Autodesk unveils potent cloud service

Autodesk® Cloud, introduced recently, brings storage, infrastructure-as-a-Service-based rendering and collaboration capabilities to its customers in a way that compliments the mobile applications, such as AutoCAD WS, the web and mobile application software for AutoCAD software introduced last year. Cloud-based modeling and analysis enables AEC customers to make better informed decisions substantially earlier in their Building Information Modeling (BIM) processes, allowing intelligent models to be analyzed over the web at the conceptual design stage, and consider multiple alternatives. The cloud service is the realization of several different Autodesk design products working together in the early stage of a building project.

While the design potential of mobile and web-based applications like AutoCAD WS and Autodesk® Green Building Studio® is fully taken advantage of with the Autodesk® Cloud service, its real potential for most architects will be unlocked in the desktop applications the cloud service enables. SaaS Cloud-based rendering and analysis can be even more useful for programs such as Autodesk® Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Revit® MEP, and Autodesk® 3ds Max®, helping designers and engineers take full advantage of the power of  BIM.  Autodesk’s Cloud Service is similar Amazon Web Service’s in that it’s a cloud-based storage and collaboration platform where files can be stored, shared and retrieved by architects or other project team members wherever they are in the world. You can have access to your DWG or other design files in every form they can be opened in, whether that’s drafting in AutoCAD on a desktop or laptop, or showing them to a client with a smartphone in AutoCAD WS.

Autodesk is taking responsibility for the security of its cloud service, as well, so IT administrators nervous about sensitive information don’t have to worry about it being lost in the broadband ether. The company is also embedding analytics into its mobile and SaaS services so that they, and their clients, can see how to most effectively use them. The future is here and it’s the cloud. BD+C