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Cloud-Based CAD, Part 2

CAD managers have no shortage of opinions about cloud computing — but what are the reasons for their skepticism?

I have to confess I was surprised by the amount of feedback and questions I received in response to the previous CAD Manager's Newsletter, which discussed CAD cloud computing. It turns out that a lot of CAD managers are trying to decide how (or if) their companies will deal with cloud computing.

In this edition of the CAD Manager's Newsletter, we'll continue analyzing how cloud computing might affect CAD users, and answer readers' questions as we go along. I'll also include some user feedback so you can see what other CAD managers think about cloud computing. Here goes.

Managers' Perspectives: The Thunderheads Roll In

To give you an idea of the breadth of comments I've received on this subject, let me share two very different reader viewpoints.

On the pessimist's side of the cloud, J. says:

"I think the idea of cloud computing sucks, big time! Of course some firms will be able to manage a decent ROI and some firms would benefit from having access to a quality render farm, but the benefit will be temporary, lasting only as long as the providers are certain that everyone is securely 'on the hook' and then prices go up, quality suffers, upgrades become self-serving, and service drops to a level that is the minimum that will keep things up and running — most of the time. I think centralization is a risky business in our current social environment and is prone to corruption and mediocrity. We are in a creative profession and we need freedom to create the next thing. Central computing services that may look good at first blush will eventually want to dictate and strangle our creativity for their own [ends]."

On the optimist's side, T.J. says:

"We recently moved our e-mail to the 'cloud' and couldn't be happier. Backups, upgrades, maintenance all taken care of by the host — all we pay is a monthly per subscriber fee that turned out to be orders of magnitude less than maintaining our own Exchange server and includes lots of 'extras' like hosted LiveMeeting and SharePoint that make the cost/benefit look even better. If I could pay for AutoCAD based on actual usage time (i.e., minutes or hours), there would be a huge potential for savings. We are currently oversubscribed in terms of number of users (due to recent downsizing) and the fact that most of my stand-alone licenses have a utilization rate less than 50% (and at 20 licenses we're not big enough to warrant network licensing)."

What is very interesting to note is that for every comment like T.J.'s that cites utilization rates, ROI, and cost metrics as the justifications for cloud computing, there are five comments along the lines of J.'s that are suspicious of the entire cloud delivery model for CAD software. The percentage of negative comments I've received tells me that CAD software companies have a long way to go before cloud computing is widely viewed as reliable and trustworthy!

Even if opinion is skewed to the negative side, are there some bright spots where cloud computing would make sense for CAD purposes?

Remote Access: Partly Cloudy

One of the recurring themes in the reader feedback was the idea of logging into remote machines from a laptop or remote office. I like to refer to remote access as a "partly cloudy" solution because users only utilize the cloud to connect their machines using vendor-provided remote access services, but keep their own machines and software.

The concept of accessing computer resources remotely is becoming more and more common. K.P. summed it up best by asking:

"With Citrix (and the like) networks, would it be possible for all of our software and data to be on our local servers [and] we would then link into [it] remotely from wherever we happen to be working at that moment of the day? Working at my desk, the conference room, the big room, my house, my customer's office, my jobsite trailer, my coffee shop, my airport, the Internet café in Rome, or [Autodesk University] 2010 all now become the same. Push keystrokes and screen shots back and forth. Not sure how that would look dragging a 3D model in Revit or Inventor around on your screen … but what if?"

I personally use an application called LogMeIn for logging into workstations remotely, and I have clients who use similar Internet-based applications such as GoToMyPC. These applications work well for my purposes, even when I'm working on a laptop in an airport lounge. They make it easy for me to compile code and even maintain machines with four different operating systems. However, running a CAD editing session on these types of applications is far from productive due to the split-second response lag that every remote application has. The other real problem with remote applications is screen resolution and color depth. What works fine for 1024x768 laptop screens doesn't work well for 1080p HD applications, in my experience.

To address performance concerns, workstation manufacturers have begun stepping in to create their own remote access applications. The best example of this technology I've worked with is Hewlett Packard's Remote Graphics Software (RGS), which provides an "almost like being there" level of performance when run over high-bandwidth corporate network or Internet connections. Of course RGS isn't free (it requires a license at the server machine), and thus becomes one more piece of software that must be managed as opposed to purely Internet-based tools (like LogMeIn) that require no local machine integration.

So it appears that a partly cloudy solution — using the cloud to connect all your machines and platforms — is at least feasible and affordable. Now let's move into where the cloud gets stormy.
 

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