Multiple Office Setup

[tra1133]

We are a small to mid-size architecture firm with two offices. Each office has its own server(s) with each controlling projects and each having its own set of ACA 2009 setup (both a copy of each other). I am wondering what would be the best solution to combine servers for both offices to one location (to include backup servers as well as possible off site storage). I am not an IT guy but am the CAD Manager, so I do work with IT a lot. I am hoping to merge the information of both offices for multiple reasons:

1. Continuity of work output. Right now it seems that there are two separate firms under one corporate name. With me in one office, I can't keep track of how the "others" are drafting (yes, I know it also comes down to training, but people will usually do things their way no matter what you do).

2. Ease of accessing projects from one office to the other. Instead of sending users to the other office when they get busy, I would like to see us able to work "together".

3. One set of standards location. Right now, anytime I make updates to our standards, I have to update two separate servers in two separate locations.

I am looking for hardware and/ or software ideas. Thanks.

[cadtag]

For the first one, you really need to make it easier to work similarly, than to work uniquely. that generally means custom tools, identical customization, identical pathing, identical support. It's not as easy to do as it sounds, but in the long run well worth it. Bottom line is it has to be simpler to work with the system, than to work around it. People will still need to work around sometimes, (you certainly don't presume to think you can predict all needs ahead of time, do you?), but for the typical work product, the system you push out should be better/faster/quicker.

For two, it's really going to depend on your organization's WAN capabilities. Look into Riverbed or equivalents, because one thing you do not want happening is people copying remote files locally to work on them. That never ends well....

As far as remote backup, that's really an IT issue. Your concern should be less about the backups, and more the ability to restore. If that can happen more effectively in one location instead of two, great.

For three, i'm puzzled at the problem.. Best practices would suggest that you do all customization and standards development off line, using a testing server (even if's just an old Dell P4 Optiplex), and only after your work is thoroughly tested push it out to the working servers. That could be as simple as a batch file, or a Robocopy command. And whether there are two targets or only one, the process is the same. I've done that with up to 14 remote servers, scattered from Boston to San Diego w/o worries.

[USMCBody]

My company is also looking to put all there files in one office location, and we also have offices throu out the US that would work off of that one office's files. What my IT people are looking for is a company that already does that so they ask technical IT questions like what equipment do you us, what speeds, what software, what problems are you running into, etc..

We currently have AutoCAD 2007, and Revit 2010, but are looking in the near future to upgrade company wide a few things. computer, software, and yes the network.

So if anyone is willing, please post your contact info and I'll have my guy call.

[cadtag]

If you're talking about consolidating design files in a single location with everyone working off them, then feel free to PM me, but I'll tell you up front it's a fundamentally bad idea IMHO if your people out in the world are doing billable work. It may make IT's life easier, but that's not very important in an AEC consulting firm.

There are things you can consolidate to HQ -- backups in particular, but every billable person out in the hinterlands needs to be able to stay billable regardless of network problems, cut wires, or any other planned or unplanned outage.

[bdonay.96559]

Check out PEER Software or TIMS. Both support multi office collaboration from a centrally located file.