VDIPOD: Elevating the AEC industry evolution

Constructive collaboration

Success in the AEC industry takes farsighted strategies. Getting to market sooner, with standout innovation. Ensuring projects don’t over-run, while improving client outcomes. Attracting and retaining the best talent. Saving money. Boosting the bottom line.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology’s been around for a few years. It’s helped progressive AEC companies address such challenges by making them more agile. Their people get more done: onsite, in the office, on the move, at home.

Digital transformation of the VDI delivery model has added an extra dimension, taking it from server-centric complexity, only understood by costly onsite IT staff, to
a simple elastic cloud service consumed in a flexible pay-as-you-go manner.

But, more than that, VDI delivered as a cloud service creates a virtual workspace for adopting Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2 – an integral part of the joint industry-Government Strategy for Construction.

BIM challenges

Traditional on-premise VDI solutions have shown that the underlying technology not only works but also delivers solid business benefits. However, when it comes to BIM they can only take businesses so far. Mainly because they aren’t designed as open platforms. So, architects and designers can’t easily work together in real time with people inside and outside their organisations. Huge amounts of time and money are wasted moving large files between companies and on emails and interminable uploads and downloads; applying the brakes on efficiency and decision-making.

Proven technology that’s now even better

VDIPOD from Creative ITC breaks the mould, providing AEC companies with BIM Level 2 adoption now and a ready-made platform for achieving BIM Level 3. The new standard will become mandatory in 2025 and requires project participants to update a single, shared integrated building model in real time.

With VDIPOD, AEC companies can collaborate at scale and in new ways: internally, with clients, with external partners, and throughout the supply chain. Forming a ready-made collaborative workspace for application communities like AutoCAD and Revit BIM, so they can freely share data and produce stunning business outcomes.

Best of breed, end-to-end, with a difference

Hosted from Creative’s data centre, VDIPOD runs as a fully managed private cloud and is the ideal solution for joint ventures and diverse, global project teams. It combines best-of-breed technologies – including VMware Horizon VDI, Dell PowerEdge servers, Nvidia GRID graphics cards, Cisco networking and NetApp storage. That provides the peace of mind that comes from knowing the platform is fully secure. It’s also fine-tuned for optimal performance, so your applications run faster than ever before.

In addition, VDIPOD provides unique advantages that you can’t get from rival offerings:

  • Full integration with Active Directory
    • Simplifying user authentication and saving you time
  • VDI traffic uses existing Internet connections
    • Preserving your security posture for web and content filtering
  • Protected Common Data Environments
    • Enabling easy collaboration between project teams and joint ventures
  • No minimum users required
    • Allowing you to trial the solution with small groups

Business benefits, ensured

VDIPOD empowers AEC companies and their employees through outsourcing desktop and infrastructure management to Creative ITC. Giving IT teams more time to focus on innovation and transformational projects, these are the six key advantages.

1. Increased Mobility

Unchain people from their desks with a solution that’s purpose-designed for graphics-heavy programmes like CAD,
Revit, Photoshop and InDesign

2. Assured Business Continuity

Get projects up-and-running in the shortest time by allowing staff to drive their desktops remotely from devices like
tablets or home PCs.

3. Greater Security

Put data and apps into the cloud to improve security and reduce the risk of data loss. Plus simplify everyday tasks, like
maintaining version control for plans and designs.

4. Higher Productivity

Ensure people suffer less downtime and can work remotely without returning to the office to share large files like
plans and designs. And always access right versions.

5. Capex Spike Avoidance

No more provisioning delays or Capex. Connect new offices and users simply by adding licences as needed. Charged
monthly per user, with no minimum number required.

6. Tighter Cost Control

Move to VDIPOD to save money on PC and laptop refreshes, software licences and IT support contracts. When client projects end, just switch off the machines.

Presented as an attractive commercial model, VDIPOD relieves the pain of running complex desktop IT estates, while offering the flexibility it takes to operate successfully and profitably in today’s fluid AEC environment. For example, unlike traditional on-premise solutions, IT teams don’t have to:

  • Buy more infrastructure every time they exceed user count, a lengthy process that typically takes between three to six months.
  • Hire and train VDI specialists to maintain service levels and the user experience.
  • Carry spare server capacity just in case it might ever be needed.