Accelerating Project Outcomes for UK Architecture Practice

Challenge

Slow file open and save times due to latency was making cross-site collaboration challenging for this UK-based architecture firm.

Solution

CloudFS Collaboration eliminated latency across locations and provided the success ability to work on projects in real time.

Industry

Architecture

Channel Partner

Cloud

Increasing Productivity While Reducing Costs

Austin-Smith:Lord is a British architecture and design company that provides their services to sectors such as Industry & Infrastructure, Transport, Arts & Culture, Landscape & Urban Design. Driven to create exciting and contextual buildings, places, and spaces for its customers, Austin-Smith:Lord takes pride in listening and collaborating with their clients to surpass their expectations. With that being said, it is vital that they have a solution that enables their staff to work collaboratively

Delays in Data Access and Disaster Recovery Impact Business Goals

With studios located in Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London and Glasgow, Austin-Smith:Lord found it challenging for staff members located at different studios to work on the same job in real time. When employees had to work on the same file at the same time, they experienced slow speeds, making it difficult for the end user to be productive. In addition, Austin-Smith:Lord experienced slow speeds when it came to conducting disaster recovery tests, which would take numerous days. In order to meet business goals, Austin-Smith:Lord knew that they needed a faster solution to replace its end-of-life software and hardware.

Finding the Right Solution to Simplify and Accelerate Data Access

As IT manager David Price began developing a master IT plan during this time, he quickly realized that in order for Austin-Smith:Lord to move forward as a business, they would need to simplify and accelerate access to project files for the business to thrive. Through some independent research, various IT conferences and with the help of IT Solutions provider Symetri, Austin-Smith:Lord decided to implement Panzura technology into their business in 2018.

It’s more than achieving my expectations, it’s exceeding. As the IT manager, I’m sold on it. The fact that the solution was installed implemented, and it just works – people just get on and do it. That’s success.

Seamless and Efficient Access to Data Saves Time

Once it was decided to implement Panzura, Symetri worked with Austin-Smith:Lord to design the deployment for their specific needs such as hardware requirements.

After a hardware refresh, Symetri implemented Panzura CloudFS Collaboration in July 2018, which has continued to benefit Austin-Smith:Lord in a number of ways. Employees can work on jobs seamlessly, regardless of their geographical location. Because of this, company executives can better adjust how they staff certain jobs. Austin-Smith:Lord can pull experts in to work on high-level jobs from remote locations, saving both time and money.

This ability to efficiently share data globally can reduce costs by up to 70%. Additionally, Austin-Smith:Lord is able to enjoy working on a single copy of their data in the cloud, creating greater simplicity for the organization. The technology is so simple that staff members have been able to deploy it with great success and ease-of-use.

It also helps that Symetri’s support team are available on the other end of the phone when needed as well.

Result: Increase Productivity While Reducing Costs

This implementation is also proof of a larger trend at play—modern businesses are driving the need for multiple users to work collaboratively on the same projects at the same time, as was the case with Austin-Smith:Lord. Thanks to Panzura’s distributed file and byte-range locking, latency between offices and delays in opening and synchronizing files is practically eliminated.

The use of byte-range locking also ensures that data is never over written and there is never more than one version of the same file. This real-time collaboration makes all the difference in preventing data corruption.

In short, Panzura CloudFS Collaboration enables Austin-Smith:Lord to work more effectively with their employees no matter where they’re located.