Over the past several years, there seems to be a trend for the AECO industry to move their data to the cloud. Many areas of our business are being affected by this movement including file sharing, collaborative documents, and knowledge sharing.
Although the adoption of cloud technologies has continued to grow exponentially, there are many opinions on the pros and cons of implementing cloud technology. In today’s post, we’ll cover the top three benefits of cloud technology as it applies directly to a BIM manager.
#1 Access Anywhere
As with any cloud storage solution, the most obvious benefit of moving data to the cloud is its accessibility from any device with an internet connection. Conventionally, IT departments would need to be involved in setting up any sort of remote access to a local network drive.
This ease-of-access proves to be particularly useful for BIM managers who work with multiple offices or have team members that work on a construction site. For example, if a VDC coordinator or BIM specialist is working remotely and needs access to the company’s library of standard Revit families, a cloud solution such as UNIFI Pro would significantly reduce the amount of effort it would take to give that user remote access.
#2 Automated Revisioning
Many will agree that one of the benefits of cloud storage for file sharing is the automated versioning capability. Cloud providers such as Dropbox, Egnyte, and Google Drive all provide revisions of any files that you overwrite, mitigating the risk of accidental overwriting of files and loss of data.
Digital assets, Revit families and other forms of BIM and CAD content should be treated no differently, which is why UNIFI pro provides a full change management system which allows you track the revisions of any content stored in the cloud. UNIFI not only automatically logs who changed what and when, but also allows users to add notes so that the team can always reference the revision history of a file.
#3 Cloud Computing
Simply put, cloud computing allows users to make changes to data by using a remote server, aka “the cloud”. This allows you to free up your local machine for other tasks while the cloud delivers the computing services over the internet.
One example of how UNIFI Pro uses cloud computing is it’s automated Revit version upgrade feature. Any Revit content that is uploaded to UNIFI (e.g., loadable families, system families, schedules, materials, and more) is future-proofed by our cloud. Said differently, you’ll no longer need to upgrade your Revit family libraries manually or maintain libraries for multiple versions of Revit, because our cloud will do so automatically.
Embrace the Cloud
These are just a few benefits of the cloud for BIM managers. As you can see, there are many opportunities to save time and money by letting the cloud handle your data and do the computing for .you. Contact us for an evaluation of how we can help you move your BIM content to the cloud to maximize your team’s productivity.