The world of computing is very unpredictable these days. However, I’d like to bet and put some of my thinking towards something called “online” or “connected” technologies in 2010. As usual, I’d be watching these technologies in the prism of PLM with some flavor of going beyond PLM acronyms trying to understand how it can impact product design, development and manufacturing.
Cloud Computing. I think, since last year, we can hear word “cloud” more and more often. However, this is also time to think what practical benefit we can take out of this in 2010. When most of the customers trying to cross the “cloud” with “SaaS” and imagine how all Intellectual Property they are developing is going to Google-like space, in my view, 2010 benefits will be coming differently. Existing vendors and new companies will be discovering new ways to use cloud computing power to do calculation, rendering, analytic. Another possible alternative will be to use cloud space for collaboration, but here some security questions can be raised. We need to think about effective models to secure collaboration online for engineering. This is an open call, in my view.
Business Intelligence. More specific, in comparison to cloud computing, but very frustrating, for the moment. BI is complex and expensive. Multi-core machines, double digit GB RAMs, multi-display configurations. This is still a reality in BI world, but I think this state of mind will not fit engineering and manufacturing world. Operational BI trend is interesting, and I’d expect some development happens in this space too.
Enterprise Mashups. I’m a little optimistic with regards to mashup story this year, in comparison to the previous one. I hope you had chance to read my post “Is PLM too Complex to Mashup“, but I think demand for mashup is growing and some delivery will be possible. In my view, the opportunity will come from inside of companies as much as companies will go to private clouds and advanced web architectures. This will be the important exam for all PLM vendors, since they will be requested to share information using open API, SOA and other available infrastructure.
Social Software and Networking. This is a continuation of Enterprise 2.0 trend and an opportunity to capitalize on Facebook and Twitter maturity inside of the organization. I think, we’ll see lots of Facebook-clones for enterprise PLM and community collaborative experience will be replicated many times inside of organization. However, not all of them will be successful. The biggest problem is the question: “How many social platforms we need for enterprise?“. And, unfortunately, this question will keep enterprises busy without moving forward.
Unified Communication (UC). Mail, Phone, Laptop, iPhone, Messenger, Facebook, Twitter… Too many devices, in my view. How we can navigate between all these devices in the optimal way. I think UC, finally, will become mature and corporation will try to move forward in optimizing communication. While call designers over the wall using the phone, when you can chat in the 3DLive or similar collaborative application?
So, I will be interested to discuss with you my thoughts and have your feedback. Does it fit your organizational plans or development roadmaps? Do you see similar requests coming out of your communication with customers and partners?
Best, Oleg
I was reading on ebizQ during the weekend – Lawson Puts Full Function ERP system on Amazon Web Service Cloud. Actually, Lawson has PLM product – PLM For Apparel and Footwear.
Posted by olegshilovitsky 
