In my last post I mentioned the Q&A thread "Will CAD move to cloud" that I started in LinkedIn. It's still open and there are some great thoughts on the subject. Among other responses one particularly interesting link to an article was left by one of the commenters.
The article is about CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) and how task solving can be distributed to multiple computers. It's the same model that is used in cloud where multiple servers are fulfilling the orders from the clients. Current exception is that the the workstations are in one network but to the cloud there is only one step more.
The software mentioned in the article is HSMWorks, a Gold-certified CAM program for SolidWorks users.
HSMWorks can work in a distributed computing environment. That doesn’t mean you need a supercomputer to run the software. HSMWorks can identify and call upon the idle computing cores in your networked computers. Essentially, it assembles a virtual supercomputer from these unused cores, giving you enough horsepower and bravado to think you just might be able to machine Anaheim.
So maybe CAM will move to cloud even before CAD?
