Cloud computing offers significant benefits to the development of CAE engineered products including the reduction of development timelines, improvement of product performance, and significant reductions in overall development cost. The complete benefits of cloud computing in product development environments for clients can only be realized with full participation and understanding among all stakeholders involved and careful implementation within a firms IT infrastructure. While the full benefits of cloud based product development will only be realized with a significant transition of software and databases, partial transitions in high-performance computing and linking of interdependent disciplinary software and databases can already provide significant returns in the short term.
Client first movers in cloud based product development would likely gain a significant sustainable competitive advantage over competitors in leading technology development in this area. The following enumerates potential benefits for both engineering and management from the transition to cloud based product development, along with potential risks and limitations.
Client Engineering Benefits
Reduced development timelines
- Cloud based high-performance computing provides access to a virtually unlimited amount of computing power immediately as needed, eliminating computational bottlenecks
- Dynamic scaling of computing resources provides the ability to always use appropriate compute resources for all computational workloads
- Integrating data and software across functional silos reduces the number of iterations needed to converge on a final design
Improved product performance
- Cloud based product development allows for a broad design of experiments on the same timeline as a single iteration, significantly increasing the probability of improved and optimal product design
- Linking disciplinary processes provides opportunities for improved understanding and communication across functional silos resulting better optimization of products through capturing interdependencies and tradeoffs in product design
- Shared dynamic design databases and linkages across functional software data can eliminate commonly occurring errors and wasted effort in working with non-current or incorrect data
Client Management Benefits
Cost Reductions
- Cloud based product development reduces time spent on repeated sequential iterations to achieve design convergence and allows engineers focus on higher value added activities
- Capital expenditures for grid computing can be reduced and converted to flexible hourly operating costs matching cyclical development cycles
- Pay-per-use licensing models[1] allow for more direct association between costs and actual value created by product development software
Visibility and Control
- Increased oversight, transparency, visibility, and control of the product development process through common platform usage across disciplinary teams
- Increased ability to measure progress with clear metrics and manage local and global product development teams
