Hybrid Cloud File Data  Infrastructure to Power AEC’s Digital Transformation

Frequently Asked Questions for AEC

• How does data fragmentation impact AEC project profitability?

  Data fragmentation, where files are scattered across different storage silos, directly affects profitability by causing rework and delays. Teams waste up to 5.5 hours weekly searching for project details, which can contribute to rework costs that consume 14% of project budgets. This inefficiency leads to missed deadlines and budget overruns. The lack of a central, unified location for files also prevents firms from leveraging historical project data to improve bidding strategies, resource allocation, and risk management, which are key to profitability. 

• What are the hidden costs of outdated file storage for AEC firms?

  Outdated file storage has hidden costs beyond the initial hardware purchases. These costs include redundant storage at multiple office locations and extensive WAN bandwidth consumption from repeated data transfers. Furthermore, IT teams can spend up to 40% of their time on maintenance and management of fragmented infrastructure. This operational overhead, combined with the need for separate backup and disaster recovery solutions, can impede project timelines and significantly increase long-term total cost of ownership (TCO). 

• How does Panzura CloudFS ensure real-time collaboration without version conflicts

  Panzura CloudFS enables real-time collaboration for AEC firms through a global file system with a full mesh architecture. The platform provides a single, unified view of all data. When a user opens a file, it is instantly locked across the entire system, preventing others from editing the same file at the same time. This distributed file locking mechanism ensures zero version conflicts and eliminates the time-consuming manual resolution that can impact project schedules and profitability.

• How does Panzura CloudFS protect against ransomware and data loss?

  Panzura CloudFS protects against ransomware and data loss by storing all file data in an immutable dataset that cannot be overwritten or corrupted. The platform’s AI-powered Threat Control feature uses behavioral analysis to detect anomalous activity, like mass deletions and data exfiltration, and can automatically disable a compromised user account to minimize an attack’s spread. Additionally, continuous snapshots are taken every 60 seconds, which allows firms to restore data to a clean, immutable state in minutes. 
  

• How does Panzura CloudFS’s global deduplication impact TCO for large projects?

  Panzura CloudFS dramatically lowers TCO through its inline, global deduplication. It stores only a single instance of a unique data block across all project sites, which reduces storage consumption by up to 80% and cuts WAN bandwidth costs by up to 85%. This single-instance storage model potentially saves hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on cloud storage, network costs, and overall infrastructure, providing a financial advantage over other solutions.

• How does Panzura CloudFS enable AEC firms to scale without massive IT costs?

  Panzura CloudFS allows firms to expand without the high costs of traditional IT infrastructure. Unlike other systems that require significant upfront capital expenditure for hardware and servers at each new office, CloudFS uses a capacity-based economic model. This eliminates the need for expensive, redundant hardware and separates the cost from the number of users. AEC firms can quickly add new offices that have immediate access to all project data, making expansion financially sustainable and scalable.

• How does Panzura CloudFS make AEC project data AI-ready without complex migration?

  Panzura CloudFS features a native S3 interface that allows direct, dual-protocol access to file data. This eliminates the need for complex and costly data migration processes, which are needed to data lakes for AI initiatives. AEC firms can run AI and ML analytics directly on their live and historical project data, turning years of information into actionable business intelligence for tasks like proposal generation, risk prediction, and resource optimization.