I'm finally on my way home from AU 2015. As usual, the three days of AU were a completely whirlwind: I feel like someone pressed the fast-forward button and I entered into some kind of hyperlapse state. So not much chance to blog and tweet, sadly: too much time spent interacting IRL. Which is very welcome, of course: these interactions are so very valuable, and help drive activities through the rest of the year.
Anyway, as alluded to in the last post, I wanted to make sure people were aware about one of the big announcements from this year's AU: the Forge announcement. Autodesk understands the value of a solid platform strategy: for instance, AutoCAD's early successes were in many way thanks to the ability to extend its capabilities to meet the needs of diverse niche industries and individual customers. As we enter the next phase of the company's existence – and of the software industry, in general – it's great that we're not losing sight of this fact.
So what is Forge about? It's about a platform: a serious commitment to providing a broad, deep set of services from the Autodesk cloud. It's about a $100 million investment fund to accelerate adoption of these technologies and enable a virtuous cycle of "Design, Make, Use" for our customers. It's also about a conference: Autodesk will be holding a large developer conference on June 15-16, 2016 at the Fort Mason convention centre in San Francisco. I hinted at this, a few posts ago, and I'll certainly be there.
Here's a video that gives some idea of what it's about:
May the Forge be with you, always!
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