Can CAD in the cloud help us collaborate? If the recent months have taught us anything, I think it has to be that we can\u2019t survive without communicating with others in our personal lives and our businesses. Many companies have found themselves in a situation where employees are working remotely. Working from home has become the new norm, but they still have critical deadlines to meet to deliver projects, either ones that started before the current situation or new ones that are a response to the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, a key question then becomes \u201chow can I make sure my employees have access to the tools they need?\u201d Also, for many that has led to the follow-up question, \u201cdo I need those tools to be cloud based?\u201d I thought it would be worth putting some thoughts down about this and look at some of the things you may want to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people may want you to think this is a real simple question with a simple answer of \u201cyes,\u201d but I think it is worth stepping back and asking yourself, “what am I trying to achieve? “<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most companies already have a CAD tool in place that designers are trained in and companies have best practices laid out. So, I\u2019d say the first consideration is knowing the existing tools that allow you to work from home. Being able to \u201cborrow\u201d or \u201ctake home\u201d licences from your exiting tools keeps your users working, using the approaches as they have been, creating a better option than going to a cloud-based software. Of course, the big question then is, “what about my data?” That is where I think cloud-based solutions<\/a> help, thus being able to control who can see what, sharing information and collaborating and communicating, which goes back to my opening comment \u2013 communication is key. I think cloud-based solutions can help us stay in touch and work together to get the best solutions and the best products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what about using my existing products streamed over the cloud? Of course, this approach has its merits. I don\u2019t have to worry about local installs of software and licenses, and users have access from any device. However, there are also other considerations \u2013 some are easy to fix yet costly, like graphics power on the servers. Then others may be more challenging like network bandwidth, if you live in an area with high latency. The key element is data. Having an individual user up and running is great, but projects tend to involve multiple people, and you have to communicate and collaborate to get the most benefit from leveraging the cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n