Aston Martin, the iconic British sports car manufacturer, now counts cloud computing among its many forward-looking initiatives that continue to boost the car company to the forefront of automotive design and performance.
The cloud is finding itself involved in both the day-to-day communications of Aston Martin and the driving experience in general throughout the auto industry.
Aston Martin is now using cloud-based email and office systems to connect global teams, so the company can perform at peak levels, according to an article on The Telegraph.
A year ago, Aston Martin upgraded its global office systems to Microsoft Office 365. It was a natural move from the software the company had been using: Office 365 offered greater support for spontaneous collaboration, flexible mobility and intuitive multimedia communications.
“For a highly distributed organization like ours these capabilities are critical,” said Daniel Roach-Rooke, Aston Martin’s IT Infrastructure Manager.
“Email is vital to us, while SharePoint online has allowed us to set up a secure environment to share data and collaborate with our suppliers and partners. If we were running the systems internally, we would be responsible for all the servers and storage, and maintaining uptime,” he said. “As Microsoft owns the products, the team there knows how to get the best out of the systems – so it doesn’t fall to me to worry about high availability or the latest updates. Microsoft also provides round-the-clock support.”
Cloud computing is changing the auto industry and the driving experience as it currently is recognized, according an an article on CloudTweaks.com.
Three main areas of the automobile industry that could experience the greatest impact of cloud computing are: partnerships and integration, the manufacturer-dealer-customer chain and auto infotainment.
Partnerships and integration: Consumer demographics are changing, with more attention being directed at technological integration of scalable systems that are affordable and easily adaptable. This has required mergers and partnerships between technology and automotive companies in order to form a manageable synergy for competitive and quality delivery.
Manufacturer-dealer-customer chain: Global challenges have compelled the industry to look for innovative ways to cut costs and deliver vehicles that will match consumer needs. Cloud computing is proving to be essential for this. A good example is the need for outsourcing external solutions that qualify their own infrastructural and personnel resources. These cloud-based outsourced services may include engineering or administrative solutions that are available through cloud computing platforms. Such services will help manufacturers stay afloat on a competitive level while accessing and holding full control privileges of the outsourced infrastructure.
Auto infotainment: The present navigation and infotainment systems in cars will be significantly improved by cloud computing. These systems cover every area from vehicle tracking, GPS systems, to entertainment and Internet access on the go. The aspect of voice control is a near sure thing in the car of the future, and the only deterrent at present is the fact that such systems need massive processors and software, a challenge that is aptly addressed by the use of cloud computing. All these will deliver remarkable experience for the driver and passengers.
Patrick Burke is a writer and editor based in the greater New York area and occasionally blogs for Rackspace Hosting
