Image (modified) courtesy of Beyond PLM
Today on the Beyond PLM blog, Oleg points out a number of FACTS and makes some good arguments in his post Future PLM Platforms and SAP / Oracle Technological Wars.
The problem with this analysis though is that it disregards the macro trends and looks backward to draw conclusions about the future.
It starts off on solid ground with FACTS:
All existing PDM / PLM technologies [by the major PLM marketshare leaders] were created 15-20 years ago.
Dassault Systems, PTC, Siemens PLM and the platform they use for their flagship PLM products. Enovia from Dassault technological foundation came from MatrixOne acquisition former MatrixOne/Adra development 15-20 years ago. PTC is using Windchill coming back in 1998 from CV acquisition. Siemens PLM platform – TeamCenter is also coming from acquired and transformed product lines of Metaphase and IMAN.
All the other major PLM systems on the market today were developed before the Internet was pervasive, before Internet standards were solidified and before true Internet/Cloud architectures existed.
Also noteworthy... none of the major PLM companies have ever built a full enterprise PLM platform from the ground up... they all had to acquire their flagship systems.
There are some points about Oracle as well which of course acquired Agile PLM, also architected in the late 1990’s as a hard-coded, pre-Internet system. Then, it gets to SAP and specifically SAP’s new HANA technology.
The issue is that only considering the products / technologies that are being pitched by today’s revenue / market share leaders is a seriously flawed analysis. By that logic Oracle and IBM should be the infrastructure leaders for app servers in the Cloud... but they’re not.
Check out the latest data and some interesting facts about app server infrastructure in the Cloud from a recent Infoworld post by Paul Krill, Still Don't Think Open Source Hurts Commercial Software? Guess Again
Today architecture matters… it matters more than ever… in fact, not just any architecture, but open architectures are what’s actually winning at scale, particularly in Cloud implementations (Public, Private and SaaS clouds).
There are lots of different reasons why this is the case both technological and economic (most notably licensing obstacles as John Rymer atForrester Research points out) but in the end... one thing is clear... open architecture is winning and would appear to be a necessary prerequisite for the platforms of the future.
What’s your take? Is looking in the rearview mirror the best way to predict the future? Or is there already a platform seachange underway?