What will Happen and When.
by Richard Williams aka Corporal Willy, Jan, 7th 2011
By now I suppose the news has gotten around to the world and it probably was a big shock to many of us. Yes, SolidWorks has a new CEO from France. The man's name is Bertrand Sicotand and he has been working with the SolidWorks Company and crew for many years already. Our former CEO Jeff Ray, goes to France and will become embedded into the Dassault Systemes Headquarters there. Wow, as if that were not enough of a bang we also got the news from Mr. Ray, that they will be "killing off SolidWorks." When I read that news I nearly died inside. I spent a lot of valuable time away from things I was supposed to be doing to read every blog report, interview and newsletter I could find about this topic. I was really mixed up inside. Lost would describe it pretty good.
After having some time to think about things I was able to scoop up what was left of my brains on the floor. I was still up in the air about this "Cloud Computing" thingy and the "killing off of SolidWorks" as a way to serve it's user base. It seems like only a year or so ago I was asking more informed people than myself what the hell is this "Cloud Computing" idea. After having it explained to me I was still scratching my bald head and I had more questions than answers. What will this mean to all of us? How will it affect us? How do we teach it in schools? What are we buying when we purchase a license and will it be a virtual one or a real one? How do we connect to something so mysterious and where? Question after question has come to me without any answers. Then I really started to think about these things. A change is going to occur. I was born way before TV's for the public came out so I have seen lots of changes.
Given enough time to study the news and knowing what little I do about technical issues I began to make some sense out of this. Change must happen at regular intervals as it does with most things. I'm a dinosaur and I do resist changes naturally at this age. However, we all know what happened to the dinosaurs. I have a partial listing here of ideas that I got from all the news I read yesterday.
1. Killing off of SolidWorks was perhaps the wrong terminology by Mr. Ray but it definitely was an attention getter. I would have referred to it as a metamorphosis from an already pretty caterpillar into a really BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY.
2. Using web based servers that allow SolidWorks users to continue to use their favorite MCAD program has many good points.
A. It will be cheaper to buy a license according to Mr. Ray.
B. Users won't need a very powerful workstation to do their magic while using SolidWorks.
C. Schools that I work with will be able to reach these servers without having those powerful computers to run the program locally or on board. It has been cost prohibitive for many schools.
D. For businesses they will only have to purchase a commercial license for what they need to have without all the other things added to it that you might not need at the time. This translates into even more savings for a young company starting out because they don'thave to buy those expensive workstations either to handle things. Everything is done by the web servers. That includes all those heavy calculations in FEA or CFD analysis or animations you do. It will come as part of the service included in your specific license agreement.
E. If you have a MAC, Windows, Linux, Red Hat or whatever, it won't matter because as long as you are able to access the web servers you will be able to use SolidWorks. Pretty cool, I think but now with your I-Pad. That opens up a much larger possible user base for the company. They won't need to provide future code that will run on other Operating Systems. Good points both ways.
3. The jury is still out as to whether SolidWorks will finally get compatibility with its Catia big brother which would make many industry people and MCAD users ecstatic. I suppose the SolidWorks internal code would have to be changed to accomplish that and we won't know for sure about that at this time.
How Will This All be Accomplished
In my way of thinking there will be large web based server stations positioned strategically around the world to serve the users of the program. They would be very much like Telephone Switching Stations and maybe Dassault Systemes got the idea from them. All these stations would be looped and cross connected together so if one part of the country is knocked out due to a storm or something else, you have a circular loop to access it from the other direction, providing if electrical power is available of course. Even if they were not going to do this Cloud Computing thingy, you would still need electric power to run your computers. In the electrical industry we used to call such a system a looped radial system, like the spokes on a tire rim. That would virtually insure a continuity of service. At least that is the way I would set it up, but I am not an engineer and not on their planning commission or think tank. I just love the program and promote it in our schools.
This much is for sure. It is a bold step to take and if they pull it off correctly without too many problems, then the rest of the industry is sure to follow right behind them. Two of the best things about it that I can see so far, is that it won’t matter what Operating System you use to access their powerful web based servers and I can get it into a lot more schools without having those more powerful PC based computers. So anyone with a decent computer will be able to use SolidWorks. So there really are some great points in this plan as well.
Now a word about the name SolidWorks. With all my reading yesterday it is not a well defined goal as to their plans to change the brand name SolidWorks. There was some talk about it evolving into a V6; a correlation I suppose to Catia it's big adopted brother. Well old dinosaurs like me don't want to see too much change at once but if this does happen it will be many years down the road. All in all I would have to say that the Dassualt Systemes Company knows what they are doing and although I don't like major changes to occur in my life, I believe this will provide a system that will accomodate many more users, especially our school children and hard pressed school districts. So now I'm getting a little more excited about this news. Yup, I just bought myself a heavy duty workstation to handle all the jobs I ask SolidWorks to do for me when I teach it and use it for school science projects. Have a little faith my friends. I think it is going to become that Beautiful Butterfly from an already Pretty Caterpillar.