Consumptive GPU and its impact on Design Services
The GPU, once the bouncer at that cool nightclub that no one was ever cool enough to get into is about to go through a molecular change.
Gone are the dark glasses at midnight, gone are the black leather vests, gone are the steel toe-capped motorbike boots and its place is platitudes, airs and graces, accommodating cotton and welcoming smiles.
The bouncer is now an air hostess – and she is here to ensure your flight is a pleasant one!
If you were an architect, draftsman, creative, engineer (or any derivation thereof) 5 years ago you were pigeon-holed into a certain persona by your IT department. POWER USER.
Whilst that may sound appealing, and a little flattering, this moniker came with a number of consequences to you, your employers and your customers.
- You were an exception to the corporate standard – and when you manage something by exception the experience is usually not ideal
- You had a workstation where you spent hours poring over 3d renders whilst the rest of the workforce become increasingly mobile
- You were either productive or not; onsite or field work was swiftly followed by a trip back to your workstation to then start the work that actually mattered
- Your ability to show your customers agility and meet the market when the market wanted to meet was hindered
In 2007 the iPhone gave the world a taste of what was to come, in 2010 the proliferation of virtualisation proved what we now know to be gospel: pooled resources run deep, and in 2017 the rise of the megatrend (Social, Mobile, Information and Cloud) captured these topics and made them relevant to the consumption of IT Services: the future ways of working are upon us.
So how is this relevant to Design Services?
Everyone has heard of driverless cars, but how about ownerless cars? Cars as a Service is now a thing, proving that apparently the world is not yet tired of the ‘as a Service’ suffix. And why shouldn’t it be a thing, if your pallet is that of an easy commuter 80% of the time but you’ve got an annual 4x4 week away with mates you should be able to subscribe to a service that enables an experience that gives you the outcome you actually want.
‘Track days?’ you ask.
‘Sure. Just drop off the station wagon you drive to soccer practise at one of our depots and take the 600 bhp coupe, we’ll charge you the difference for your consumption’ they reply.
What this enables is a deep and fitting user experience that drives (pun kinda intended) the real hook, the real appeal: a behaviour where the technology is a consequence of a need met and an outcome achieved.
So how is this relevant to Design Services?
In the previous analogy the car is your workstation, you need your workstation to give you an all-encompassing experience. It needs to be a station wagon, it needs to be a sporty coupe and sometimes is needs to climb 60 degree ascents at a low range ratio of 2.71:1. And most importantly your experience needs to be ubiquitous, pervasive and always available. Just like as getting into your car and turning the key.
Technical powerhouses like Microsoft and IBM have realised that an entire sector of IT users are not having their needs met, those who traditionally relied on the GPU in all its physical, static glory to do their day job.
The result is cloud offerings like Bluemix and Azure that provide Design professionals with access to the elastic, consumptive and experience concepts that have transformed the physical bouncer into a virtual air hostess. Meaning:
- Changes to building plans can now be done on site, on a standard Surface Pro with full customer involvement.
- Commuting and travel no longer needs project lead time and productivity delays
- Design based IP can now be kept with the rest of the crown jewels in a centralised manner and not scattered to all sites in a decentralised fashion
The outcome is mobility, agility, relevance and productivity at a measurable level and satisfaction, engagement, collaboration and creativity at a human level.
Head of Solutions
Paul looks to combine technical expertise with the business acumen and strategic focus needed to ensure that IT investments are driven by business imperatives and offer the scalability, functionality, security and the outcome needed to meet short and long-term business objectives.
If you want to improve the efficiency and productivity of your design work use a free trial of OneSpace to see how GPU option can help you digitally design from anywhere.