Managing your hardware and data … food for thought!

By Kim Hyde

Image Source: ThoughtCo

Although the origins of the Internet and the World Wide Web can probably be traced back to the development of computing back in the 1950s, APRANET in the 1960s and NFSNET in the 1980s, it was the 1990s that witnessed the start of the exponential growth in use of the internet for both the communication and sharing of data. Terms such as emails, Cloud storage and Social Media now common place today where alien in relatively recent history. PCs and smart phones alike all have a reliance on two principals assets, namely the ability to communicate and store data.

Arguably baring global disasters and mass extinctions, few events such as this quantum leap in technology have such an effect on humanity both positively and perhaps negatively. Currently on-line purchasing continues to see the demise of many high street retail outlets and one cannot ignore the Darwinian principal of `adapt or die’; although the future is impossible to fully predict, patterns continue to emerge that permanently change our perspective of this technology.

The use of Cloud storage is certainly one of the most used assets whether consciously or not, data is being stored in incalculable amounts; from mobile texts and photos, to PC Web storage and 365 applications, all are stored on servers somewhere. One man’s Cloud is another man’s server system. The term `The Internet of Things’ relating to any device that uses imbedded facilities to communicate via the Internet is another example that is integrated with the Web-based storage of information.

One of the most recent adoptions witnessed is for business to migrate from the use of `in-house’ server hardware to complete `Cloud-based’ systems. Attitudes towards the cost of hardware maintenance, balanced with a single rental service charge has witnessed a rapid growth for Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS services alike. Although such services may not suit all, the analogy of this and the changes affecting retail, we may be witnessing a similar migration to further integration and reliance on Internet based services. When it comes to considering data management, what does the future hold? … this poses an interesting set of questions. Do companies continue to maintain both their hardware and data (perhaps over multiple replicated sites) in-house, or perhaps migrate both to Cloud-based services? Again, the answer is not one solution suits all, but perhaps a combination of both?

All companies must evolve to the continuous changes in technology, Autodesk working closely with Microsoft and Amazon are no exception. Both Autodesk Vault Workgroup and Autodesk Vault Professional are supported on Azure and AWS, in addition Vault Professional offers tools to dynamically sync database files with Autodesk Cloud solutions such as Fusion Team and BIM 360.

If you are starting to consider your data options, Cadline offers a free data management discovery service to understand the direction of your business and recommend the best path that will maintain the integrity of often complex design data whilst satisfying company data requirements.

Call 01784 419922 to book your free Data Management Discovery session today.