Many companies still view the cloud and also cloud PLM as an infrastructure issue that is primarily evaluated in terms of cost. In doing so, they fail to do justice to the strategic importance of the cloud in the context of IT infrastructures. The cloud offers solutions to a wide range of challenges that businesses face today. That is why it should be given adequate consideration as an option for a future-oriented PLM infrastructure when defining PLM strategy.
One of the major challenges faced is constant technological change, which puts IT organizations under considerable pressure. If smart products are to be developed efficiently, the various disciplines and domains, each with their own heterogeneous IT systems, must be better integrated in the product development process. The interaction between software, electronics and mechanical development in particular will be crucial to success. At the same time, users in the specialist departments want to be able to flexibly integrate the services that external specialists offer in the Internet. The cloud promises greater flexibility in this context.
Constant technological change means that companies are developing new business models that make additional demands on the IT. It must ensure access to the operational data of products that have been delivered and the evaluation of this data with the aid of data analytics tools, which today already run in the cloud; or provide software updates over-the-air, which are used to further develop and improve the functionality of the products. In many areas, there is therefore no way around the cloud.