Agile PLM installations: Hosting or On-Premise and things to consider

It can be a challenge to keep up with the fluctuating needs of your organization and industry. One alternative is to deploy Agile PLM on Oracle Cloud. With this type of implementation, you can take advantage of flexibility to pay only for the resources you use, gain interoperability with open-source standards and software, and improve your storage performance with your data always running on the latest and fastest hardware.

Let us look at some commonalities between an on-premises implementation and a cloud implementation.

Making the proper choice between On-Prem Agile PLM or Oracle Cloud

Before you decide on an implementation:

• Understand the requirements of Agile PLM deployment architecture for your desired implementation.
  • Note: Before setting up Oracle Infrastructure components, ensure that you’re using a Windows, Linux, or UNIX-like local host with access to the internet. The steps to set up and use Agile PLM are different on different operating systems.
• Have a good working knowledge of the needs of an Oracle Cloud system and the options available.

Architecture considerations

You can design your Agile PLM deployment for both on-premises or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in a variety of ways, a single domain, across multiple availability domains, or even in multiple regions.

Single Domain: You can deploy Agile PLM in a single domain. This is perhaps the most common implementation. If needed, you can ensure high availability by setting up multiple application instances. Use an availability architecture configuration when you want to ensure that your application is available even when an application instance goes down. The other available application instances in the availability domain continue to process the requests.

Example 1 – Single Domain Installation

• Multiple Domains: Use this architecture configuration when you want to ensure that your application is available even when an entire domain goes down. You can still access the application instances in another domain.
• Multiple Regions: Use this architecture when you want to set up a disaster recovery site for your application in a different region. This architecture is essentially the same as the multiple domain architecture, but instead of creating resources in a second domain in the same region, you create resources in another region.

Example 2 – Multiple Region Architecture

Building Your Infrastructure

You can deploy your Oracle Agile PLM on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or an on-premises infrastructure in a single instance or in multiple instances. First, you diagram your basic topology desired. Then you verify that this plan is the best option for your organization with input from others. After you create a basic installation of resources, you then fine-tune it to suit your business requirements.

Example 3 – Basic System Installation

When you apply your plan and install Agile PLM, all application instances in the domain should be active. The load balancer instances receive requests and sends them to the application servers. The application servers process these requests and forwards them to the database instances. You can access the instances through the host.

One advantage of a cloud-based implementation over on-premises is the automatic and on-demand database backups to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Object Storage can be configured using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console. The backup of applications can be configured by using the policy-based backup feature of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Block Volumes. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Block Volumes provides you with the capability to perform volume backups automatically based on a schedule and retain them based on the selected backup policy. This allows you to adhere to your data compliance and regulatory requirements.

A Plan for Single Instance: This architecture consists of either a virtual cloud network or on-premises Virtual Machines with the load balancer (optional), application, file manager, and database hosts that are required to run Agile PLM. The plan will be to install the application server, file manager and database hosts on a single virtual machine. You can use this configuration for training or testing purposes or for a very small implementation. The host is deployed in a public subnet if you use cloud, or behind a firewall if on-premises.

A Plan for Multiple Instances: This architecture consists of a virtual cloud network (VCN) with the load balancer (optional), application, file manager, and database hosts placed on separate machines. If on-premises is decided, each component should be on separate virtual machines that can be on one or multiple hosted machine(s).

In this architecture, it is best for multiple application instances to be deployed in an availability domain to ensure high availability. This ensures that your application is available even when an instance goes down. Fault domains enable you to distribute your instances so that they are not on the same physical hardware within a single availability domain. (See Example 1 above for typical installation.)

For further information on planning, see the Agile Capacity Planning Guide E71149-13

Based on the above information, you can see the similarities for an on-premises and a cloud implementation. How then can you choose which is the best solution for your organization?

Here are a few reasons why your organization should consider cloud PLM over on-premises PLM?

1. No added infrastructure costs
2. Quicker implementation time
3. Ease to scale
4. Remote access from anywhere
5. Securing your data
6. Minimal maintenance cost
7. Better collaboration
8. Easy, instant updates
9. Built-in business intelligence

Agile PLM – Secure, Budget Friendly, Rapid Implementation

Agile on-premises PLM has many years in the market and is known for user friendliness, it’s thorough product lifecycle abilities and also for the powerful and effective lifecycle management tool that it has become. It is the tool that competitors benchmark against.

Agile cloud PLM is the most mature PLM solution in the market today, with years of research and development behind it and a history of innovation. It has a proven Time-to-Market benefit that leads the industry.

The business environment of today’s markets requires a greater focus on your core competencies. Companies today have more constraints with leaner IT budgets than ever before. The Agile PLM cloud enables companies to rapidly deploy Agile by eliminating IT dependency for system support.

One of the biggest reasons for a cloud solution: with nothing more than simple subscription payments, the Agile PLM cloud solution is treated as an operational expense, not a capital expenditure.

Take the first step by understanding the requirements of Agile PLM deployment architecture for your desired implementation, and explore the options available. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to streamline your processes, reduce costs, and improve your bottom line. Contact us today!