We live in an interesting time of computing model transformation. Some of us can still remember Mainframe era 40-50 years ago. Computing platforms were monolithic and centralized. That was the time manufacturing resource planning and accounting systems came to manufacturing companies.
The next stage was all about client-server. Cheaper architecture, wide adoption of PCs, adoption of distributed systems. For PDM and PLM systems it was a time where cost was not crazy, but to implement PDM / PLM system was still a big deal, which required servers, installation, some configuration and customization.
