Autocad Files access from multiple locations

[Anonymous]

Team,

Please assist to understand how can we have a centralized model to access autocad files currently residing in multiple office locations?

Environment:

04 Physical offices

Each Office has its own File Sharing server to store Autocad files.

However, we want a centralized model so one source of truth and data accessible to all in the organization.

Kindly share inputs on what best approach is recommended.

[chriscowgill7373]

I dont know that there is one "best" approach to this topic.  At my firm, we have 3 locations, and we have 3 copies of our data files that are kept in sync, and locked out when in use by a software called Peerlink.  It is working well for us, but I am sure there are many other solutions out there that do the same thing, and they all have there pros and cons.  We found that having only one copy of the data was not feasible to access data from our other offices, due to the lack of speed when accessing the files across the internet.  Local files are faster to access and work with.

[TheCADnoob]

We use a cloud based system . I wont bother suggesting it as its designed for other business units and we have had to crowbar in our segment. 

Have you considered using the cloud type services? How good is your connection?

https://a360.autodesk.com/drive/

[Anonymous]

Cloud services may be your best option, however, you need to check with your client for security concerns for cloud based data.  We have several clients who prohibit the use of cloud based file sharing due to the sensitive nature of their products.  (Some of those clients also prohibit remote office access entirely).  We rely on a Citrix based file replication application to sync files across our file sharing base.  With the size files we regularly use, remote access is slow and cumbersome, especially when dealing with numerous large reference files.  We've found it much more efficient to replicate data overnight to keep access local, and execute several updates for changed files during the day. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information.
How about having the MPLS environment and all offices connect via MPLS to the Datacenter for centralized Data storage of AutoCAD files?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information.
How about having the MPLS environment and all offices connect via MPLS to the Datacenter for centralized Data storage of AutoCAD files?

[quinn]

Good day,

Have you considered using Autodesk Vault?

It is designed for collaboration and data management, it is also capable of working across multiple sites.

I would recommend this over using a normal cloud store as it provides better control and security.