on the stage of OpenWorld 2015 conference.
It made me think that OPCM for PaaS and IaaS (such a crazy name) can be an option as a path PLM vendors to combine both “hosting” and SaaS world. It is a pure speculation, but imagine SaaS vendors taking their “only SaaS” available environment deployed to private cloud environment. It can open a new competitive niche for them. At the same time, traditional PLM solutions (Enovia, Teamcenter, Windchill and Aras) can think about future SaaSification of their solutions and taking advantage of public cloud. The last is questionable – none of these solutions are multi-tenant for my best knowledge.
What is my conclusion? Oracle is trying to merge two words – SaaS and Hosted environment by providing infrastructure to deliver identical solutions using both public and private cloud. It is probably a good news for SaaS vendors, since it can provide a potential path to deliver existing PLM SaaS solutions to large manufacturing companies. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
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