8 BIG Reasons Engineering and Construction Firms are Moving Files to the Cloud

Engineering and Construction firms have some of the most challenging IT environments and demanding requirements of any industry. Constantly growing volumes of massive, complex files and globally distributed teams of intense, demanding professionals who need high-performance access to those files — that’s only the start.

Having helped many of the top firms in the world migrate off traditional file storage infrastructure and backup systems and into the cloud, we’ve learned a thing or two about this unique space. In this post, I’d like to share a few of the reasons these companies decided to modernize their traditional infrastructure with Nasuni – and the benefits they’re now enjoying as a result.

1. Sending Files to the People, Not the People to the Files

These firms work with huge files in tools like Civil 3D and Revit. Often, they have project teams at multiple locations. Sharing files between users at different sites can take hours, and for really large projects on tight timelines, it can be more cost effective to send the engineers and designers to the remote office to work on those files on-site. With Nasuni’s centralized cloud model, you don’t have to fly people around to sit at a local site and work. Anyone with the proper permissions, at any location, can access the files they need – no matter how large or complex the model.

2. Unlimited Storage with 80% Hardware Reduction

Nasuni virtualizes the file services environment. By moving the backup and storage function to the cloud, an entire array of servers, drives, backup equipment is eliminated, reducing local infrastructure footprint by 80%—without sacrificing fast access. Additionally, there is a 90% storage reduction because all file data scales in the cloud, not on local hardware. Only frequently accessed files are cached locally for fast access.

3. Making Billable Hours More Billable

When a firm relies on seasonal architect and engineering contractors to work on a billable-hours basis, too much of that time is often wasted waiting for files to transfer from other sites.

Nasuni’s high-speed file synchronization and cloud-native file services platform, which maintains the gold or authoritative copy of each file in the cloud, accelerates file sharing and collaboration. Frustrating delays are eliminated, and billable hours aren’t wasted.

4. Reducing Downtime with Fast File Recovery

With Nasuni Continuous File Versioning®, an unlimited, immutable, versioned history of every file is maintained in the cloud with georedundant protection. What this means is that backup hardware, tapes, software, licenses, and archival storage are a thing of the past.  Every office enjoys the ability to restore any file without having to deal with physical backup equipment. Since versioning is continuous, and the gold copy of each file is maintained in the cloud, the potential impact of ransomware is also minimized.

5. Disaster Recovery within 15 Minutes

Nasuni uses “stateless” edge appliances, which means the data and software are always backed up in the cloud. When disaster strikes in the form of equipment failure or natural events, a new edge appliance can be spun up, and your files restored from the cloud. This approach provides an RTO and RPO as low as 15 minutes.

6. Maintaining Performance for the End User

One of the fears of moving data in the cloud is that it will have a negative impact on the end user experience. How do people get their files fast? The answer is Nasuni’s caching appliance, which resides at each physical site and caches the frequently accessed files, ensuring a user experience similar to accessing files on a local network.

7. Simpler, Centralized Management for IT

Nasuni’s management console allows IT admins to remotely provision, monitor, and control their global storage infrastructure at all locations from a single “pane of glass.” For larger engineering or construction firms with local file storage at hundreds of sites can require 60-80 people to manage. With Nasuni, you only need 10 people to do the same work.

8. Turning Unstructured File Data into Big Data for Analytics

One of the emerging benefits of centralizing file data from across all office locations is that data is now available for additional services developed by the cloud providers. AEC firms, for example, are using image recognition tools to identify objects in photos and videos, then apply searchable tags, which can later be used to help architects and designers find specific images within a massive file store.

These are only some of the reasons that architecture, engineering, and construction firms are moving to the cloud.

Still have doubts?  Please take a moment and hear how Gregory Fait, director of enterprise infrastructure, Perkins+Will and Jason Patterson, AEC technical account manager, Nasuni bust some myths around moving files to the cloud. Gregory and Jason shine the light on why industry leading firms like Perkins+ Will made the transition to the modern IT approach to managing files. Listen here for “Busting Myths and Overcoming Fears of Moving Architecture, Engineering & Construction Files to the Cloud”

Register here for “Busting Myths and Overcoming Fears of Moving Architecture, Engineering & Construction Files to the Cloud”.

Updated: 7/16/2020