How Cloud Ecosystems Are Transforming Manufacturing

TL;DR: Product development is being reshaped by three converging forces: accelerating market pressures, integrated cloud-native platforms, and AI-powered capabilities. Companies like Skarper and Kornit Digital are proving that success requires more than just better tools – it demands new ways of working that treat hardware development like software development, with real-time collaboration and agile processes.

Nine minutes. That's how long it took a customer using real-time collaboration to resolve a problem that previously would have consumed an entire day of emailing files back and forth.

As Jon Hirschtick, Chief Evangelist at PTC and co-founder of both SOLIDWORKS and Onshape, explained during a webinar on the future of product development: "Everyone has less time. And it's not just less time. There's more volatility in the world. They have to respond to change. You know, obviously, tariffs, wars, politics, pandemics. Supply chains are disrupted, whether you want to change or not."

This isn't just about faster CAD software. It's about fundamentally rethinking how products get developed in an era where geopolitical disruptions can reshape entire supply chains overnight.

Speakers during the panel discussion on the future of product development.

Market Forces Are Outpacing Traditional Manufacturing Timelines

The pressure isn't coming from just one direction. Companies across industries are facing what Hirschtick calls a "world of change around the product" that includes:

• Zero tolerance for delays: No customer will say they have more time now than before
• Constant innovation pressure: Products need updating more frequently as competition intensifies
• Supply chain volatility: Availability and pricing of raw materials shift without warning
• Distributed workforce reality: Teams are fluid, contractors come and go, suppliers need instant access

Ran Peled, Head of Design at Skarper, sees this firsthand in their e-bike motor development: "At one point, we wanted to offload some of the engineering work to our manufacturer that also has design teams, and they're a brilliant manufacturer, but the development lifecycle was so slow compared to our development lifecycle that we're just like, no, there's no way that's going to get to market in time."

Cloud Ecosystems Enable Software-Style Development for Hardware Teams

The companies successfully navigating this acceleration aren't just using better individual tools. They're building integrated cloud ecosystems that let them work like software teams.

Skarper's 20-person team, distributed globally, now operates with daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and sprint planning – practices borrowed directly from software development.

"We are now working almost like a software team," Peled notes. "We do stand-ups. We do retrospects. We do everything you would expect from a normal software team. Our time frames are slightly longer because things take time to make, but that collaboration really enables innovation."

This transformation goes beyond process changes.

Liran Vaintov from Kornit Digital describes how their cloud-native PLM system eliminated the data fragmentation that once slowed everything down: "Before we had the right tool, product data was spread out to different places. There were a lot of problems with version controls, tracking changes, and keeping everyone on the same page."

The technical architecture makes the difference. Cloud-native platforms provide:

• Real-time data synchronization: No more "final_final_v2" file naming conventions
• Device independence: Engineers can review designs on tablets, and sales teams can configure products on laptops
• Instant contractor onboarding: New team members get access through a browser, not IT installations
• Automatic scaling: Complex assemblies run on enterprise cloud infrastructure, not local workstations

This mirrors what's already happened in other business functions.

"What we're seeing now with systems like Arena, with Onshape, and not just those, with Slack, with Google Docs, with Asana, with NetSuite, with Workday," Hirschtick explains, "these aren't just limited design tools. You have the data, a master database that's up to date in real time. And there are no copies."

AI Amplifies Cloud-Native Advantages

The cloud foundation becomes even more critical when AI enters the picture. Companies are already using AI for practical applications that go far beyond the hype:

• Automated risk evaluation: AI can now evaluate bill of materials risks that previously required full-time engineering review
• Concept generation: Tools like Vizcom generate design variations during brainstorming sessions
• Synthetic training data: Companies use CAD APIs to generate millions of design iterations for AI model training

"AI is gonna be another process changer for people," Hirschtick predicts. "The advantage of cloud is pretty obvious for data and compute, and also release cadence. The idea that we can release software faster than the non-cloud tools, and they can be adopted faster."

In short, AI capabilities compound when built on cloud-native foundations. Desktop CAD systems might eventually get AI features, but they'll ship later and deploy more slowly than cloud platforms that can iterate in real-time.

Hirschtick also notes an emerging trend where customers use cloud CAD platforms for their own activities.

"People are using [Onshape] for their in-house AI efforts to do things like develop synthetic training data on their own models... parametric iteration of models for intelligent exploration of design spaces," he explains. "And they're using our API to do geometry manipulation at a massive scale – hundreds of thousands or millions of iterations."

Organizational Change Requires Strategic Leadership

Technology enables transformation, but people determine success. The most successful implementations treat change management as seriously as technical migration.

Skarper implements biweekly "lunch and learn" sessions where the entire company gathers to share knowledge across disciplines.

"We just gather the entire company, sit down, and we teach each other about different aspects. So it's either commercial updates that the product team is not always aware of, or it's our senior software engineer describing how the software architecture is built," Peled explains.

Hirschtick has observed this pattern across hundreds of customer visits: "When it comes to digital tools, you've got to look at the new people entering the workforce. They understand the benefits. They understand the benefits of the cloud. Understand the benefits of AI."

The challenge isn't convincing younger engineers – it's helping experienced team members see beyond current limitations to future possibilities.

"People tend to overestimate and understand thoroughly some of the pain points that will happen," Hirschtick notes. "And they underestimate the improvements they'll get."

Successful transitions follow several principles:

• Focus on business outcomes, not feature comparisons
• Use implementation as training: Keep data conversion in-house so teams learn the new platform
• Time changes strategically: Introduce new tools on new projects while maintaining legacy systems
• Plan for marathons, not sprints: Expect 12-plus months for full adoption depending on organization size

The Compound Effect of Integrated Ecosystems

Perhaps the most significant shift is how leading companies think about tools themselves. Instead of selecting individual software applications, they're building integrated ecosystems where data flows seamlessly between disciplines.

Skarper combines Onshape for CAD, Arena for PLM, plus Confluence, Jira, Miro, and Google tools. Each component amplifies the others. Design changes automatically trigger approval workflows. Sales teams configure products in real-time during customer meetings. Suppliers collaborate directly within the same data environment.

"We have a Confluence page with formal approvals with links to Onshape," Peled describes. "Everyone can view and approve apart from the official Onshape approval that that's more on the kind of engineering side, but everyone can be aligned and what's going on and what's going to manufacturing."

This ecosystem approach delivers compound benefits that individual tools can't match. As data flows between systems without manual intervention, teams spend less time on administrative overhead and more time on innovation.

Three Strategic Questions for Manufacturing Leaders

The transformation isn't optional – it's inevitable. The question is whether you'll lead the change or be forced to catch up later. Three strategic questions can guide decision-making:

1. How quickly can your current systems adapt to market changes? If answering requires mentioning file transfers, version control challenges, or contractor onboarding delays, you're already behind.

2. What's your path to AI integration? AI capabilities will increasingly define competitive advantage. Cloud-native platforms can deploy AI features immediately; desktop systems face multi-year deployment cycles.

3. How fluid is your team composition? Modern product development involves contractors, suppliers, and cross-functional collaborators who need instant access. Your tools should enable this flexibility, not fight it.

The companies building the future of product development are the ones starting today. The window for proactive change is closing.

Learn how cloud-native product development platforms can transform your team's productivity and time-to-market. Explore Onshape's Discovery Program for qualified CAD professionals.