With the help of Nanocloud, ESI has developed a private end-to-end cloud that’s gives its customers all the benefits of a virtualized production environment.

In the words of Jean-Louis Duval, Platform Director at ESI Group: “ESI helps its clients to reduce or to replace the use of physical prototypes. Our virtual prototyping software can virtually replicate the fabrication, assembly and performance tests of industrial products (automotive, aerospace, energy etc.), while evaluating the impact of these products under normal or accidental conditions.”

ESI was looking for a disruptive partner able to guide them through their digital transformation of both the company and customers. In a very competitive environment, industrial players must continuously innovate and find growth opportunities. “As soon as we address the software and applications industry, the cloud seems to be an evidence”, states Jean-Louis Duval.

As leading innovator in virtual prototyping, ESI launched their ESI public cloud offering. This enables access to ESI’s most popular software solutions, such as Virtual Performance Solution and OpenFOAM, to any company, no matter its size. To meet the additional need to deliver private cloud solutions, allowing clients’ to retain their existing internal processes, ESI chose Nanocloud. “Agility, innovation, streamlined costs, flexibility, ergonomics: after a quick demonstration and a full-scale test with one of our client, we understood that ESI and Nanocloud were meant to collaborate” says Duval.

The challenge
To embrace digital transformation, you have to keep your feet on the ground, and your head in the clouds! The cloud is a disruptive technology, and virtualization greatly eases the transition from the ancient to the new world. “ESI’s clients need an important computing capacity to virtually replicate tests in developing their products. This takes a lot of resources, infrastructures and the associated costs can be important”, Jean-Louis Duval explains.

ESI was looking for a way to deliver the best software solution with the benefits of virtualization, but without changing current clients’ working methods. ESI envisioned a platform enabling customers to use its software anywhere, at any time and through any device. Today, all team members can use the full software and answer to client requirements, no matter the location. The clients can continue to host and share their virtually replicated data and respect best practices to work on their numerical models efficiently.

Nanocloud’s technological and technical answer
For ESI’s clients to benefit from the private cloud solution, ESI had two possible options: re-develop the software internally or find a supplier who could transform the existing software into a SaaS, without rewriting the existing code. Nanocloud quickly proved to be trustworthy and guided ESI Group to the second option instead of the first one, which was more expensive and risky (development, human resources, etc.).

“We have yet many tests and projects to go through together. This collaboration is rich because we learn from one another and we constantly optimize our approach and answer to satisfy ESI Group’s requirements. We participate to the digital transformation of a virtual replication and prototyping leader with a lean and agile approach” adds Erfane Arwani, co-founder of Nanocloud.

The Nanocloud option
“Our clients need a significant computing capacity on their workstations to take full advantage of our software solutions, which require a lot of graphic resources (GPU). We were thus looking for a solution able to offer the best of ESI with the benefits of virtualization, and without changing their current working methods.”

“Agility, innovation, streamlined costs, flexibility, after a quick demonstration and a full-scale test on an ESI Group’s client, we understood that ESI and Nanocloud were meant to collaborate. And collaborate we have, on a first project with one of our best clients in Japan – a leader in the automotive industry. We have then managed to transfer all of the computing capacity of our on-premise software solutions in the cloud.”

“Nanocloud Enterprise, installed on client data centers, enables access to our software platform Visual- Environment and to the data managed by Visual-DSS, without any constraint of location. Every client can now benefit from the same user experience from any device – whether they connect via a desktop computer, a laptop or a tablet. We have freed our clients from their technical and infrastructure related constraints with our “Cloud Modeling” solution, which is no longer installed on their computer but hosted on the cloud. Everything is now accessible from a web browser, anywhere, at anytime” concludes Jean-Louis Duval, Platform Director at ESI Group.

ESI leads innovation in Virtual Prototyping, leveraging the physics of materials. ESI’s technological leadership in Virtual Prototyping rests upon 40 years of experience and a suite of integrated and coherent software solutions.