Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1295812
44 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2020 tinue to innovate and advance to win in their respective domains, which means that their tools have to make it possible for them to work faster and smarter every day. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world today, and our custom- ers are having to react quickly to all sorts of changing and chal- lenging conditions, from geopo- litical to macroeconomic. Some of these forces can bring changes to the environment more or less overnight. This means that our customers and we have to be in a position to not only deal with these con- ditions but flourish in them. Therefore, PCB tools and related services must bring flexibil- ity, productivity, and dependability in a way they have not had to in the past. Shaughnessy: One thing we've seen is that even veteran designers have issues with handling all of this data. Altium 365 seems to make this part of the process a more user-friendly expe- rience. Do you see data management as an ongoing challenge? Gawne: Absolutely. There is no silver bullet for it, and it will continue to be a challenge as we innovate. The key is to stay in front of the curve as much as possible, providing our cus- tomers with not only the tools and services for data management that they need, but also to support the education and training for how to best approach what can be com- plicated and challenging problems to solve. Altium 365 starts to remove a lot of the pain points that customers would have had to suffer in the past, whether that is provision- ing and maintaining infrastruc- ture, ensuring robust data backup and disas- ter recovery strategies, network configuration and security for accessibility, or any other of the plethora of challenges that come with tra- ditional data management solutions. From the outset, we try to help people get organized without forcing them to be organized, deliver- ing that user-friendly experience and value out of the gate without relying on people to change the way they work. Shaughnessy: With so many designers working from home now because of COVID-19, what lessons do you think that EDA companies will take away from this when it's over? I'm assum- ing it will be over one day, of course! Gawne: I've always felt that while the EDA industry supports such a fast pace of change and innovation in many industries, and in many ways, our industry has been slow to embrace the very technological advancements and achievements it has helped to bring about. This is a wake-up call for our industry to reflect and ask whether it is laying the foun- dation for our customers to continue to be successful in such unprecedented and unpre- dictable times. There are many lessons to be learned and much inspiration to be drawn from COVID-19. We should see it as a collec- tive opportunity to accelerate toward making the vision of tomorrow a reality today. Shaughnessy: Thank you, Leigh. I appreciate your time. Gawne: Thank you. DESIGN007 Leigh Gawne Eliminating needless delays, this board was created for the Open Source Ventilator Project utilizing Altium 365.