THE PLM STATE

The PLM State: Ground Control -- the Pros and Cons of Moving to Software Services in the Cloud

NASACloud.jpegThrough most of the space program, much of the computing power and control has been land-based with only critical functions being handled by onboard hardware.  As computers have become more powerful, smaller, and lighter, the amount of local control has increased.  Similarly, hardware and software for businesses have traditionally been handled in-house, but in the past few years, the move toward "The Cloud" has been hyped and pushed.  An increasing amount of business activity is handled by hardware and software that is offsite and often completely under the control of a third-party vendor.  While there are many advantages to outsourcing computing needs, it often makes sense to keep some functions on-premise. This blog is a high-level discussion of the pros and cons of moving to software services in the cloud.

There are many different classes of cloud services but the main two are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where just the hardware is owned by the cloud provider, and Software as a service (SaaS), where both the hardware and software are owned by the cloud provider. SaaS can be as basic as Google Mail, Google Docs or Evernote, providing email, word processing or a note repository respectively, or as complex as Onshape, an MCAD modeler or PropelPLM, a cloud-based PLM system. 

Cost savings with SaaS can be significant in several areas:

  1. The size of an IT department can be smaller since there is less hardware and software controlled on site. There is less hardware to purchase and maintain.
  2. The cost of money is reduced since there is no capital expenditure on either hardware or software.
  3. Scalability is easier since new hardware and software licenses are not required as needs grow or shrink; user counts can be adjusted easily.
  4. Uptime is much higher since the vendor maintains redundant hardware.
  5. Disaster recovery is handled by the cloud resources, eliminating the need for local backup solutions and redundant hardware.
  6. The ability for users to work from anywhere eliminates the need to relocate and allows for remote offices.

Functionality of cloud software services has a few advantages over on-site software.  Integrations between many cloud services are built-in, allowing data to flow between applications. Collaboration is simpler with some cloud applications since the information is available from multiple sites without the need to setup VPN for users.

Cloud software offerings can be more secure. Automatic updates are performed by the provider, plugging potential security holes.  The vendor monitors for security issues and maintains security measures that might be beyond what an in-house IT department can provide.

While cloud services are enticing, there are several reasons to stay with on-premise hardware and software.

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The maturity and capability of many cloud services is not equivalent to on-prem versions. While the functionality of cloud services is increasing at a quick pace, they tend to be geared to the general case, ignoring less popular albeit important features.  The integrations between in-house applications, while not as simple as cloud options, are often more configurable and flexible.  Integrations between functional areas prevent the dreaded information silos discussed in our blog, Silos are for Farms not Companies – Enable the free flow of ideas to and from PLM.

Some security and privacy measures are difficult or impossible to attain using cloud services.  Anything that is connected to the Internet is a possible target for hacking.  Company proprietary and confidential information needs extra protection and might be more vulnerable in the cloud.  While it is being addressed by some providers, export requirements like ITAR are difficult to meet using cloud services since the location of cloud servers and nationalities of the personnel at the cloud provider are somewhat dynamic.  Information that is classified by the US Department of Defense or Department of Energy will probably never be allowed to reside on any device that is connected to the Internet.

Internet access can be the Achilles’ heel of cloud-based software services. There are many Internet links to your cloud data so provider disruptions at the national or local level will impact access to your data. It is also necessary to have a fast Internet connection (with both high speed and low latency) adding to the cost of cloud services, and giving another critical point of failure for cloud services while on-prem servers will still function with no Internet connection. Activities that generate or consume large files or large quantities of files, like simulations or CAD design, may not be workable when operating across the Internet. If you are working locally with SolidWorks or CREO, you do not want to wait to transfer files across the Internet every time you load or save to cloud PLM. But if you are working in Onshape, you can save all your work in the cloud and use our CloudState integration to PropelPLM or Agile and just save a pointer to the Onshape data.

While cloud software as a service offerings are advancing at a rapid pace, it is still important to compare all costs and functionality to those of on-prem to determine which best meets your business needs. What are your thoughts on this? Please comment below.

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