Onshape & AWS: The Modern and Robust Technical Stack for CAD Collaboration

Cloud CAD is revolutionizing product design by prioritizing speed, collaboration, and accessibility in today’s competitive landscape. Unlike traditional desktop CAD systems plagued by file management issues, version control conflicts, and IT overhead, cloud-native CAD harnesses the full potential of the cloud. 

By leveraging AWS’s robust infrastructure, Onshape by PTC utilizes a modern technical stack to deliver a seamless, browser-based experience, freeing designers and engineers from legacy limitations. This approach provides a powerful, scalable, and globally accessible design platform.

5 Ways Onshape Capitalizes on AWS Capabilities

1. Unmatched Scalability and Performance with Amazon EC2

Onshape relies on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtually limitless computing power. This elasticity allows the platform to dynamically scale resources in response to fluctuating user demands and the computational intensity of complex designs.

Engineers benefit from consistent, high-speed performance without the need for costly local hardware investments. Moreover, Onshape’s architecture is designed for parallel processing, distributing demanding CAD operations across multiple AWS servers. This dramatically accelerates tasks that would bog down traditional single-machine systems.

2. Ensuring Business Continuity with High Availability and Reliability

In product development, downtime is not an option. Onshape leverages AWS’s extensive global network of data centers and its inherent fault tolerance to deliver exceptional availability and reliability. Should a server or even an entire data center encounter an issue, AWS infrastructure allows for automatic rerouting of traffic, ensuring minimal disruption.

This robust foundation means designers can access their critical data and continue working with confidence, knowing their work is secure and the platform is consistently online. Onshape’s design, coupled with AWS, ensures that even in rare instances of application issues, no data is lost, and users can resume their work seamlessly.

3. Global Collaboration in Real-time and Universal Accessibility

AWS’s global presence empowers Onshape to serve users worldwide with minimal latency. The heavy computational work is performed in the cloud. This means Onshape runs smoothly on a diverse range of hardware – from high-end workstations to PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, tablets, and even smartphones – without demanding specialized local processing power. 

This democratizes access to sophisticated CAD tools, enabling seamless collaboration for teams dispersed across different geographical locations. With Onshape’s multi-tenant architecture, real-time collaboration on CAD documents is finally possible.

4. Fortified Security for Intellectual Property

“There's nobody in the world that's going to be able to keep our information more secure than Amazon,” says VP of Engineering at Custom Truck One Source, a Onshape user.

Protecting sensitive design data is a top priority. Onshape benefits from AWS’s multi-layered security model, which includes physically secure data centers, encrypted data in transit and at rest, and sophisticated network architecture. Onshape further enhances this with its own security protocols and has achieved industry-recognized certifications like SOC 2 Type II.

For organizations with stringent regulatory requirements, such as U.S. federal agencies and defense contractors, PTC offers Onshape Government. This dedicated version is hosted on AWS GovCloud (U.S.), designed to help meet compliance with regulations like ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and EAR (Export Administration Regulations).

5. Fueling Innovation with Advanced AWS Services

Onshape’s use of AWS extends beyond core infrastructure. The company actively incorporates advanced AWS services to drive innovation.

A prime example is the Onshape AI Advisor, which is developed on Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s platform for building and scaling generative AI applications. This intelligent assistant aims to provide users with contextual help, best practice recommendations, and workflow guidance, further streamlining the design process.

“The combination of Onshape's expertise in CAD and PDM coupled with AWS's global infrastructure and advanced AI capabilities is creating new possibilities,” says Mark Frost of AWS.

Onshape & AWS: Transforming CAD with Modern Tech Stacks

Onshape’s strategic utilization of AWS infrastructure and services underscores a transformation in the product design landscape. The ability to deliver unmatched scalability via EC2, ensure constant uptime, facilitate seamless global collaboration, provide ironclad security for intellectual property, and drive innovation with advanced AWS services sets a new benchmark.

This isn't just about moving CAD to the cloud; it’s about unlocking its full potential, freeing engineers from old constraints and empowering them with a faster, more accessible, and more collaborative way to create. The partnership between Onshape and AWS isn’t just changing the tools of product design – it’s transforming the very way innovation happens.