PLM and Cloud Computing

There is a lot of buzz around cloud computing today. If you don’t know much about cloud computing, the simplest description is to think about a bank of remote computers whose resources you can harness on an as-needed basis.

This trend of Cloud is increasing around all industry sectors and PLM is not an exception. Dassault recently announced about availability of V6 Platform on AWS (Amazon Web Services). Aras announced about availability of Aras Innovator on Amazon. Autodesk also aims for cloud with multiple projects like AutoCAD WS.
Dassault Systèmes announced a cloud-based partnership with Amazon.com’s Web Services arm that will enable clients to use its 3D design and manufacturing software remotely over the cloud. PLM and 3D software is traditionally memory-intensive, but by partnering with Amazon Web Services, DS will be able to offer clients a preconfigured environment to remotely run 3D and PLM software without having to buy expensive hardware.
Dassault Systèmes is leveraging multiple AWS services to power Version 6 platform, providing the following resources:
High performance and highly available compute resources: Dassault Systèmes is utilizing the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to provide discrete compute environments for each customer.
Geographic reach: Dassault Systèmes leverages the AWS global footprint to provide the best experience for their customers, regardless of their physical location. By leveraging AWS’ Regions, Dassault Systèmes can ensure that data required to stay within a geographic boundary remains so.
Storage of easy-to-access design content: Using Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Dassault Systèmes can store volumes of design data without having to support an extensive array of legacy platforms. The combination of Amazon EBS and Amazon S3 allows customers to have immediate access to large storage volumes, coupled with the resiliency native to Amazon S3 for back-up purposes.

DS also announced its new 3DStore online (http://swym.3ds.com/#3DStore). The 3DStore will premier several cloud-based 3D and PLM business services:
1. 3DSWYM, DS’ new social innovation solution
2. n!fuze – for SolidWorks customers- and n!volve -for CATIA Version 6 customers- both taking advantage of award winning ENOVIA Version 6 technology
3. Access to 3DS products including 3DVIA and Draftsight
4. Access to experiences and applications from partners and customers.

Challenges in PLM implementation on Cloud: The following picture is taken from this blog: Amazon S3 – more than 449 Billion Objects.
These are the number of objects stored on Amazon S3 infrastructure. Looks Impressive. It can manage upto 2,90,000+ requests per second.
But what if the information from a typical PLM/Manufacturing company is put on Cloud?
The following information is taken from this blog:http://plmtwine.com/2011/07/25/cloud-plm-and-amazon-s3-scale/

Let’s talk about Boeing 747-400. If you exclude fasteners, Boeing 747-400 has about 3 million parts. For the whole history, Boeing delivered 694 of Boeing 747-400 jets. Now, let’s make calculations. There are only 650million S3 objects for each manufactured Boeing 747-400. Now imagine that 100 companies like Boeing have adopted cloud. Think about the amount of data. The cloud should include all part and manufacturing info, documents, drawings, revisions, etc. Is it really possible to map all this information on Amazon or any other cloud infrastructure? Not sure.
Now, just imagine that the cloud system goes down because of some apparent reasons. And also imagine the business impact on hundreds of companies who are accessing the cloud. Sounds scary. (Rather Amazon Web Services went down for few hours on 21st April 2011)

Security of Data :There is a lot of discussion by PLM vendors regarding cloud computing and the possibilities for SaaS (Software as a Service) via the cloud. And there has been almost immediate, response from users regarding concerns of security and privacy. The typical reaction is like, “PLM data is my company’s secret material – I would never store intellectual property on the cloud.” Or even if I use cloud computing, what is the guarantee that my data is secured against all interferences.
Bottom line: There is no doubt about ability of Cloud computing to satisfy the requirement of all enterprise sectors because of the way in which cloud technology is evolving. Also the cloud providers like Google, AWS, etc are very serious as well as optimistic about the cloud future. The companies are also very keen about adopting this trend, because of its cost effectiveness, easy scalability and virtualization . But the companies are also very skeptical about how cloud will map the complex data from PLM (Like, parts, specifications, drawings, revisions, etc) on its infrastructure. Second thing they are concerned about are the extent of security, reliability the cloud will provide, especially in a multitenant application.

It will be too early to come to any conclusion regarding the future of cloud computing in PLM industry. Probably the things will get much clearer over next couple of years, as the cloud technology matures.

Just my views.