Leading Design-Build Firm Simplifies IT, Discovers Surprising Performance with Cloud Workstations
Providing BIM managers and design engineers anywhere-access to GPU-intensive apps and project data transforms the business
Challenge:
After grappling with replicating and maintaining massive amounts of project data across more than 17 locations, Southland’s IT team realized their current approach was fast becoming unsustainable, and they had reached a crossroads: Either invest more in data center infrastructure or completely change their approach. While this was the most urgent problem to be solved, significant business challenges, including the rising cost of pursuing new opportunities where they did not already have an office location, as well as the complexity of joint venture operations, also demanded action. Southland’s Israel Sumano led the way to the solution: Workspot on Microsoft Azure.
Solution:
• Conduct intensive engineer acceptance testing of Workspot Workstation Cloud
• Rollout Workspot Workstation Cloud to designers and BIM managers
• Replace physical GPU workstations with cloud GPU workstations
• Introduce cloud workstations into joint venture projects for simplicity & scalability
• Replicate cloud workstations in alternate Azure regions for disaster recovery
With Workspot, an innovative new medical center at the hospital at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated the value of using cloud workstations across joint venture partners. “Multiple companies worked on the same data set; we were able to share data with multiple companies—including all of our subcontractors. Joint venture projects are the future of construction—it’s already a standard in Europe and will be here [in the United States] soon. Workspot simplifies any joint venture,” says Israel Sumano, Senior Director of Infrastructure at Southland.
Benefits:
• Anywhere-productivity with outstanding performance, using less expensive devices
• Project teams can collaborate in real-time on complex designs, boosting productivity & accelerating project deliverables
• Access to the best talent, anywhere; onboard new hires instantly & cost-effectively
• Rapid response to changing business and project dynamics
• Simplified and more cost-effective disaster recovery planning
“With Workspot, we had a working solution in a week."
“Workspot brought ease of use to a solution that has been very cumbersome in the past. The solution is easy to deploy, simple to use and maintain, and the GPU-accelerated workstations can be deployed in any region of Azure around the world, which delivers stellar performance to our power users.”
Israel Sumano – Senior Director of Infrastructure Services
Southland Customer Success Story
Israel Sumano, Sr Director Infrastructure Services, Southland Industries
