The Primavera P6 Cloud is here. Are you ready for it?
A while back, I explained that the Primavera Cloud offers most of Oracle’s Primavera applications in the Software-as-a-Service model. That means companies can pay Oracle to spin-up a hosted implementation of say Primavera Unifer and be up and running in hours. It also means no fiddling with servers or the tear-inducing WebLogic backend software, and no installations. It’s a one-click install with the all the work being done behind the scenes by Oracle.
Today, I want to go a bit deeper on one aspect of the Primavera Cloud for your benefit; the Primavera P6 Cloud. Ah, but notice there IS a difference. The Primavera Cloud refers to all applications under the Primavera banner in cloud form (last count was 5 application). The Primavera P6 Cloud refers to only 1 of the 5 applications – Primavera P6 EPPM’s cloud-based version. The language is subtle but means very different things.
With so much conflicting and hard-to-decipher information out there, I wanted to see if I could give you the raw facts on the Primavera P6 Cloud. I’m not an advocate and we don’t sell software. But we do offer Primavera P6 training. And will have a complete online course on P6 EPPM in Q1 2016.
Primavera P6 Cloud
The Primavera P6 Cloud puts Oracle Primavera P6 EPPM in the cloud. If you’re not sure what Primavera P6 EPPM is or how it differs from P6 Professional (aptly named the “Windows” version) then read these first:
- What’s the difference between Primavera P6 PPM and Primavera P6 EPPM?
- P6 EPPM Is Not A Replacement For Primavera P6 Professional
But many of you already know that Primavera P6 EPPM is actually a suite of applications in itself. So what do you get with the Primavera P6 Cloud? Here is what’s included:
- Primavera P6 EPPM
- Primavera P6 Professional
- Primavera EPPM Web Services
- Primavera P6 Team Member
- Primavera Team Member for iPhone and iPad
- Primavera P6 Email Statusing
- Primavera P6 Progress Reporter
- Document Management
- BI Publisher
Let’s see if we can pull out some of the more important bits on this list.
First, you get the latest version of P6 EPPM. Connected to the same cloud database via a tool called Primavera Cloud Connector is our old-faithful P6 Professional. Web Services is primarily used for integrations, but since it is now cloud-enabled you can still integrate from an on-site application. The Team Member apps and Email Statusing are tools for end-users that are doing status updates to P6 schedules; Progress Reporter is similar.
What draws my attention is BI Publisher. According to this Oracle webinar, included is the full version of BI Publisher which allow you to actually build BI Reports. This was something you had to pay for with on-site installs of Primavera P6 EPPM and most opted not to pay and got very poor out-of-the-box reports. It seems with the Primavera P6 Cloud, you might open the door to better reporting.
Q: How do you buy Primavera P6 Cloud?
It seems you’ll have to reach out to Oracle or your Oracle Sales Rep. There’s is no option to sign up online that I can find. But I did find this out. There is a minimum purchase of 25 users to get on board. Once again, Oracle seems to be selling to clients with large user bases at this point. If you are a small to medium-sized shop with only 15 users, you’re out of luck. When and if this will change, we will have to keep our eyes peeled.
Q: Will the Primavera P6 Cloud replace the need for Citrix installs?
It very well might. However, at this point, most installations of Primavera P6 on Citrix that I’ve seen were focused on Primavera P6 Professional. Many companies will not be abke ti jump to cloud and abandon their Citrix installs just yet.
But the Primavera Cloud Connect tool appears to be a step in the right direction for connecting P6 Professional to a cloud database. Read this white paper for more info on Cloud Connect. Primavera Cloud Connect allows a secure database connection over http/https with data compression. Most likely it’s an update to the old Compression Server, but it might mean that we will someday soon see a Primavera P6 Professional Cloud service.
Oracle Cloud Services
As critics have said before, Oracle is a bit late to the cloud party. But it seems like Oracle is very committed at this point and that could be good news for those of us who use their products. Here’s a recent article of interest I just came across as I was putting the final touches on this post: Oracle hiring 1,400 salespeople for its cloud services.
Over To You
What do you think about the Primavera P6 Cloud and cloud technology in the project controls space? Are you ready to get on board or would you rather keep your data safe at home? Drop us a line in the comments.
—-
