Paul Bemis, Vice President, eBusiness, Fluent Inc.

The internet and web technologies are continuing to revolutionize the ways in which people and organizations communicate. The engineering community is now poised to take advantage of this electronic infrastructure to increase efficiencies in product development processes. Moreover, with even greater improvements on the horizon as a result of higher bandwidth networks and high performance personal computers, the potential impact on the design and development process is significant. For engineering applications, these capabilities will provide the ability to simulate more complex systems faster and more efficiently than ever before, using “pay as you go” software on thin clients that access remote “compute servers” via the LAN, a WAN (local and wide-area networks, respectively), or over the internet. Thin client systems use centralized servers that provide application software to users on a network, in contrast to fat client systems, where every desktop has a PC or workstation outfitted with individual installations of the software. An increasingly popular method for deployment of this method uses a Remote Simulation Facility (RSF) that specializes in providing this service to users through the internet.

Using the web as a delivery mechanism for engineering solutions has significant benefits for many end users. Companies can run simulations affordably, scaling the cost of performing simulations to demand, without the conventional investment required for software and hardware. A Remote Simulation Facility arrangement readily accommodates the rise and fall of computational power needs and solution time required for peak periods and lulls between jobs. Another benefit of this model is the potential to increase the rate at which users gain access to new software versions. It is not unusual for users to wait nearly one year for new versions of application software to reach their desktop systems. Using the RSF model, new versions can be deployed more quickly without adversely affecting the desktop user. Further, older versions can be kept available for users who have not yet migrated to the newer version. Administration and support of the applications is more efficient and less disruptive, due to the central nature of this model.

One of the more far-reaching benefits of a web-based RSF is that it can facilitate greater collaboration between users. This is primarily manifested through the centralized nature of the web infrastructure. Specifically, a file located on a web server appears to all users, regardless of their physical location, as the same file. This means that users will be able to interact across geographical and organizational boundaries within one company, or across the entire supply chain. An example of this type of collaboration might be between an automotive tier-one supplier and one of the big three automotive companies. The supplier will use the RSF as a mechanism to run the exact simulation sequence using Once the simulation is complete, the results and reports become available to the buyer as files on the remote facility, eliminating the need to move data from one location to another. Thus, the RSF becomes the central point for collaboration, the repository for shared files, and serves to implement best practices throughout the simulation.

Another potential area of collaboration is the Simulation Portal. Recent developments in web technologies now allow a web portal to become a location for groups of users to develop a cyber-community. For example, users interested in one particular type of simulation could create a small group that could exchange ideas via email about methods and solutions used to solve specific problems. Using the same portal, users could also create custom templates for solving application specific problem types that could be shared and distributed using access control methods.

When used in combination, a web-based Remote Simulation Facility integrated within a custom Simulation Portal opens up engineering simulation and collaboration to a much larger audience of users than ever before. The implementation of this solution is generally referred to as an Application Service Provider model. At first blush, many seasoned users often dismiss the ASP model as a throw back to the times of large shared mainframes and high costs. However, with today’s reduced computing costs, and the higher bandwidth promise of the next generation internet, a fresh look at the RSF model is well worth the time. The challenge for us all is in developing streamlined engineering processes and innovative business strategies that take best advantage of the new tools for this growing body of potential users.

FluentNEWS