Flexible integration of cloud-based engineering services using semantic technologies

Cloud-based engineering services and applications can enable a more flexible, dynamic and integrated usage of software solutions such as CAD, CAM, CFD and PLM. On-demand availability of extensive computing power can lead to significantly improved products, especially for small- and medium-sized companies. In addition to these technical advantages, offering such integrated solutions in the Cloud opens the door to new business models for the software vendors, who can e.g. sell their software on a pay-per-use basis, thus attracting more possible customers. However, to exploit these benefits, such Cloud-based services must be easily accessible and combinable with minimal manual effort - even if they are provided by different software vendors. In this work, we propose a workflow (which is typically a chain of single services) description and execution system based on semantic technologies which abstracts from vendor-specific interfaces and thus allows an effective usage of Cloud-based engineering services in common workflows.