Building Owners

Dear cloud: What would you like to tell cloud-based technical providers about your needs for a solid solution?

Editor's note: This is a sponsored article. All text and images were provided by the sponsor company.
June 11, 2013
2 min read
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Editor's note: This is a sponsored article. All text and images were provided by the sponsor company.

 
It seems like every technical provider is offering a cloud-based module of their solution to store, share and access information. Sounds good, right? Why wouldn’t you want to jump in? There are many uses for the cloud applicable to those in the building industry—mainly storage of up-to-the-minute project drawings and data, giving accessibility to all project team members regardless of their location. But is that enough?
 
According to a past BD+C article entitled, "BIM's Future up in the Cloud," the future of building collaboration will primarily live online. In fact the article states that by 2020 Cloud computing will have reached a global audience with $241 billion in potential revenue. If we’re going to get from here to there with your needs in mind, I thought I’d ask you what you’d like to see in your cloud solution of tomorrow. And I wonder are you beginning to see value in the cloud today?  What do you still need?
 
As I techie myself, I have to admit that stories of the future where project teams collaborate seamlessly in the cloud really excite me. However, my excitement is tempered by the reality I face each time I am without an internet connection and am completely cut off from my virtual world. Being that I fly multiple times a month, I experience this disconnectedness often. And when I am disconnected, I’m grateful for my locally installed programs which allow me to continue working while 35K feet in the air (and for those few cloud solutions that let me work even when I’m offline). 
 
One challenge I see for this utopic forecast is to continue to build a bridge between the connected and the disconnected world, while simultaneously working to make connectivity more accessible and reliable than ever before.  Do you agree? What would you say are the “must haves” for the cloud of your future?

About the Author

Sasha Reed

As Vice President of Strategic Development at Bluebeam, Inc., Sasha Reed collaborates with leaders in the architecture, engineering and construction industry to guide Bluebeam’s technology, partnerships and long-term goals. She joined Bluebeam in 2007 and co-created the Concierge Approach, a distinctly branded process of customer engagement, product feedback and solution delivery to which much of Bluebeam’s success is attributed, and which today is replicated at every organizational level.

Sasha is known industry-wide as a “conversation facilitator,” creating platforms for exchanges necessary to digitally advance the industry, including the BD+C Magazine Digital COM Blog, which she authors and manages. She’s been a featured presenter at numerous national and international conferences, including the 2014 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Federal Project Delivery Symposium and NTI Danish BIM Conference. Sasha also co-chairs the Construction PDF Coalition, a grassroots effort to provide a common industry framework from which to create and maintain construction PDF documents, serves on the City College of San Francisco BIM Industry Council, and is Advisor to the Board of Direction for the National Institute of Building Sciences BuildingSMART Alliance.

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