6. What business opportunities?

As in the case of other software, there are many different ways of acquiring a license for industrial use of simulation software.

The widespread deployment of Internet technologies, on the one hand, and advances in computer workstation architecture (client-server technologies, increased local computing power as opposed to that of large-scale computing centers, networks of distributed machines, etc.), on the other hand, are bringing new distribution methods to the fore, or bringing them back into fashion.

The very different time constants between the development of finite element simulation software (several decades) and the deployment of a technological level of computer techniques (a few years), lead to major disparities between marketing and distribution methods.

Another source of difficulty in assessing the costs...