The importance of cloud-based computing for the digital enterprise. See how Siemens and AWS are making it work.

By Scott Salzwedel

As our customers around the world begin their digital transformation, they quickly realize the role of cloud-based computing.

It’s becoming more apparent by the day. You can’t have a successful digital transformation without certain aspects of your operation moving to the cloud. The cloud brings unlimited compute power to an individual’s desktop. It also plays a key role in addressing IT/OT convergence. When organizations combine informational technology with operational technology via the cloud, they are able to increase transparency and transform data across domains, benefiting individual workers as well as cross-functional departments.

Further, cloud computing saves organizations from having to invest in physical IT assets, where costs can easily spiral out of control – especially in today’s competitive marketplace.

Working in a more complex world

While cloud-based computing makes a huge difference in IT/OT operations, it also plays a pivotal role in addressing complexity and getting things done. Whether it’s the product lifecycle (design, test and build), instituting industry-wide methodologies or introducing organizational change.

For reasons like these, organizations are increasingly turning to Software as a Service (SaaS). The use of SaaS has grown over the years and will continue to gain momentum as more companies transform to digitalized enterprises in order to modernize operations, compete in the global marketplace or increase both product and manufacturing quality. Just a few of the many advantages.

And while we talk about how the digital transformation benefits product design and manufacturing and how processes become more connected, we rarely discuss how cloud-based solutions can impact the entire organization. Specifically, how moving to the cloud can improve all aspects of operational efficiency.

Business leaders are waking up to a new reality

In a business survey* conducted in the spring of 2022, moving to the cloud was the clear choice among industrial organizations worldwide. The survey found that of the 2,221 respondents, 97 percent said that “cloud migration and adoption is a top or emerging priority for their organization.”

The respondents mentioned the following primary reasons for adoption:

Complete connectivity of data and applications
Speed and ease of access for remote workers
Reduction in operating costs
The need to modernize legacy IT systems

Of course, security/cybersecurity issues are a major concern. To ask an organization’s IT department to employ the latest, most effective means to fight cyber-attacks presents all kinds of logistical and financial nightmares. With cloud-based computing, an army of cybersecurity specialists do nothing but manage and protect data 24/7.

Introducing the Siemens and Amazon Web Services (AWS) strategic partnership

The newly expanded collaboration between the global leader in industrial software, Siemens Digital Industries Software, and the leading cloud service provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS) takes cloud-based computing to a whole new level.

The strategic partnership between Siemens and AWS brings exclusive products and services to the table and removes the barriers to becoming a digital enterprise. Our partnership helps established, multi-national organizations as well as small, nimble start-ups address challenges head-on. Issues such as software accessibility, data security, scalability, time to value, as well as the many cultural challenges that might accompany an organization in transition.

What makes this partnership unique?

It’s worth noting that Siemens and AWS have been working together on cloud-based solutions for nearly ten years. We have proven experience building highly useful and practical cloud-based enterprise solutions. In upcoming blogs we plan to highlight many of these breakthroughs.

Also, keep in mind with the IT expertise of AWS, customers get proven, serverless cloud computing. AWS has pioneered new ground in AI and machine learning which certainly comes in handy in our 5G, Industry 4.0 world. And with Siemens, our deep expertise in OT means customers gain access to a proven, end-to-end PLM solution with a low-code app development environment. Siemens also leads the way with our comprehensive digital twin combining the real and digital worlds.

And remember, Siemens is more than an industrial software provider, we are a manufacturer deep in the trenches so we bring valuable first-hand experience to a variety of domains.

The Siemens cloud-based digital transformation uses multiple resources and creates a more sustainable outcome in the process. At the core is our **comprehensive digital twin**, which combines the real and the digital worlds, making it possible to seamlessly integrate the entire value chain from design to realization, via a continuous flow of data. A comprehensive digital twin integrates the entire product lifecycle – and if required – the entire production (factory/plant) lifecycle.

Bringing you Siemens Xcelerator as a Service

If the combined expertise of Siemens and AWS isn’t enough to get you excited, we now offer SaaS solutions within our well-known Siemens Xcelerator platform.

Quite simply, Siemens Xcelerator – our open digital business platform – brings Siemens SaaS solutions to AWS Cloud. Siemens SaaS delivers unprecedented accessibility, flexibility and scalability and supports companies of all sizes that want to become digital enterprises. With so many SaaS offerings, Siemens and AWS democratize the move to the cloud. We enable industrial organizations to achieve their digital transformation using their own legacy software, as well as the many solutions and services available within our Siemens Xcelerator digital business platform.

The power to create without limits

So what does all this mean? With the Siemens and AWS partnership, organizations are able to jumpstart their digital transformation in the cloud. As organizations become digital enterprises, employees across the company are free to explore “what if” scenarios and test the limits of their imaginations. Suddenly, an organization is more agile, more flexible than ever.

Think of how this might empower designers? Engineers? The thought leaders? Those working on the factory floor? A cloud-based digital enterprise gives teams a platform where they can easily build, test and deploy with more computational power at the ready. Valuable data is shared, stored and applied to real-world problems. Collaboration is boundless with endless possibilities. Employees have the time, the tools and the confidence to innovate and stay competitive.

The bottom line: Employees quickly discover with Siemens and AWS behind them, they can create without limits.

For a deeper discussion on the advantages of the Siemens and AWS partnership, please download our Siemens and AWS collaboration white paper.

You can also visit our website for additional information.

*Source: Siemens and AWS Benchmark Collaboration study, conducted Channel Media & Market Research, March – April 2022.