2011.04.20 S&T Revit Cloud

B u l k & L o c a t i o n

S&T Revit CloudBUSINESS BENEFITS&&&

S &T R e v i t C l o u d - B u s i n e s s B e n e f i t s


High System Resource Utilisation

• Up to 12 Revit operators can concurrently connect to each Revit Cloud box. Each Revit operator runs a discrete Revit session as a Remote Application.




• Each Revit Cloud Box presents a system resource pool of 24 hyper threaded CPU cores, 2GB of GPU, and 32 GB of RAM. Adding additional Revit Cloud boxes into a “Revit Cloud Farm” multiplies the available system resource pool.




• Each Revit Cloud Box presents a system resource pool of 24 hyper threaded CPU cores, 2GB of GPU, and 32 GB of RAM. Adding additional Revit Cloud boxes into a “Revit Cloud Farm” multiplies the available system resource pool.

• Revit operators can confi dently interface with the largest Revit project fi les within the Revit Cloud environment without risk of local computer system crashes due to insuffi cient system resources.


64bit OS Stability

• The Revit Cloud environment is completely 64bit. Recent Autodesk research has revealed that running 64bit Revit on a 64bit OS is up to twice as stable as running 32bit Revit on a 32bit OS environment.


64bit OS Stability


• Fundamentally the only diff erence between 32bit and 64bit software is that 64bit software allows more access to system memory. Access to more memory means that the OS isn’t as taxed when running Revit and Revit isn’t crammed for memory space.


64bit OS Stability


• Fundamentally the only diff erence between 32bit and 64bit software is that 64bit software allows more access to system memory. Access to more memory means that the OS isn’t as taxed when running Revit and Revit isn’t crammed for memory space.

• The S&T Revit Cloud environment has been running continuously since May 2010 with 100% system uptime.


Increased ROI from Datacentre-based

Consolidation

• The business investment in IT is consolidated into Datacentre-based Revit Infrastructure rather than buried into Revit operator personal computing hardware.



Consolidation


• This Datacentre-based infrastructure investment becomes a highly utilised asset that is leveraged across the entire organisation, helping to deliver a signifi cant return on infrastructure and licensing investments.



Consolidation


• This Datacentre-based infrastructure investment becomes a highly utilised asset that is leveraged across the entire organisation, helping to deliver a signifi cant return on infrastructure and licensing investments.

• Ongoing investment in Revit operator personal computers can be at a signifi cantly lower cost.


Modular & Scalable Design

The Revit Cloud is designed to be completely modular and scal-able. By simply adding additional Revit Cloud boxes into a “Revit Cloud Farm”, the infrastructure can be scaled to accommodate any increase in Revit operator numbers.


HP Z400 iPhone CPU


Load Balanced Hardware

• The Revit Cloud is eff ectively a Datacentre-based pool of high-performance CPU/GPU/RAM system resources optimised for the Revit Remote Application environment.




• Access to the Cloud resources is controlled and load-balanced by the “Revit Cloud Broker” to ensure that no one Revit operator can consume an excessive level of system resources to the detriment or risk of other concurrently connected Revit operators.




• Access to the Cloud resources is controlled and load-balanced by the “Revit Cloud Broker” to ensure that no one Revit operator can consume an excessive level of system resources to the detriment or risk of other concurrently connected Revit operators.

• When a Revit operator connects to the Revit Cloud, the Revit Cloud Broker seamlessly connects the operator to a Revit Cloud Box in the “Farm” that has the least number of concurrent Revit operator connections.


12:1 Revit Operator Density

S&T’s Revit Cloud system resource specifi cation has been de-signed to accommodate up to 12 concurrently connected Revit operators working in an integrated Revit Workset environment.


12:1 Revit Operator Density

S&T’s Revit Cloud system resource specifi cation has been de-signed to accommodate up to 12 concurrently connected Revit operators working in an integrated Revit Workset environment.

Local-Like Revit Performance

• Extremely positive feedback has been received from S&T Revit operators running Revit in the production environment as a RemoteApp over the LAN to S&T’s Revit Cloud Farm.


• The comments received have enabled S&T to conclude that Revit Cloud has a similar level of responsiveness and performance compared with operating Revit locally on the latest HP Z600 workstation hardware.


• The comments received have enabled S&T to conclude that Revit Cloud has a similar level of responsiveness and performance compared with operating Revit locally on the latest HP Z600 workstation hardware.

• The performance of Revit Cloud is signifi cantly more responsive than locally installed Revit for operations where the Revit supports hyper threading eg batch printing.


Low-Cost Revit Operator Personal Computer

Hardware

• S&T’s Revit Cloud provisions Revit to the operator as a discreet Remote Application. As the Revit application is running remotely to the operator personal computer, Revit consumes the system resources of the Revit Cloud Box, not the resources of the personal computer.



Hardware


• The Revit operator’s local workstation becomes a mere user interface into the Revit Cloud environment.



Hardware


• The Revit operator’s local workstation becomes a mere user interface into the Revit Cloud environment.

• Only video images, keyboard strokes, and mouse clicks are transmitted to and from the Revit Cloud Box over the LAN/WAN.


• In theory, any old or low-resource computing hardware can be utilised as an eff ective Revit modelling computer, even for large and complex Revit model fi les. Even thin-client computers with minimal system resources have been demonstrated to be eff ective, low-cost, Revit Cloud

“interface” devices.



Hardware/OS Agnostic

(Window 7 Pro and XP Pro Preferred)

• Whilst the preferred and optimised Revit operator computing environment is a personal computer running Windows 7 Pro or Windows XP Pro OS, it is indeed possible to deploy S&T’s Revit Cloud to non-Windows OS computing devices, including Apple Mac.


Hardware/OS Agnostic

(Window 7 Pro and XP Pro Preferred)

• Whilst the preferred and optimised Revit operator computing environment is a personal computer running Windows 7 Pro or Windows XP Pro OS, it is indeed possible to deploy S&T’s Revit Cloud to non-Windows OS computing devices, including Apple Mac.

• Revit Cloud has been successfully demonstrated on an Apple iPhone, and a deployment model for Apple iPad, or similar Windows-based slate computing devices is planned for 2011.


Geographically Distributed WAN Collaboration

• Geographically distributed Revit design and documentation teams can collaborate securely over the public internet using SSL-VPN and S&T’s Revit Cloud RemoteApp.


Geographically Distributed WAN Collaboration

• Geographically distributed Revit design and documentation teams can collaborate securely over the public internet using SSL-VPN and S&T’s Revit Cloud RemoteApp.

• The available bandwidth and latency of the WAN connection will dictate the number of concurrent WAN-based Revit RemoteApp connections permitted, and the type of collaboration activity possible. A number of off -the-shelf WAN accelerator appliances available on the market can assist with minimising the negative eff ects of contested bandwidth and higher latency WAN connections.


• The optimal work environment for a team of “Revit Modeller” operators is a LAN based Revit Cloud solution. This workfl ow can be extended to geographically distributed WAN based

“Revit Modellers” provisioned over a high speed/low-latency VPN connection on fi ber.


• The optimal work environment for a team of “Revit Modeller” operators is a LAN based Revit Cloud solution. This workfl ow can be extended to geographically distributed WAN based

“Revit Modellers” provisioned over a high speed/low-latency VPN connection on fi ber.

• WAN based “Revit Reviewers”, who’s primary activity is the review of the Revit model on the Revit Cloud, rather than being tasked with the “heavy-lifting” role of modifying the Revit model, can be easily accommodated over lower-bandwidth, higher-latency WAN connections. Wan-based

“Revit Reviewers” can interface with the Revit Cloud over residential quality copper based connections provided the number of concurrent connections is limited to no more than 2 operators.


Anywhere/Anytime Nationwide (and International)

Access

• The Revit Cloud is designed as a secure and highly-available 24/7/365 Datacentre-based SaaS RemoteApp for both LAN and WAN-based Revit operators and “model reviewers” across a range of client interface devices.


Anywhere/Anytime Nationwide (and International)

Access

• The Revit Cloud is designed as a secure and highly-available 24/7/365 Datacentre-based SaaS RemoteApp for both LAN and WAN-based Revit operators and “model reviewers” across a range of client interface devices.

• The Revit Cloud SaaS design fully supports the concept of a mobile yet highly connected Revit-based workforce.



Rapid Provisioning

• Secure and Rapid Provisioning of Approved Application Image


Rapid Provisioning


• S&T’s Revit Cloud supports rapid provisioning of approved Revit “images” that are preinstalled, patched to the appropriate build number, and deployed as a Remote Applications to the Revit operator team.


Rapid Provisioning


• S&T’s Revit Cloud supports rapid provisioning of approved Revit “images” that are preinstalled, patched to the appropriate build number, and deployed as a Remote Applications to the Revit operator team.

• Access to all Revit Cloud Remote Applications is controlled by membership of the appropriate security group. A new Revit operator can be added to the appropriate security group and be using an approved Revit Cloud RemoteApp within minutes of joining the project team.


Improved Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery

• Revit Cloud is designed as a fully redundant failover system, with Revit Cloud Datacentres situated in S&T’s Auckland and Wellington offi ces.




• RAID-5 SAN storage devices in both offi ces coupled with inter-offi ce replication technologies underpin the BCP and DR strategies ensuring continuity of service levels with minimal data and productivity loss.




• RAID-5 SAN storage devices in both offi ces coupled with inter-offi ce replication technologies underpin the BCP and DR strategies ensuring continuity of service levels with minimal data and productivity loss.

• The Revit Cloud, SAN and Data Replication services are monitored 24/7 by an accredited IT monitoring agency,


Utilisation of Revit Network License Assets

• S&T’s Revit Cloud deploys Revit as a discreet RemoteApp utilising 1:1 per-user seats from Autodesk’s Network Licensing Server license pool to ensure compliance with Autodesk’s EULA.




• Revit Network Licenses, despite attracting a one-off establishment cost, have the potential to achieve up to 30% higher license utilisation rates in a production environment compared with stand-alone licensing deployments.




• Revit Network Licenses, despite attracting a one-off establishment cost, have the potential to achieve up to 30% higher license utilisation rates in a production environment compared with stand-alone licensing deployments.

• S&T’s Network License Server can be easily confi gured to host external consultant’s Revit licenses (on a project basis), thus enabling the external consultant’s Revit operators direct access to the S&T Revit Cloud collaborative environment.


S&T Intellectual Property

S&T’s Revit Cloud is fully designed and built by S&T’s ICT & BIM Teams and is constituted the intellectual property of Stephenson&Turner NZ Ltd.

Documents

2011.04.20 S&T Revit Cloud