CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
16 January 2009
CIMdata News
CIMdata Announces the Results of its Opinion Poll on the Infrastructure for PLM Environments
CIMdata’s latest poll was focused on the infrastructure companies are using to platform their PLM environments. The first question concerned the computing systems used for PLM servers. The responses indicated that Dell (30%), HP (26%) and IBM (24%) are the leading platforms with no platform dominating the market. Sun and other systems each had a 10% share. This reflects the competitive position of these systems in the marketplace. Each vendor is providing solid solutions and companies are tending to invest in platforms that are compatible with the rest of their IT environment.
Interestingly these server environments have generally been in place either 1 to 3 (39%) years or over 5 years, (27%) which reflects the refresh cycle of many companies and the fact that once some of these solutions are in-place and working, companies do not want to change them until it becomes necessary. The larger number of new installations reflects the recent growth of PLM programs within companies (both expansion and new initiatives). Most respondents indicated that replacement would occur with 1 to 3 years – again reflecting the traditional 3 year technology refresh cycle that most companies follow.
When asked why not refresh or replace, 41% of respondents indicated that their current environments are working fine and there is no driving reason to replace them. Another 22% indicated that budget restrictions are preventing or delaying replacement. These results reflect the current economic situation in which companies will not invest unless necessary to maintain effective operations. Respondents also stated that if they had budgets, they would either replace the current systems (28%) with a different platform or use the money to do other things (not update the computing environment – 30%). The other respondents indicated that adding memory, storage and CPUs (in that order) would be how they would invest in the current systems infrastructure.
NOTE: The results of these polls are anecdotal, not scientific.
If you have a suggestion for a poll you'd like to see contact us at info@cimdata.com.
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