Companies want to build a virtual realm to copy the real world
Linking the digital and physical worlds could unlock innovation
Nov 13th 2021
SAN FRANCISCO
Call it the multiplication of the metaverses. Ever since Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook-sorry,Meta-laid out his vision in late October for
immersive virtual worlds he thinks people will want to spend lots of time in, new ones are popping up all over. An entertainment metaverse will delight music fans, infuencers will fock to a fashion metaverse to faunt digital clothes, and there is even a shark metaverse (it has something to do with cryptocurrencies). Mostly these are the brainchildren of marketeers slapping a new label on tech's latest craze.
One new virtual world deserves real attention: the "enterprise metaverse". Forget rock stars and fancy frocks, this is essentially a digital carbon copy of the physical economy. Building living, interactive blueprints that replicate the physical world might, in time, come to shape it. The vision of what this might mean has become clearer in recent days. Microsoft, the world's largest software frm, earlier this month put it at the centre of its annual customer shindig, as did Nvidia, a big maker
of graphics processors, on November 9th.
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Bentley Systems Inc. published this content on 08 December 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 08 December 2021 15:11:03 UTC.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated is an infrastructure engineering software company. The Company offers solutions for enterprises and professionals across the infrastructure lifecycle. Its software enables digital workflows across engineering disciplines, across distributed project teams, and from offices to the field. Its offerings are powered by the iTwin Platform for infrastructure digital twins, include MicroStation and Bentley Open applications for modeling and simulation, Seequentâs software for geoprofessionals, and Bentley Infrastructure Cloud encompassing ProjectWise for project delivery, SYNCHRO for construction management, and AssetWise for asset operations. Its engineering and geoprofessional applications are primarily cloud-connected desktop modeling and simulation applications. Its software solutions are used by professionals, and organizations of every size, for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, and water and wastewater, others.
BENTLEY SYSTEMS, INCORPORATED 
