Guide to Cloud PDM

What is cloud-based PDM?

Product Data Management (PDM) manages and controls product-related data, including design files, specifications, documentation, and other information throughout the product development lifecycle. PDM is traditionally installed and operated on local servers. But with the advancements in technology, PDM solutions are now hosted in the cloud, enabling users to easily access and manage their product data.

Cloud vs. traditional PDM

When considering a cloud or traditional on-premise PDM deployment, it is essential to assess your needs across the enterprise, from security and compliance requirements to accessibility and scalability. Traditional PDM operates on local servers and access to product data is limited to your internal network, whereas cloud-based PDM data is accessible from virtually any compatible device connected to the internet.

It's also important to factor in the resource requirements for each option. Supporting a traditional on-premises deployment requires a team to maintain the hardware and network infrastructure it is run on. Moving to the cloud enables your organization to outsource that maintenance work to the cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider and allows your IT team to focus on more strategic efforts.

For Balluff, moving from a traditional PDM solution to a cloud-based PDM solution had a significant and positive impact across their enterprise. Watch the video to hear more about how they did it. 

The different types of cloud solutions

Public cloud, private cloud, and SaaS are three distinct PDM deployment models, each offering different levels of control, scalability, and costs.

Public Cloud

Public cloud PDM solutions are hosted by third-party IaaS providers who offer their services to the general public. As a consumer of public cloud services, you share the same compute infrastructure with multiple other organizations that may have no relation to your business. This shared infrastructure makes public cloud cost-effective – however, it can create elevated risk for both data privacy and isolation.

Private Cloud

A private cloud PDM solution has a dedicated infrastructure, managed either by your organization or by a third-party IaaS provider. Private cloud PDM can offer more security than public cloud PDM, but is more difficult to scale and expand. Private cloud deployments also allow for some customization because of their dedicated infrastructure.

SaaS

SaaS PDM can use either public or private cloud infrastructure. In addition to the infrastructure services, the SaaS provider also maintains the software – hence, “software as a service”. Organizations leveraging SaaS PDM enjoy easy access to functionality, smoother/faster updates to features and security measures, seamless scalability, and predictable costs.

What are the benefits of cloud PDM?

Cloud-based solutions leave the infrastructure management to the experts, but what does that mean for your enterprise as a whole? What other benefits can you gain from a cloud-based PDM solution?

Easily accessible for collaborators

Cloud PDM enables efficient collaboration among teams and departments with real-time accessibility, secure data sharing, and version control. Multiple users can access the same data at the same time from around the world, while trusting the repository as the single source of truth.

Improved productivity

Collectively, the benefits of cloud based PDM improve productivity throughout an organization: real-time access to enterprise-wide data, facilitating collaboration, centralizing data, and so on.

Flexible cost structure

With cloud based PDM, you can potentially reduce costs by offloading infrastructure building and maintenance. The cloud model often eliminates the high upfront expenditures for infrastructure and perpetual software licenses for more predictable and manageable subscription license costs. Cloud PDM pricing also has greater flexibility by scaling usage based on shifting business demands.

More secure than other solutions

Security for cloud based PDM solutions is a shared responsibility between the provider and the user. A reputable cloud PDM provider should be implementing robust security measures to protect data.

Choosing the best cloud-based PDM software for your business

There are a lot of things to consider in selecting the right cloud based PDM solution: data security requirements, available resources, and the willingness to manage infrastructure.

SaaS solutions allow for easier access to the latest innovations and technologies in PDM. With Windchill+, PTC’s SaaS PLM solution, organizations get the benefit of implementing PDM best practices. Balluff was able to seize a competitive advantage via cloud based PDM and Windchill+ specifically.

Windchill+ offers a single source of truth because all relevant data is integrated in single a repository. This enables product visualization across the enterprise and facilitates cross-discipline collaboration. By maintaining full traceability and change history, Windchill+ fosters mature collaboration workflows and processes, which promotes cross-functional teamwork, accelerates product development cycles, and facilitates innovation through enhanced collaboration capabilities.

Windchill+ also boosts productivity through data discovery and reuse. Because it has a single unified search functionality – as well as advanced searches with nested queries – users can find the right information faster. The familiar web-style search also leads to improved information re-use so you can worker smarter, not harder.

PTC provides Windchill+ users with best-in-class security while absorbing PDM infrastructure costs and labor. Users can rest assured that their data is protected by full stack security so they can focus on winning the market.

The benefits of cloud based PDM can improve operations across your enterprise. Hear the full story of how Balluff capitalized on their PDM through Windchill+.

IDC's SaaS PLM Infobrief

Explore how SaaS can be applied to elevate PLM capabilities.

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