Autodesk Not Moving to the Cloud As Quickly As Carl Bass said earlier this year.

[Jeff Mottle]

I thought this was a pretty hard to believe and it seems it was. For those of you who followed the news earlier this year will have noted that Carl Bass (Autodesk CEO) made the comment to TechCrunch: "I'd say two to three years from now, every one of our products will be used online. The only way to use them will be online."

 

In an interview by Ralph Grabowski (upFront.eZine) with Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk senior vp of industry strategy and marketing, and Clay Helm, public relations manager for manufacturing, cross-platform, sustainability, and consumers at Autodesk. the following was said:

 

Q&A

Q: In his interview with TechCruch, your ceo Carl Bass said in effect, Everything is moving to the cloud.

A: "Everything moving to the cloud" is completely inaccurate. Desktop apps are being complimented; we are adding to what customers are doing today.

Q: Why did he say that, if it is not what Autodesk is planning?

A: I cannot say why Carl Bass said that. The cloud is really important to us, but it is not the whole story.

 

Q: Why did Autodesk wait seven months before reacting to the statement by Mr Bass?

A: I don't know.

 

 

You can read the full interview here: http://www.upfrontezine.com/current.htm

[Nils Norgren]

IMO, many of the big "sea-change" statements made by software vendors can be discounted by a wide margin, they know what is possible, and what new customers (might) want, but historically are bad at gauging the ability of the entrenched user to switch gears and throw out the old. Just like "3d on the web", "GPU rendering", "unbaised rendering", "Everything on the cloud" is a great idea, and will eventually happen, but it will take much longer than 3 years.

 

In autodesk's defense, Andrew Anagnost stated that the move will include moving from desktops to servers inside companies, so there could be a case made that the definition of "Cloud" being used is a wide one, and includes "Private clouds" (inside corporate computer networks). We currently run a VM cluster in our server room, if you include setups like this, the "Cloud" becomes much wider/more common.

 

The only disruptive technology that can change landscape that quickly is a brand new one (usually a consumer product not a professional one), like the iPad.

 

Just an opinion,

 

-Nils

[eagle_ear]

The only disruptive technology that can change landscape that quickly is a brand new one (usually a consumer product not a professional one), like the iPad.

 

Just an opinion,

 

-Nils

 

What when the ipad and cintiq technology merge into one portable 'drafting table'?!

Suppose we'll all be retired by then...

[Scott Schroeder]

As long as the cloud is inside your own company, I guess it's decent. My only fear is things that are outside of your control. A close friend of mine was without work for almost a full week when their cloud went down in New Jersey due to Hurricane Sandy. They work nowhere near New Jersey, but their company's main HQ is there and that's where the corporate cloud was. Because they couldn't even get to their software, let alone their files, they were told not to work for a week and oh by the way, everything is still due so we'll be expecting some major overtime.

 

Call me an old crank, but nothing beats having local files and local software. The cloud is great for sharing and storing long term backups, but I still don't have faith in it to store mission critical files and software just yet.

[Nic H]

never trust autodesk

[Jeff Mottle]

Not sure I would go that far, but it's a big ship and sometimes it's hard to steer. I guess I am fortunate to have a lot of internal contacts at Autodesk and sometimes get to see product roadmaps going out 5 years, but I think many perceive Autodesk to be this giant faceless monster that never listens to their customers. That really could not be further from the truth. The people behind the scenes at Autodesk often came from production and always have the customer at the forefront of their mind. I think it's hard to make that association sometimes when the majority of people don't get to interface directly with the people who work on their software and becuase it is such a big company.

 

I can tell you that they do work pretty hard to meet the needs of the customer, but the reality is when you are a company this big with as many customers as they service, you're never going to please everyone. You also generally only see the negative comments online as it's usually only the disgruntled that post. The majority don't come online to praise them. Not saying they are perfect, far from it, but I do think they get a pretty bad rap sometimes. I guess because some of the people who work there are personal friends I look at it from a different perspective. After that last round of layoffs the max team was made pretty thin, though they have never been as big as many might think. In any of the focus groups I've been privy too, generally there seems to be a pretty good attitude towards the progress that is made. I have however often wondered if the people in those groups represent enough of the interests of the masses.

 

Anyway, just wanted to say, they are not all bad. At least from my perspective.

[Nils Norgren]

Not sure I would go that far, but it's a big ship and sometimes it's hard to steer. I guess I am fortunate to have a lot of internal contacts at Autodesk and sometimes get to see product roadmaps going out 5 years, but I think many perceive Autodesk to be this giant faceless monster that never listens to their customers. That really could not be further from the truth. The people behind the scenes at Autodesk often came from production and always have the customer at the forefront of their mind. I think it's hard to make that association sometimes when the majority of people don't get to interface directly with the people who work on their software and becuase it is such a big company.

 

I can tell you that they do work pretty hard to meet the needs of the customer, but the reality is when you are a company this big with as many customers as they service, you're never going to please everyone. You also generally only see the negative comments online as it's usually only the disgruntled that post. The majority don't come online to praise them. Not saying they are perfect, far from it, but I do think they get a pretty bad rap sometimes. I guess because some of the people who work there are personal friends I look at it from a different perspective. After that last round of layoffs the max team was made pretty thin, though they have never been as big as many might think. In any of the focus groups I've been privy too, generally there seems to be a pretty good attitude towards the progress that is made. I have however often wondered if the people in those groups represent enough of the interests of the masses.

 

Anyway, just wanted to say, they are not all bad. At least from my perspective.

 

Just saw this post from Jeff, I would like to second this sentiment. He is exactly right, everyone I know at Autodesk are great people who want to help customers and seem to enjoy the work and the company. I think that anytime there is a company of that size it is easy to think of it as a faceless behemoth, but when you get to know the people a much different story emerges.

 

One thing that I think works against autodesk is the VAR model, when consumers get their support through the resellers, they don't often get a view inside the company, the VARs are also good people, it just re-enforces the faceless nature from people's opinion.

 

my 2¢

 

-Nils

[Ernest Burden III]

Call me an old crank

 

You are an old crank. There.

 

A few months ago AutoDesk sent out a long long survey about whether we would like subscription-based software (I use the Adobe Creative Cloud program and love it) and if so what would we pay for this combo and that combo and it went on and on. Maybe that's the sort of 'cloud' they were talking about. With Adobe, I still download the full apps (Master Suite), they just bill me monthly instead of a one-time upgrade.

[Mario De Achadinha]

Simple Question... Does Carl Bass Understand what a cloud is and the products his company has under their umbrella? I don't think so, he is a number cruncher who needs to make his share holders happy, at the expense of the users. That's why I had huge respect for Steve Jobs, he understood his products (company) and had a vision with direction. Autodesk are like a retail store looking to grab a bunch of high end products place them bunched up on a promotion table hoping people will buy them at the door, if not just discontinue them!

[Nils Norgren]

Simple Question... Does Carl Bass Understand what a cloud is and the products his company has under their umbrella? I don't think so, he is a number cruncher who needs to make his share holders happy, at the expense of the users. That's why I had huge respect for Steve Jobs, he understood his products (company) and had a vision with direction. Autodesk are like a retail store looking to grab a bunch of high end products place them bunched up on a promotion table hoping people will buy them at the door, if not just discontinue them!

 

I don't know Carl personally, I have seen him speak, he is a sharp guy, his degree is in Mathematics, and he is also a sculptor and furniture maker, with a workshop for wood, stone and metal in his house. He is familiar with the products and the technology, having started a few 3d companies, before and between time at Autodesk.

 

Jeff has met him, or at least seen him speak in smaller settings than I have. As I said previously I suspect that other then some nebulous definitions of what constitutes the "cloud", Carl know what he is describing. One thing he is not, is a CEO with a sales or bean-counting pedigree.

 

-N

[Nic H]

That was somewhat of a throw away comment to be honest, I didn't mean to raise any ire as I understand some of you are privvy to autodesk developments and friends with the people who work there.

 

I suppose what I was getting at is the move towards forced subscription based updates and needless tinkering without actually adding anything new (or useful) to the software is irritating and transparently geared towards profit rather than innovation.

 

Perhaps this is more true when working in the very small niche of architectural vis as most of the 'new features' have no application in what we do. The best innovation in the last few years for me has been the 2012 viewport acceleration (and vray but thats an example of an amazingly responsive and nimble developer)

 

Why would I want to upgrade software yearly if there are no new features? You end up getting penalised for wanting to stay with a product that works. We jumped from 2009 to 2012 and had no need to update and waste time on the frankly half baked and unstable 2010 and 2011 releases - despite the horrendous marketing tripe and denials emanating from autodesk as they rush out 'hotfixes'

 

I understand it becomes difficult to manoeuvre such a large corporate entity deftly but I do expect more of a product if you are made to purchase it every year.

Edited November 28, 2012 by nicnic

[emmerichchristiansen]

I would say that I agree with both views, i.e. cloud computing still being a challenge, so mission critical solutions may want to stay local. However, times will see things changing. Changing rapidly. In the business world you can see SAP and ORACLE moving business critical apps to the cloud, and I expect resilience to be much less an issue than still today. Critical success fators will be high availability, availability of information anywhere, information on new devices like iPAD etc, and not atleast lower investment and operating cost.

[Justin Hunt]

They are still pushing the cloud but alot more subtly, by getting "users" to say they couldn't get the job done without the cloud when they do testimonial presentations. This way people start to think that the cloud is essential and buy into it.

 

Jhv

[Brian Cassil]

I also kind of wondered if Mr. Bass really understood what he was saying when he made that statement. There doesn't seem to be any logic behind him saying it and that would lead me to believe he didn't really get what he was saying. I half expected him to say something about it at AU this year.

 

Off topic: was anyone else dissapointed with the keynote?

[Jeff Mottle]

I also kind of wondered if Mr. Bass really understood what he was saying when he made that statement. There doesn't seem to be any logic behind him saying it and that would lead me to believe he didn't really get what he was saying. I half expected him to say something about it at AU this year.

 

Off topic: was anyone else dissapointed with the keynote?

 

I am pretty sure he did understand exactly what he was saying as he said it again more or less in the Press Q&A I attended this year. He's always pretty candid and I usually get the sense he says things the rest of the executive would rather he not. I've also got the sense from the last few years of listening to his Q&A's that he's an incredibly smart guy who does not just say things without having really thought about it. That having been said he did also say he does not see the desktop application going away anytime soon. I'm doing a write up on AU and the industry in general over the next week and I'm going to include an interesting graph I found from Gartner. The 2012 Hype Cycle which plots emerging technologies along the "hype" lifecycle on the way to a mature product. Right now cloud is more or less at the peak of the hype cycle but is predicted to mature in the next 2-5 years. Based on the technologies I see on this curve it seems like Autodesk invests before or at the peak of the curve and pushes out products at is starts to plateau. Almost every emerging technology on the peak of the curve has been heavily promoted by Autodesk over the last few years. In quite interesting really.

 

Regarding the keynote, yeah I thought it was pretty dry. Especially that woman from GE. OMG, I can't recall a worse speaker. She certainly managed to fill her allotted time with a lot of words and manage to not say ANYTHING!