Virtual Reality?

Technology moves forward at an unrelenting pace. Today cloud-based applications are becoming the norm, so what is the next step in remote hosting of applications and technology?

Well it appears that it is already here. Virtual servers are now a reality. Where it used to take weeks to build a new server system, it can now be done at the click of a button.

Want more RAM? “Click” no problem, here you go!

What does this mean for the engineering design industry?

Well it means that you can remotely host all of the RAM and processing speed you need remotely, and use a basic PC in your office. This means that you basically have an unlimited technological infrastructure on tap, which you can turn on and off as you please.

You can basically “borrow” as much memory or processing power for your engineering project as you need, allowing you to easily manipulate a large assembly or render a large assembly on a basic computing system.

You can now work anywhere in the world with very little infrastructure, just utilising the computing capacity you need, remotely.

This also means that smaller companies can now compete with the big players, as they can just increase overheads as required and then scale back when the projects have been completed.

Solidworks is one CAD supplier which has announced that they are utilizing what is referred to as “virtualized CAD systems”.

Solidworks has seen the benefit to their customers of utilizing the computing power of a remote server and channelling it to stand alone desktop PCs, increasing computing power on the fly.

The reason that all of this will benefit engineering design companies is by allowing them to spend less time waiting for renders and FEA simulations to complete, by utilizing the power of the remote CAD computing capacity.

This will allow smaller companies to save time and money which is a great benefit, no matter what the industry.