Microsoft Azure and Toyota Cloud: Should PLM Care?

April 10, 2011

I read the following Reuter article: Microsoft Toyota team team up on digital auto network. It made me think about cloud again. Time ago, I wrote about the connection between physical and virtual worlds. I can see Toyota and Microsoft are on the road to think about how to create a cloud network to support car operations. Here is an interesting quote:

Toyota is planning to set up a network based on Microsoft’s Azure "cloud computing" platform by 2015, which would allow customers across the world access to Toyota’s digital services, such as GPS, multimedia, and managing power on electric and hybrid vehicles.

What is my take? The cloud infrastructure is growing. Part of this infrastructure can be leveraged by software vendors. The ability to get an access a car’s operational parameters is a big advantage. To provide a way to optimize these parameters is a potential opportunity. Now, think about even more. The same Toyota cars used by Google for their self drive experiments. So, we have self-driving cars that can optimize their driving parameters. Dream? Think about iPhone back in 2000…

Jut my thoughts.
Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM and SharePoint Scalability

March 14, 2011

Picture-5.pngSince Microsoft first released MOSS 2007, I can see an increased amount of manufacturing companies are investigating a potential move to SharePoint. Microsoft used brilliant freemium strategy and decided to give away a basic version of SharePoint (WSS – Windows SharePoint Services) bundled to Windows Server license. It created a significant flow of SharePoint viral evaluations in companies. Because of deployment and implementation ease, many companies started to implement WSS to improve the ability to share data and streamline collaboration. Sometimes, the solution growths can be really spontaneous.

I found the link published by Paul Andrew of Microsoft, very useful to evaluate your need and check upfront if your organizational demand and scale can fit SharePoint boundaries. The following two documents Estimate Performance and Capacity Requirements for Large Scale Document Repositories and SharePoint Server 2010 capacity management: Software boundaries and limits will take you to a long journey of planning an appropriate environment for your future SharePoint implementations.

During last few years, some PLM vendors and their partners made a bet on SharePoint as a platform to mainstream PLM deployment in organizations. User experience and IT compliance are two factors that made a significant influence on vendors, partners and companies. Such products as Windchill ProductPoint or TeamCenter Community are completely relying on Office and SharePoint platform as an infrastructure.

What is my conclusion? Microsoft SharePoint is a large a complicated platform. Sometimes, I can see people having some illusions with regards how easy they can deploy SharePoint based solution for their product development needs. To check detailed SharePoint pre-requisites and make sizing of your drawings and other product-related information is obvious, but important. Just my thoughts..

Best, Oleg

2 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

CRM and PLM: Same Challenges?

February 23, 2011

A lot of things happen these days in the enterprise software market. It is interesting sometime to watch the life in PLM neighborhood. CRM is one of them. I watched a video interview with Brad Wilson, General Manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, to discuss the state of the CRM software market. This video is one of the multiple episodes published onERP and more yesterday. Watch the video and make your opinion.

Brad mentioned 4 things that that challenging Microsoft CRM these days: 1/ offering of full suite of products, 2/ flexible configuration and customization, 3/ improved user experience and 4/ product affordability. I found these top 4 things very complimentary to PLM trends. Some of them like improved user experience and product affordability are in the list of customer’s communities for years. Flexible configuration and customization is another one that on top of PLM requirements for many years.

What is my conclusion? I can see these challenges as a common problem in enterprise software. The complexity is growing and old ways to solve problems might fail. In my view, to grow the portfolio, increase flexibility and hope for affordability – it is simple doesn’t work together. Granular applications and openness are the way to produce affordable tools to solve business problems. Just my opinion…

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM, SharePoint and Future Virtualization

February 11, 2011

Today everything can be virtualized. If you think about your dedicated IT environment, proprietary or public cloud, the ability to virtualize environment can be tremendously important. In one of my previous posts about virutalization I shared my thoughts about why virutal technologies are important. I talked about data, application and platform virtualization. Navigate your browser on this link to read about PLM and Virtualization Technologies. In my earlier blog – PLM Cloud: Dedicated, Private, Public, I’m discussing what is the role of virtualization in successful cloud development.

SharePoint Virtualization

If you are thinking how to involve SharePoint into your existing or future PLM implementation, you can find the following information useful. I was looking on the SharePoint episode Setting Up a SharePoint Developer Virtual Machine and find the video, particularly interesting. The focus of the system is a development environment, but the same method can work with some changes for other users as well.  Here is an interesting quote:

The Information Worker virtual machine is a Hyper-V based VHD file that has everything you need to build SharePoint solutions already installed. The VM includes Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visual Studio 2010, Exchange 2010, and more. In fact, this is the VM that we use for all of the SharePoint and Office training and Hands-On Labs on Channel 9.

PLM and SharePoint Virtualization

It is interesting how PLM virtualization can be combined with SharePoint virtualization. PTC put a significant effort in the development of SharePoint dependent PLM product. I never heard about Windchill Product Point virtualization together with SharePoint, but it seems to me as a something that can simplify deployment for many customers.

What is my conclusion? We are going to see more examples of successful virtualization. I can see numerous companies are trying to leverage SharePoint for PLM. To make successful virtualization of these environments can be an interesting strategy to follow. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank, Microsoft | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Microsoft and Future Online PLM Platforms

February 4, 2011

Few days ago I published PLM Cloud: Dedicated, Private, Public. Following this post, I had few interesting conversations about what are possible platforms can be used to develop online cloud applications for enterprises. Few options were mentioned – Microsoft, Force.com, Google and some others. It made me think again about where is Microsoft in this “race to the cloud” game. So, I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you and ask about your opinion.

From BPOS to Office 365

Office 365 is a new name for BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite). Last October, Microsoft launched a limited Beta version online. The expectation is that Office 365 will be available in the beginning of 2011. Microsoft was saying Office 365 is a productivity suite for companies with less than 25 employees. I found the slide below is interesting to present what Microsoft is thinking about online infrastructure for productivity tools.

The actual products that comprise this offering are Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online. Microsoft is playing with features in these products. In addition, in Online CRM will be added to the Office 365 offering. Thinking about small manufacturing companies I can see them potentially starting to use Microsoft onilne service. Capabilities of SharePoint as well as other Office 365 tools can be interesting. Relying on existing install base, Microsoft can offer applications online, which will become very competitive with other platforms such as Force.com and Google.

However, the sustainability of Microsoft online business is very interesting. ZDNet reports the selection of Lee Nackman to replace retiring Corp. VP of Online Services, Dave Thompson. Microsoft online challenge is big. See Business Insider’s: “Chart of the Day: Microsoft Incinerates Another $543 Million Online.

What is my conclusion? PLM infrastructure is 10-15 years old. In my view, PLM companies will be actively looking for online platforms and infrastructure to catch up consumer oriented internet companies. Will Office 365 and Azure become a platform of choice? A good question. Salesforce.com made 3 acquisitions for the last 2 months. One of them, Manymoons, is in the space of project Management and collaboration. The introduction of database.com is another sign of growing strength of non-Microsoft’s platforms. Just my thoughts… What is your opinion?
Best, Oleg

7 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

CAD, PLM and End of Microsoft Dominance

January 25, 2011

Last week, during PLM Innovation Congress in London, I talked about future trends in PLM and engineering software. If you missed my presentation there, navigate your browser to the following link to see my presentation. One of the trends I mentioned is the end of Microsoft’s dominance.

This week, on SolidWorks World 2011, I’ve got additional confirmations about future decline in Microsoft dominance and return to multi-platform realities. I decided to pull few examples of recent news and companies announcements related to that and confirming this trend. This is, of course, not a exhaustive list of examples, and I can see many others in this space. I will continue to follow them and share with you in the future.

SolidWorks

A year ago, SolidWorks introduced the strategy of multi-platforms. The demo made last year on SolidWorks world presented some technological development that will position future SolidWorks products to be delivered not only on Wintop, but also on Mac, multiple browsers as well as mobile devices. Yesterday, on SolidWorks World 2011, new SolidWorks CEO, Bertrand Sicot, confirmed the vision by re-assuring SolidWorks availability on multiple platforms.

At the same time, Bertrand confirmed that desktop version of SolidWorks will remain available practically forever. In this context, I’d like also to quote SolidWorks co-founder, Jon Hirschtick that mentioned yesterday in one of his interviews: “The shift to Windows is nothing compared to the shift that we are going through now.”

PTC Creo

The development PTC is doing around the new Creo Applications, and platforms raised multiple questions about availability of Creo Apps for platforms different from Windows. Just to remind you, PTC started in 1980s as CAD system on Unix workstations and only later in 1990s, after huge SolidWorks success, followed Wintop strategy by introducing Pro-E on Windows platform. I found a short video. Mike Campbell of PTC is talking about availability of Creo Apps on non-Microsoft platforms.

]

According to Campbell, there are going to be specific Creo Apps that will be tailored to Mac users.

Autodesk

Autodesk historically has a record of AutoCAD availability on non Mac. However, in late 1990s and beginning of 2000s, Autodesk discontinued the product availability on Mac. Recently, Autodesk made a significant investment in the introduction of new products on Mac and iOS mobile platforms.

]

]

What is my conclusion? The development of multi-platform application is a tough work that requires additional resources of vendors. However, time is about to change and vendors are responding to the reality of the software and hardware platforms. I think, we are going to see growing appearance of CAD and PLM software on non-Microsoft platforms soon. I will be a very interesting change, in my view. Just my thoughts, of course….

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Do We Need To Coach PLM Backbone with NoSQL?

December 10, 2010

I’d like to take my Beyond PLM conversation away from social and collaboration trend. Let’s think about bits and bytes of data, delivery technology and cloud. Navigate your browser to the following link – Microsoft Coaches NoSQL Option for Azure Cloud. I found this writing interesting. Microsoft play around NoSQL indicates that SQL Server may have some visible alternatives even inside Microsoft Azure Cloud.

What does it mean in PLM? Today’s products are heavy users of SQL option. DS V6 made usage of SQL backend to drive CATIA. Few days ago, I posted about Windchill technological trajectories. CIMData is saying Windchil has 900 SQL Tables and evolving forward. Reading Deelip yesterday writing about PTC from Shanghai PTC event, I found the following statement important:

(Q) Does PTC have any plans regarding cloud computing? (A) We view cloud computing as a delivery mechanism and we will take advantage of it when it solves some real problems. An example is Windchill and it does make use of the cloud today.

Does it mean PLM SQL technologies is a step ahead of MS SQL server? I don’t think so. I can think about potential SQL problems of PLM backbones on the cloud. PLM mindshare leaders will have a good partnership agreement with Microsoft. Does it mean Microsoft Azure NoSQL stuff will be immediately available for PLM platforms? How much re-writing it will be requiring from developers of existing PLM products?

So, what is my conclusion? It seems to me PLM R&Ds are experimenting with a lot with cloud PLM these days. Next year can be a year of some big introduction in this space. The cloud infrastructure is one big question mark. Some of PLM vendors are developing new products. Some other vendors (i.e. PTC) are considering cloud as just yet another delivery option. Time will show…

Best, Oleg

3 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM+ERP: Outside of Equations?

November 23, 2010

I’ve been watching a recorded webinar with a fascinating name: PLM+ERP = Manufacturing Success. The tweet about this webinar caught my attention. Navigate your browser to the following link to get an access to the recording. You need to register. I registered my blog as a media company. In addition, I failed to run webinar videoe in both Safari and Chrome on my MacBook. FireFox was okay. Later, I’ve seen that video streaming is using SilverLight plug-ins, which made me think about Silverlight portability and future Microsoft strategy with HTML5.

PTC+Microsoft: Webinar

This webinar is organized by PTC and Microsoft and help of IBIS, Microsoft partner. You will have an intensive and deep set of information about what PTC, Microsoft Dynamics and IBIS. There is a mix of sale, marketing and user. The most valuable, in my view, is the last part where you can see a demo of scenario with involvement of both systems – Windchill and AX. I put few slides below that did catch my attention.

PLM+ERP

I remember this formula for the last 10 years. The combination of PLM and ERP systems working together was a permanent challenge for mid-size and bigger companies that were thinking about how to streamline processes in the organization. If you will follow slides and webinar video, you will see all logical steps by organizing processes and data flow between PLM and ERP systems. The complication of organizing the process is high. It would be interesting to understand the effort needed to organize such integration. This is a key question, in my view.

Wrong Equation?

The webinar and demo made me think about how to streamline processes in the organization. The traditional and very often used way to solve the PLM+ERP equation is to make data flow between systems. It requires a significant amount of work in organizing these processes. Hard-wiring of data, connecting events, sending messages, screening exchange logs. Systems are working according to its own rules. Push/Pull of data is complicated. The overall system is very sensitive to changes and requires baby-sitting. The system can function. However, significant resources need to be spent to keep it up-and-running.

What is my conclusion? One of the fundamental principles behind PLM+ERP equation is an event driven process push. Many manufacturing companies and software vendors got into this for the last 10-15 years. It was an obvious way to solve PLM+ERP equation. It makes systems dependent and costly to manage. One of the fundamental ideas that may improve it is to get out of this equation. The name of the idea is "Pull". Pull can make systems independent and much easy managed. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

2 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM and SharePoint: Business Together?

November 20, 2010

I want to learn more about Microsoft’s strategies these days. The “big PC” is preparing to become the biggest supplier of enterprise software Office boxes and Office servers. Microsoft is not exciting these days. However, they are making huge money by selling software to enterprise manufacturing. The majority of manufacturing companies are running Windows. Windows 7 release seems to me fixed Vista bugs and customer are buying Windows 7 and Office. Google might be disturbing Microsoft when they announce the next big organization migrating to Google Apps, but companies sits on Microsoft’s technologies, for the moment. SharePoint is one of the most significant elements in Microsoft’s enterprise vision. Almost two years ago, I wrote – SharePoint PLM Paradox. Today I want to revise what I wrote with new thoughts and facts.

SharePoint as a Service Vehicle

In my view, Microsoft put a lot of effort in establishing mainstream vision behind SharePoint. One of the most successful elements of this effort was what I call – “enterprise freemium model”. It was implemented by introducing WSS (Windows SharePoint Services) product. WSS license embedded into Windows Server licenses enabled Microsoft to use it as a trojan horse. It allowed to Microsoft to establish a presence in the organization. It was an easy decision for IT and department people – SharePoint is free, let’s ride these free collaboration services. However, after initial excitement, people came to the point that lots of SharePoint promises can be realized by buying SharePoint enterprise licenses and bringing consultants and service companies to the site. As I can see today, SharePoint plays a role of an excellent service vehicle for Microsoft’s enterprise strategies.

PLM and SharePoint: Flirt or Marriage?

PLM and SharePoint marriage was an interesting opportunity two years ago. Mindshare PLM companies decided to play differently with SharePoint. Siemens PLM established early relationships with SharePoint kid, even before a successful MOSS 2007 . TeamCenter community is a product UGS pushed to ride on top of SharePoint. I haven’t seen lots of excitement about TeamCenter Communities, but the product was on the market. Dassault was flirting with SharePoint very carefully by establishing a strategy – “customers first”. They tried to to have enough customer implementations before (or instead of) marriage. PTC decided to marry and established a very promising new product line – Windchill Product Point. I’ve been reading Parametric Technologies Analyst meeting highlights by Jay Vleeschhouwer. According to Jay, a ProductPoint 2.0 is one of the important elements in PTC strategy. As far as I listen to PTC execs, ProductPoint and SharePoint strategy plays a significant role in the overall PTC strategy.

Service vs. Free Products

In my view, PLM companies can take two possible decisions in their strategies related to SharePoint. One is to sell products dependent on SharePoint and generate additional service money. Will it play well together? Maybe… I don’t think SharePoint is really needed to increase PLM service revenues, but this interplay with Microsoft sales channels can be a good cooperation. Alternative option is to give away SharePoint-dependent products to establish market share. This can be an interesting and even unpredicted turn. Nowadays, “free” is considered as a future best price and it can generate a new trend.

What is my conclusion? Microsoft is selling lots of SharePoint boxes to manufacturing companies. It is interesting to see how/if PLM companies will be trying to monetize SharePoint presence in the manufacturing companies. Is there future in common PLM SharePoint strategies? This is a question I want to ask PLM companies today. There are few possible answers – (1) We can sell products and services together; (2) We can give away product “for free”, adjusted to SharePoint in order to gain a market share; (3) Nah… We can do it – this is yet another option to sell PLM portfolio. Just my thoughts… Let me know what do you think.

Best, Oleg

4 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank, Microsoft | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

Microsoft in the PLM Spotlight

November 15, 2010

Last week in Orlando, I had a chance to attend Microsoft’s presentation during DSCC2010 keynote presentation. Microsoft’s trajectory is interesting. Think about last few weeks of news – Steve Balmer sells stocks worth a billion to save on taxes, Ray Ozzie exits his CSA role at Microsoft.

Role-Based, OWPX and Cloud-y Services

The following two pictures from Microsoft presentation made me think about what will drive Microsoft strategy in the organization. Role-based? OWPX. You can see it stands for Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. These individual apps are relying on Application Integration and Communication.

The next picture adds clouds on top of 200-like enterprise architecture.

Microsoft stated during the presentation – “Microsoft- IT as a service”. What does it mean? To move OWPX to the cloud? Start owning SharePoint and other Microsoft servers and sell them as a service?

Collaboration Everywhere and Technology?

Another interesting spot in Microsoft presentation is a notion of collaboration. It states – Collaboration Everywhere. It connects all silos of PLM, ERP, SCM, CRM, MES into a single box. I have a hard time to understand what does it mean. From the technological notes on the side of the slide I can learn the following – business process integration, composite apps and integrating data with analytics. For me, it means lots of consultancy hours on top of Microsoft servers to make it work. All – data, processes, applications, etc. are different. Microsoft sells individual pieces. What is missing, in my view, on these pictures is experiences.

DS V6 Organic Architecture

I found PLM experience in Bernard Charles keynote presentation about V6. The slide about Organic architecture put all enterprise architectures in a dust. V6 Organic Architecture sells Lifelike user experience. It sounds very Apple-minded. Apple is focused on experience and cool devices. Mr. Charles was focused on explaining how DS architecture will be focused on delivery a very unique experience to customers. It can be an interesting turn.

What is my conclusion? Microsoft sells servers to the enterprise. Big servers. Lots of servers. OWPX. Is it a strategy? In my view, this is Microsoft’s enterprise lock-in. On the very bottom level, PLM functions depend on Microsoft Servers. Most of PLM boxes run on Windows machines. And it deeply connected on Office / Excel. However, future belongs to experience – the number of Apple devices on DSCC2010 was bigger than ever before.

Just my thoughts..

Best, Oleg

Leave a Comment » | Daily PLM Think Tank | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 73 other followers