Disclosure: Shawn Wasserman is a former employee of Ansys Inc. who owns minor Ansys company stock.

In mid-April, Ansys announced its plans to acquire the web-based and cloud-native simulation software company OnScale, other than the press release, Ansys is tight-lipped about the acquisition and how it will affect the industry. The current rumbling is that a future event such as Simulation World, will dig deeper into how Ansys plans to implement OnScale into its portfolio.

So, between now and Simulation World, the best predictor of how this acquisition will play out will be Ansys’ own history. However, its acquisition history is not necessarily the best place to look for these clues. Instead, the best indicator of OnScale’s future will be the previous cloud and simulation democratization achievements of Ansys and some of its competitors.

Ansys’ Acquisition History Won’t Mirror the OnScale Purchase

Ansys has been very aggressive with its acquisition timeline. In fact, it was only 10 months ago when it ventured further into the realm of MBSE with Phoenix Integration. A month after that, Zemax was integrated into the Ansys family, and it didn’t take long for the company to reap the benefits from that addition to the portfolio. In fact, since 2018 Ansys has acquired no less than two companies a year.

During that time, these simulation acquisitions focused on industry or physics specific technology. The technology in question would then be introduced into the Ansys portfolio, sometimes with a rebranding (see Ansys Zemax and Ansys Lumerical), and integrated (where possible) into the company’s multiphysics framework.

However, OnScale does not appear to be following that pattern. The company does have its simulation specialties, but the press release mentions little about that. It seems the target of this acquisition was OnScale’s web-based platform and its democratized user interface (UI).

“OnScale’s cloud-native technology combines the limitless compute power of cloud supercomputers with an intuitive web-based front end, making simulation accessible to anyone,” says Ian Campbell, CEO of OnScale, in the press release. “Knowing that OnScale’s technology will now run simulations using Ansys’ industry-leading technology is incredibly exciting for me and my team. We are thrilled to be joining the Ansys family.”

So, it seems that the OnScale platform represents a way to bring more of Ansys’ product line into the browser. As a result, those interested in the future of should investigate the industry’s recent movements in the Cloud and democratized engineering technology.

Ansys Technology to be Made Easier to Use and Access

The Ansys Cloud is the company’s current offering of cloud and web-based technology. It is known to provide on-demand cloud-based computational resources, much like OnScale. However, when it brings traditional Ansys tools into the browser, it isn’t streamlined or a browser-native experience. It’s more akin to a virtual machine.

With OnScale’s native cloud experience, expect to see more Ansys tools available on a web-browser and in a streamlined, democratized UI. For an example of how this might play out, look to PTC’s acquisition of Onshape, a similar cloud-native CAD offering. Since that acquisition, PTC has made plans to introduce its software onto the Onshape browser-based platform by 2025, now renamed Atlas. Meanwhile, the Onshape tool, which also lives on the Atlas platform, has kept the original name (read more on PTC’s story here).

I suspect that Ansys will follow a similar development path with the acquisition of OnScale, not only because it makes the most sense, but also because they have done something similar with Ansys Student. Many students that use Ansys technology access it through a web-based platform made possible by Microsoft Azure and FRAME technology.

Easy access to Ansys technology is not the only benefit OnScale may offer. Its democratized UI also has its merits. Ansys technology—and numerous other simulation offerings—have commonly been criticized as being an “ivory tower” technology, where experts in a field might still need the help of simulation experts to get a job done.

The most recent attempt Ansys made to democratize the technology was with its Discovery (originally Discovery Live) offering. Though impressive and lightning fast, this tool has yet to cross the democratization gap. One reason is because its UI was optimized for use by designers. As a result, it is not as streamlined as it could be if the aim were to bring the technology to a mass audience.

In contrast, OnScale’s simulation UI looks like it belongs on a browser and is as streamlined as simulation can get. It is almost as simple as a simulation app, a strategy COMSOL has been making big headway with in its attempt to democratize simulation.

All a subject matter expert would need to run a simulation using the OnScale UI would be the CAD geometry and a few easy inputs. From there, the simulation itself would be akin to a plug-and-play experience. It isn’t hard to see a similar UI being used with various other Ansys technologies under the hood.

Perhaps the purchase of OnScale could be a step towards Ansys truly moving simulation technology beyond its perceived ivory tower?