Reading Time: 4 minutes
As we prepare to take Panzura on the road to New Orleans for the annual ACEC Fall Conference from October 20th to 23rd 2024, we’re taking aim at the threats and challenges engineering and design firms are up against.
From skilled labor shortages to squeezed profit margins, damaging ransomware attacks to artificial intelligence (AI) imperatives, firms are navigating immense complexity against a business backdrop that has been completely transformed by digital forces.
The reality for IT leaders and the CEOs they report to, is that their file data is no longer merely valuable. They are now totally reliant on data and their firms cannot function without it.
That same data is growing so fast it’s blowing up storage budgets. Even more importantly, nobody has a clear view of what data the organization is storing. That means they don’t fully understand the value it holds or the risk it presents to them.
This is a landscape in which wrong steps can lead to catastrophic results.
At the same time, their people and processes need immediate, secure, controlled access to data wherever they are. Immediate data delivery across distance is arguably one of the hardest things for IT leaders to achieve.
Those who get it right give their firms a competitive advantage that speeds time to project completion, improves project margins, and allows them to take on more projects without increasing their workforce.
By contrast, those who get it wrong put their firms in a very risky position. According to ENR’s review of the International Risk Management Institute’s Construction Risk Conference in late 2023, cyber security is the pre-eminent risk keeping business people up at night.
They have good reason to worry. The average time taken to get business operations back up and running after a ransomware attack is a business- and reputation-damaging 22 days. That’s a far cry from most firms’ internal service level agreements for restoration of pristine data following damage.
This massive level of disruption has seen insurance companies respond by increasing cyber insurance premiums by up to 200% over the past two years, according to the Risk Management Institute. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the cyber insurance market will grow to a value of $14.8 billion USD by 2025, up from approximately $8.5 billion in 2021.
Clearly, this isn’t just an IT problem — it impacts every part of the organization.
We believe that immutable data – data that cannot be corrupted or altered – is a cornerstone of resilience in today's digital world. At ACEC, we’ll be showing off the power of Panzura’s hybrid cloud file platform CloudFS to shrug off ransomware encryption to restore pristine data within moments, without loss and without delay.
We’re not stopping there. The CloudFS platform’s early ransomware detection catches attacks in real time, stopping them in their tracks by disabling affected user accounts. Then, it gives IT admins comprehensive details about the attack and files affected to accelerate restoration by cutting down on investigative time.
Our battle-tested hybrid cloud file platform, with its immutable data and immutable global 60-second snapshot schedule, goes far beyond ensuring data resilience though. In fact, it touches every facet of data control and delivery.
As architecture, engineering, and construction firms deploy Panzura to consolidate the storage and Windows File Shares they have at each location into a single cloud or on-premises object store, they reduce their overall data volume due to our granular deduplication and compression techniques. While every file-set is different, AEC firms frequently experience 70-85% reduction in data volume. That also means they slow their rate of data growth, finally getting control of spiraling storage costs and infrastructure requirements.
Panzura CloudFS hybrid cloud file platform is underpinned by a global cloud file system that stands alone in its ability to achieve immediate global data consistency while working from a single, consolidated dataset. That is, every user sees the latest version of every file, every time they open it, regardless of when the file was last updated or how far they are from the user who updated it.
This creates a high-performance file environment that allows distributed teams and users to work collaboratively without delays waiting for even the most complex CAD files to download, open, save, or become consistent between locations.
Critically, CloudFS enables the file collision-avoidance system that is built into to Windows File Shares, but fails as these shares are moved to the cloud, to work seamlessly over distance and multiple locations.
Yes, real-time file and range locking that prevents users from inadvertently overwriting each other’s work — as offered by applications like Revit, Autodesk CAD, SolidWorks, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and more — works in real-time with Panzura. Whether your users are all in the same state, or range from California to New York, they can effectively work like they’re all under the same roof.
ACEC visitors can see it in action as well as explore Panzura Symphony — our newly released data services platform — for complete data visibility. With Symphony, organizations can see, understand, and take action on data wherever it’s stored. With comprehensive data operations under a single pane of glass, it puts command and control of data back where it belongs — with the organization.
It means data stewards can easily uncover data they no longer need to store or can move to cheaper storage and move it there automatically. They can surface data that needs to be handled to comply with regulations so they can get and stay compliant and put data where it needs to be to feed AI workloads.
Additionally, Symphony streamlines data migrations, allowing organizations to break storage vendor ties and move data to wherever it suits them to store it.
Our data management solutions provide engineering and design firms with:
- Unmatched Data Security: Panzura's immutable data architecture, available through the CloudFS hybrid cloud file platform, ensures that your critical project data is always protected from ransomware attacks, accidental deletion, or unauthorized access.
- Command and Control of Your Data: Gain complete visibility and control over your data with Panzura's file and data services platforms. Reduce storage costs by eliminating redundant data blocks and simplify data management with centralized policies.
- Radical Clarity and Agility: Panzura's hybrid cloud file services platform provides instant access to your data, regardless of location. Empower your teams to make faster, more informed decisions with the knowledge that they're working with the latest information.
- Immediate Data Delivery: Get your data to the people who need it most, when they need it most. Panzura's unique data delivery capabilities can significantly reduce project timelines and give your firm a significant edge over the competition.
We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!
Our Chief Customer Officer, Don Foster, Enterprise Account Executive, Kaleb Lovejoy and Global Head of Marketing, Petra Davidson look forward to connecting with our customers, meeting new people, and showcasing how our data management solutions can empower engineering and design firms to build a strong foundation for resilience and achieve a significant competitive advantage.
