7 of the Biggest Benefits of the Cloud in Automotive Manufacturing
For many businesses across the globe, cloud computing has become essential to operations. It’s easy to see whythe cloud has brought unique advantage to organizations in industries ranging from healthcare to life sciences.
Automotive manufacturing is another sector that can benefit greatly from migration to the cloud. This industry has always been known for its focus on technology and innovation, which makes cloud computing a perfect fit. Already, major auto manufacturers such as the Volkswagen Group have leveraged the cloud to facilitate total digital metamorphoses. Others that follow in their footsteps will appreciate the many benefits that cloud computing can bring them.
Here are seven of the biggest advantages of the cloud in the automotive manufacturing sector.
1. Minimizing complexity
The automotive sector has one of the most complex IT environments of any major industry. From handling critical business processes to facilitating engineering simulations, automotive facilities deal with a wide array of demands that require agile, robust compute power to manage properly. Even with these capabilities, the management of this environment can be difficult even for automotive teams with diverse technical experience.
In the cloud, however, automotive facilities gain access to powerful servers through a third-party vendor. Should they require more storage space or computing capabilities, they can easily access both through a cloud environment. Moreover, cloud computing makes implementation and management easy, so these manufacturers can overcome complexity more quickly.
2. Enhancing security
Automotive facilities can boost their security and minimize their risk by doing something as simple as switching to the cloud. All cloud services come with staff who leverage their expert knowledge to manage stored systems and ensure their security at all hours of the day, seven days a week. These cloud specialists frequently test clients’ environments to ensure that they meet security demands.
In addition to this security expertise, cloud environments automatically create backups of information. This way, automotive entities don’t have to worry about losing their data in case of accidental loss or disasters. Most importantly, cloud computing delivers the powerful security controls (e.g., encryption) that auto manufacturers need to protect their products from any threats that could compromise their integrity.
3. Boosting collaboration
Collaboration is one of the most important elements of the supply chain in the automotive sector. Not only do manufacturers need to communicate internally, but they must also consistently work with outside distributors, manufacturers, and other entities to create their products. Since each one of these businesses utilizes its own methods of business-to-business (B2B) communication, coordinating disparate elements of communication can be difficult for automotive organizations.
The cloud can eliminate all of these challenges by creating a single avenue through which all of these different entities can collaborate. Using cloud-based collaborative tools, these organizations won’t have to create this platform on their own or pay for specialists to build it for them.
4. Promoting sustainability
In the face of growing environmental challenges and consumer demands, the automotive industry has begun to take steps toward a more sustainable future. Using the cloud can allow these entities to minimize their footprints in both energy consumption and data center usage. In addition, cloud computing helps more automotive manufacturers access the green technology that they need to develop environmentally friendly vehicles for consumers. With the cloud, organizations can more easily create green and efficient products.
5. Helping to reduce costs
Like other manufacturers, those in the automotive industry have traditionally implemented costly in-house IT hardware and other equipment to accommodate their various production needs. The cloud, however, provides a digital environment for this infrastructure. While companies once needed to manage and repair their own servers, they can instead relinquish these responsibilities to their cloud providers—and the need to purchase this equipment for themselves. This will save them from incurring upfront hardware costs as well as energy and staff resource costs down the line.
6. Improving vehicle safety
Cloud computing technologies have enabled automotive manufacturers to develop intelligent vehicles that are capable of engaging with their environment. These “connected vehicles” boast a number of driver-assist features that are making it safer for those on the road. For example, many cars now alert drivers to hazardous road conditions, driver inattentiveness at the wheel, and other potential dangers. Some can even help prevent vehicle collisions by warning drivers of an impending impact or even stopping the vehicle itself before coming into contact with another object. All of these safety features—and more—are helping safeguard the lives of both passengers and drivers thanks to the cloud.
7. Enabling manufacturers to deliver better aftermarket services
The cloud has done more for automotive manufacturing than enhancing the safety of vehicles; it has enabled more manufacturers to provide their customers with innovative aftermarket features. The latest vehicles boast dynamic GPS services, smartphone optimization, and other features that deliver the connectivity that consumers are looking for. Thanks to the cloud, vehicles today seem more like computers than ever before—drivers can connect their phones to their car’s stereo or search for directions with as little as a voice command. Features such as these are increasingly becoming a more instrumental part of automotive manufacturing as cloud adoption becomes the industry norm
Source: Charles Phillips