Layers of clouds for Dassault Systemes Part 1: Ray of light
February 8th, 2010
What are clouds good for? Can they repair a flat tire or drop kick an attacking ninja? Can they jump over the moon or plant apple seeds across America? Well, no, because these are all physical acts. However, cloud computing does have the potential to support just about any computer application. In the world of computers and Web 2.0, cloud computing consists of reliable services accessed through data centers and built on servers (either on-site or remote). Clouds often appear as single points of access for consumers’ computing needs for particular functions. This means that the term cloud can pretty much describe any internet interaction.
Why is Larry Ellison playing down clouds?
Larry Ellison recently tried to play down the hype about cloud computing in a rather self-serving comment.
I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion.
Of course Ellison would say something like this. Oracle’s entire technology is database server based. Though still technically a cloud, the Oracle approach requires substantial investment from customers for massive internal networks, clients and servers. So, now Ellison makes comments that appear to be nothing more than sour grapes.
More companies are now offering much more than just the software. They are offering a service that runs their software and the service of the hardware itself. Because of this, the investment required by their customer substantially drops. No more are the banks of dedicated servers or expensive client computers. No more are the service contracts with bloated and unresponsive computer companies. No more are there IT help desk requests that require staff to be tangled in a web of wire and dirt under clients’ desks. There are no more fights over who is responsible for what systems. All of these troubles get shifted to the service provider, who can specialize in such matters.
Where’s Oracle in all this? According to Ellison’s comments, it seems they want to offer more of the same old systems with all that overhead for their customers. They recently even shut down Agile’s only actual cloud service, leaving many of their customers high and dry. Perhaps their focus is not on providing any service to their customers at all? Who knows? It does appear they are too focused on an outdated delivery system for their product.
The Future is Cloud
On the other hand, leaders such as Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault Systemes, are committing to a business model that could potentially offer unlimited types of applications on cloud. Big announcements by Jeff Ray at SolidWorks World 2010 appear to be part of an enlightening initiative to show that any type of application can be cloud-run on a common backbone. If 3D CAD, PLM/PDM, simulation, and “lifelike experience” can be run on an Enovia backbone, just imagine what else may be supported. Such as, weather computer models, shopping websites, medical records, research, complex computational algorithms for cutting edge theoretical formulae for a grad’s doctorial thesis, CT Scan and MRI 3D images, military systems, unmanned vehicles, and even AI. (We can even say this future cloud is in the metaphoric sky linked up with many other clouds. Let’s call it Skynet, a la James Cameron. Ifowomols.)
Though no Enovia products are yet available from SolidWorks, there is the promise of two layers of clouds for its customers. The first layer is CAD file management (product design management). The second layer is the ability to cloud-run SolidWorks itself. I, and others, may have concerns about the form these clouds take, but they appear to be here to stay. As such, they also represent storm clouds that herald a changed game.
Categories: CAD Mngmt, Editorial, News, PDM, PLM, SWW10, SolidWorks World | Tags: Bernard Charles, cloud, cloud computing, enovia, james cameron, larry ellison, Oracle
