PLM Cloud SAAS Solutions

The most important points at a glance

• Why Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) PLM in the Cloud?
• Benefits of Cloud PLM
• Cloud models and migration

Cloud projects that can be implemented cyber-securely at high speed are real triggers for managers. In the study Cloud Computing Comes of Age, the Havard Business Review reports on a marketing director of a large credit card company who felt like a kid in a candy store when he learned that his desired cloud application was up and running within five weeks. This is because the IT department originally estimated 18 months.

Do you belong to the manufacturing middle class and would like to implement your innovations faster and in a more customer-oriented way in the future?

Then you should also think about moving at least your product life cycle management to the cloud as SaaS-PLM. This would allow you to set up such a flexible, easily scalable PLM infrastructure that you could never achieve with a local, comparatively rigid IT landscape.

A cloud-based PLM makes it easier for you to obtain feedback from your customers on the further development of your solutions and services in short cycles, for example. This way you can always be sure that you are moving in the right direction with your idea and save yourself the much more complex acceptance test after the market launch.

Also or especially for medium-sized manufacturing companies and engineering service providers, SaaS-PLM solutions are developing into an attractive alternative to on-premise PLM. Because even during the product development phase, the cloud-based software promotes the synergies of varied expertise and different perspectives and experiences - internally across departments as well as externally with customers and technology partners. The numerous added values of cloud PLM include:

• Product data available 24/7
  Your developers, support and service technicians and your commercial teams have access to all product information around the clock, company-wide and regardless of location. It doesn't matter whether you work in the office, in a home office or at the customer's site. The security of your data is also taken care of. Through protective mechanisms such as user rights, multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), etc.
• Compatible for every end device
  Executed as managed services, cloud-based PLM accepts every networked end device such as desktop computers, notebooks, tablets or smartphones.
• Protected data centres
  Hosting providers protect their data centers at selected locations with a modern mix of technologies and best practices and guarantee the high availability of your systems and data. This also applies to bring-your-own-license (BYOL) models.
• Fast deployment and commissioning.
  Instead of licensing and software installation, you simply log into the web portal of your cloud PLM provider to start operations. The PLM integration of systems and applications such as ERP, simulation data management and CAD systems hardly differ from those of on-premise installations.
• Reduced costs through Pay-Per-Use models.
  Pay Per Use means that you only pay for the service you use. This makes your PLM system flexible and easily scalable. New employees, for example, simply register via the PLM cloud service provider's web portal in order to use the system immediately. And the expansion of the PLM solution, such as adding a further CAD integration or a new function, is as easy as with a local PLM installation.
• PLM Cloud Solutions without hardware investment and software maintenance.
  In addition to the elimination of the purchase of hardware and software licenses, the IT team is also relieved of their work. There is no need to set up a dedicated PLM infrastructure or maintain the PLM software. Your SaaS PLM provider will do this automatically as part of your Service Level Agreement (SLA), regardless of how many updates are due.
• Secure, dedicated areas as exchange platforms
  In the cloud can easily be set up for exchange with third parties. Access rights authenticate and authorize users and their functions permanently or for defined time windows.

Your path to the PLM cloud is as individual as your company goals. In particular, the cloud hosting and structure play a decisive role. Would you like your own cloud, the private cloud of a service provider, the public cloud of a hypescaler, a cloud mix or a hybrid environment?

As with a system change, for example from server-based product data management to a PLM system or from an obsolete PLM system to a new one, the PLM transition to the cloud also goes through various project phases. These include: planning and conception, cloud management and operation as well as the actual migration. This transition should therefore be seen as a separate project that needs to be planned in at an early stage. It requires well-founded methodological expertise and proven tools. A proof of concept (PoC) underpins the expected migration success in advance. This means:

1. You can use your migrated data immediately in the cloud
2. The history of the database is retained
3. You can integrate all data into the cloud applications.

For example, a cloud-based PLM makes it easier for you to obtain feedback from your customers on the further development of your solutions and services in short cycles. This way you can always be sure that you are moving in the right direction with you idea and save yourself the much more complex acceptance test after the market launch.