Autodesk Sim 360 Download Manager issues and good practices for cloud security

[Anonymous]

Does anyone see this kind of message way too much?  It usually goes away by itself in a couple hours which leads me to think that the Account Management servers are at fault.  For the record, this is the 2nd time in the last 3 days I got this ... rough average is maybe 1-2 times a week depending on simulation load (I'm usually running 5-15 simultaneous solves).

It's not the first time that I've made the observation that Download Manager and the Sim 360 infrastructure is not very robust.  At a recent Sim 360 user conference, there was a similar concern about access problems.

I've stopped making trouble tickets for this kind of thing.  Support's response is to reset my password (which has resolved the issue) but they have not reassured me that Autodesk is really concerned about really correcting the issue (and these problems are 6+ months old).  So rather than hassle them - and myself - I just mutter things and wait a bit.

With these kinds of issues, and Autodesk's unconcerned response, I have lost a bit of faith in Autodesk's programming talents and underlying infrastructure.  It follows then that I have a vague concern with cloud security.

In the future, I expect that there will be more targeted hacking of high value cloud services.  Considering that I have 10,000+ design hours and 300+ simulation runs into certain product designs, I would not want these product designs being shopped around in countries that are not so respectful towards Intellectual Property claims.  Perhaps others feel the same.

As discretion is the better part of product design, for your sensitive projects with Intellectual Property considerations, my suggestion is to limit the type of model you run (try obscure your model) and do not use file names that are key word searchable or suggestive of end use.  So no file names like 'cold fusion reactor final heat exchange design' but rather something like 'better mouse trap version 5'.

I know that Autodesk uses SSL for underlying data transfer, but is the Download Manager itself hardened and using good coding practices?  What about the server back end?

When I see that Autodesk's cloud simulation ecosystem cannot manage my own verified access in a robust fashion, it makes me wonder how well they are managing access against the script kiddies and hacking teams.  Then again, perhaps this is an isolated experience, so I ask others:  Do you see similarly poor application performance by the Download Manager, or has it been a great experience with few or no doubts of Autodesk's ability to program and manage this system?

[OmkarJ]

dmytty, 

There is a similar discussion here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Simulation-CFD/quot-You-do-not-have-access-to-this-cloud-service-quot-...

I almost spent half a day yesterday fighting with this before I found the thread. I followed the steps given in the thread above but it was in vain. And suddenly I got a rare "blue screen" of Windows and PC restarted. But as a blessing in disguise, this error was gone. Perhaps next time you witness this error, try the steps and restart? 

Data security was one of the biggest concerns (amidst the latest heartbleed bug and NSA exposé) that we had when the team was deliberating over going cloud. But the flexiblity and multi-solve capability outweighed ultimately. But I agree, Autodesk can be more forthcoming on these sensitive issues. 

Omkar