The Buyer’s Guide to PLM Cloud 2015

As we are approaching the end of the year, I thought it is a good time to refresh and provide an update about PLM cloud services. PLM cloud was a topic of my ongoing research and discussions for the last few months. Cloud adoption is growing. In 2015, we have seen all major PLM providers came out to support cloud strategy and cloud technology.  But the devil is in details and not every cloud is the same, especially when it comes to PLM.

So, I came with my first version of PLM cloud service comparison back in June/2015. Here is the link to my original blog post – PLM vendors: Cloud services comparison. I reworked my original comparison based on the feedback from many people online and offline (thanks everyone who reached out to talk and commented!). I published an intermediate draft few weeks ago – How to compare PLM cloud services? I had few conversation following my previous publication, which helped me to refine some points and bring some missed information to complete the puzzle.

Today I want to come with my PLM cloud guide for 2015. It is current summary that can give you a recommendation how to set requirements for cloud PLM implementation and how to make a benchmark between different vendors. You can see comparison table below.

Few comments to the main element of comparison model.

SaaS – software provided as a service. SaaS solutions are usually represented by an application, which is running on top of multiple instances of virtual computers and using shared services. The architecture of SaaS applications is often different from applications that can be used in on-premise and hosted cloud installations.

Hosted – Hosted solutions use PLM software that is capable of running on-premise and make it available to customers from an isolated hosting environment. In other words, hosted architecture takes your PLM servers and moves them outside your company data center.

Multi-tenant – software instance is shared by all customers. Everyone is running the same version of the software. All updates and new features are delivered to all customers.

Public cloud – software can run from public cloud infrastructure (IaaS) providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Application platform and others.

Private cloud  – PLM software is deployed into isolated hosted environment – data center or specialized provided of hosted computing infrastructure.

3rd party hosting – PLM software is hosted by partner or company specialized in providing hosting services.

What is my conclusion? In my view, 2015 was a year when all PLM vendors realized that cloud is here to stay. All PLM vendors marked “cloud” in their sales cheat sheets. But the devil is in details.My hunch – we are in the early stage of cloud PLM competition. In the next year, we will see an increased demand to provide affordable PLM services tailored to the needs of customers. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg