CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

27 January 2012

CIMdata News

The Mobility Revolution: What Does it Mean for CAE? (Poll Results)

Access to simulation information from mobile devices. There is no mistaking the consumer trend – consumers expect their mobile devices to be continuously connected to always-available information and resources in the cloud.  What does this mean for simulation (CAE)?

Many companies have security policies that prohibit access to engineering data from outside their firewall.  What are your company’s policies?

Suppose there were an app available for your smart phone that allowed you to check the status of simulations running on a high-performance cluster.  Suppose there were an app available that would allow you to check, through lightweight post-processing, whether a simulation run has been successful.

CIMdata Commentary

With the mobility revolution, consumers expect their mobile devices to be continuously connected to always-available information and resources in the cloud. What does this mean for simulation (CAE)?

The latest CIMdata poll looked at company policies regarding access to simulation data.  Three fourths of respondents said their companies allow access only from company-owned devices.  Of these, a majority do allow access from outside the firewall via VPN.  Only one in six said that they are able to access simulation data from a portable device owned by the employee, not the company.  However, one in five believes their company’s policy will soon change to allow such access.

These prevailing policies for company data access are clearly at odds with the expectations consumers have for mobile devices.  As the new, younger crop of engineers currently being educated enter companies, we expect them to place more demand on the freedom of data access to which they have become accustomed through their ubiquitous use of social media and smart phones.  Companies will need to adopt new methods and policies to assure that they can make best use of their employees and retain their services in the long term.  Of course, we do not expect this type of change to occur where data and processes are of a very highly sensitive nature.  It will also be interesting to see how these policies evolve as mobile simulation applications become available.  CIMdata previously said, “The future of mobile devices as a data delivery device in a PLM context appears to be very bright and we expect their use to increase significantly over the next three to five years.”  It is perhaps too early to form an opinion on the extent to which simulation will participate in reaping the productivity and collaboration benefits of the mobility revolution.

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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