Caron Beesley

The future of government offices, buildings, and installations is about to change dramatically. When workers return to work or building owners make changes to how they work, they can expect offices to be designed differently to minimize the spread of germs and make people feel safe. But we can also expect sanitation to step up significantly.

Digital design data is a big data business. It requires secure management and storage, versions need to be stringently controlled, and teams need to access files readily so they can share that data with stakeholders. For too long, however, designers, engineers, and CAD managers have relied on traditional document management systems, like network drives, to achieve this. While they do a great job with office documents, those same solutions don’t work well with today’s design files and models, for several reasons:

AutoCAD 2021 is here! On March 25, 2020, Autodesk announced the release of AutoCAD 2021 the latest iteration of its flagship software first released in 1982. A key update includes a new integration with Google Drive allowing users to access their designs wherever they are as well as performance enhancements. Let’s break down what’s new.

Although cloud adoption in government is growing, it can be a challenging technology to envision. Many cloud deployments don’t go as planned, take longer than expected to implement, or fail completely. In the private sector, studies suggest that 74% of those organizations that move an application to the cloud moved it back into their own infrastructure.

Article originally posted to GovDesignHub here. If you’ve made the move from AutoCAD to Revit, congratulations. But what do you do with that huge library of details that you amassed over years of working on CAD projects? As you transition to Revit, recreating AutoCAD details is a hassle and trashing them is out of the question. The good news is, you can use details right in your Revit project – straight from AutoCAD.

Article originally posted to GovDesignHub here.   Building and maintaining our nation’s infrastructure is a critical responsibility of the public sector. Yet, year-after-year, the U.S. continues to rank low on the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Infrastructure Report Card.

Article originally posted on GovDesignHub here. Autodesk University (AU) returns to Las Vegas from November 19-21 – and we have some good news. In addition to discounted conference passes now available on GSA Schedule, Autodesk Certification exams are back at AU 2019!

The days may be getting longer but as summer approaches your time to capitalize on SLED fiscal year-end sales opportunities is getting shorter. June 30th marks the end of the fiscal year in 46 U.S. states, this also includes many cities and counties. In 2019 state and local budgets have set aside $107.6 billion for IT spending alone and the fourth quarter is one of the busiest times for spending those tax dollars.

While there has been a steady increase in the adoption of DevOps in the federal government – 75% of CIOs report that their organizations are now adopting it – many public sector organizations struggle to adapt to the DevOps culture. Challenges to Using DevOps in the Public Sector

If you’re worried about your next database migration or upgrade, you’re not alone. A survey revealed that 90% of DBAs are worried too. It’s not surprising, these projects are a serious source of stress and must be performed speedily and with minimal downtime. There are several reasons why migration projects fail. Typical pitfalls include:

Autodesk made further strides into its quest to empower the technological transformation of the construction industry with its recent acquisition of BuildingConnected – a leader in preconstruction tools that help building owners and contractors streamline their operations and communicate better.

The state of our nation’s infrastructure is grim. The most recent report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave U.S. infrastructure an overall score of “D” for “poor” or “at risk”.

Cloud services are accelerating agility and collaboration and generating cost-efficiencies for government agencies. But as the public sector takes more and more advantage of the cloud, it’s important not to forget the data. In SaaS environments, agencies own the security of that data and need to access it appropriately. When using IaaS or PaaS, government is also responsible for the security of those workloads and the correct configuration of the underlying application and infrastructure components.

Cloud adoption among government agencies is reaching an inflection point. Driven by the cloud’s cost-efficiencies and ability to offer an improved citizen experience, faster delivery of mission capabilities, agile development, and scale applications up and down, much of the initial reticence about cloud models is dissipating.

Fear of digital sabotage of the mid-term elections has become the biggest cybersecurity talking point of 2018. With the latest election security bill stalled in Congress and suspicions that Russia (and possibly others) are still seeking to sow divisions among the U.S. electorate, voters and political organizations are right to be worried.

Download the eBook here! If you’re one of the millions of people who’ve been lucky enough to hear Lynn Allen present, you’ll know her as the queen of AutoCAD tips and tricks and all-round Autodesk technical evangelist, but she also knows quite a bit about the latest disruptive technology – BIM.

We frequently write about BIM principles, use cases and best practices here on the DLT blog, but one area that often goes neglected in BIM are the soft skills or people skills. What is the role of a BIM manager anyway? How can you better achieve your project goals as design technology managers or support your personnel?

Did you love “BIM on the Rocks”, Autodesk’s blog dedicated to all things infrastructure design/build/management? Alas, as of August 31st, it’s no more. Before you grab your Kleenex, take a look at the new kid on the blog – Infrastructure Reimagined. Infrastructure Reimagined takes over from where BIM on the Rocks blog left off. Launched in June of this year, this new site is more of a slick resource hub than a regular blog feed. Easy-to-navigate, whatever your specialty or interest, the site is worth a bookmark.

It’s that time again. Autodesk University (AU) is fast approaching. This year’s in Las Vegas takes place November 14-16th. There’s still time to get savings off AU passes, if you haven’t locked down your spot yet, our sneak peek into what’s happening at AU 2017 may just tempt you! 700+ Sessions

The U.S has trailed much of the world when it comes to roundabouts, aka traffic circles or rotaries. In fact, Americans must pass through 1,118 intersections before they are likely to encounter a roundabout. In France, you’ll encounter one every 45 intersections and the UK every 127 intersections (source).

Making the move to AutoCAD Civil 3D or just getting to grips with all the new features that Autodesk regularly rolls out, can be challenging. DLT partner, IMAGINiT Technologies, sees them every day as they work on countless projects across the country. Getting the most out of Civil 3D and realizing its productivity and efficiency benefits requires a new approach to software. Keep yourself out of trouble by avoiding these top three user fails for AutoCAD Civil 3D.

If your agency or organization is thinking of moving to BIM for your infrastructure projects you’re probably wondering where to start. The good news is you are more BIM-ready than you thought. However, that doesn’t mean you can make the move overnight, although it may take less time than you think.

Even if you’ve made the move to Building Information Modeling and are experiencing the benefits of BIM, have you ever thought “there’s got to be a better way to manage project team collaboration?” The success of a BIM project comes back to the basics of communication and information sharing. Autodesk has produced a new eBook –  a definitive guide to cloud-connected design collaboration – that provides the information you need on:

Autodesk University (AU) is a great event for anyone looking to explore new innovations in digital design or brush up on their software skills. But not all public sector organizations have the budget to send their CAD teams to AU. No problem! AU has assembled a catalog of on-demand sessions that you can watch for free. You can also download the presentations, workbooks, and transcripts to keep by your side as you explore what you’ve learned.

BIM is everywhere. It’s poised for greater adoption by the U.S. government and, despite the “building” moniker, is also gaining ground in transportation infrastructure.

Data breach statistics are staggering. Through the end of March 2017, there have already been over 300 major breaches and over nine million records stolen. It’s a challenging problem and one that doesn’t come with a lot of solutions. Part of the problem is understanding what the patterns are. Today’s attacks have several stages from initial reconnaissance to object completion, as depicted in the Cyber Kill Chain which describes the phases of a targeted attack.

Today marks the release of Autodesk Revit 2018, and, as a member of the Autodesk AEC Bloggers Council, we’re proud to be first to bring you an overview of what’s new.

Despite mandates, BIM adoption in government has lagged its private sector counterparts. However, new data shows that BIM is poised for greater adoption across agency design and construction projects, as well as into building operations.

As incidents of government data breaches increase and threat landscapes grow, savvy federal, state and local government agencies should take a look at how data loss prevention technologies can help them discover, monitor, and protect sensitive data across clouds, mobile devices, and on-premise. What is Data Loss Prevention?

If you’re in the business of airport design and engineering, you may want to check out this class from Autodesk University (now available on demand for free). Presented by Creg Dieziger, a senior civil engineer designer with Morrison-Maierle and 28-year veteran in the civil engineering field.

It always blows my mind when I talk to designers and engineers who are still using CAD, even Microsoft Visio, for engineering and design work. But when it comes to designing future transportation systems, where complex workflows, tight budgets, and multiple stakeholders complicate project success, CAD simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Why? Drew Olsen, writing for the BIM on the Rocks blogs, shares some reasons: You need a faster way to get in front of the stakeholder to advance reviews

If you’re looking for your investment in BIM to pay off even more, the answer may be in the cloud. That’s because several of the biggest challenges for building design teams can be solved through cloud-based collaboration. Keeping everyone on the same page in the face of multiple documents and files are two of the top concerns that keep AEC professionals awake at night according to Autodesk sources, here are some more:

CAD managers are an asset to any organization, yet it’s a role that is often hard to pin down and continues to evolve. CAD managers wear many hats. They can fulfil management roles but also take on the role of drafter, IT expert, software procurement, CAD standard enforcement, hiring, and more. Being a CAD manager can be a rewarding role. In the government sector, CAD managers play an important role in engineering departments, supporting civil, surveying, and public works infrastructure projects – and can be compensated well for their contributions.

As global temperatures rise, extreme downpours can result in flash floods that put a catastrophic strain on U.S. infrastructure. In fact, a new study from Nature Climate Change and reported by The Guardian, suggests that by the century’s end, storms that now occur once a season (like the Louisiana flood of 2016) could happen five times a season – a 400% increase.

The world drone market is anticipated to reach $127 billion in 2020, suggests PricewaterhouseCoopers. From real estate surveying and image capture to Hollywood films to hobbyists, the use cases are vast. But drones are also predicted to become a preferred tool for construction sites.

On the same day that U.S. intelligence agencies issued a non-classified report citing that Russian state-sponsored influence campaigns sought to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process…” using a blend of covert activity (such as cyber activity) with overt efforts (state-funded media, paid trolls, etc.) the Department of Homeland Security took steps to protect the bedrock of our voting system – the nation’s election infrastructure.

Extreme weather events have become a part of daily life for many countries across the globe. The low-lying Netherlands, in particular, is seeing an increase in flood activity and costly flood repair to its sensitive network of dike systems. Faced with a dilemma, the nation’s Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment saw two possible solutions – give more room for the river or build higher dikes. It chose the former.

The OPM breach of 2014/2015, the largest government cybersecurity breach in history, was easily preventable. That’s according to a report released by The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform published on September 7th, 2016. The report, titled: “How the Government Jeopardized Our National Security for More than a Generation” urges federal CIOs to act:

If you thought BIM was going to eclipse CAD in the AEC world, think again. Even with the growing adoption of Revit, CAD is still being used on a lot of projects. So CAD folks and BIM folks need to learn to get along – capitalizing on BIM tools while making sure any AutoCAD 2D-based work is completed correctly. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Ensuring your CAD files are compatible with Revit can be challenging. So where do you start?

According to federal CIO Tony Scott, the U.S. government spends 76% of its $88 billion IT budget on operating and maintaining out-of-date technologies – that’s three times what is spent on modern systems. And while the proposed Modernizing Government Technology Act seeks to change all that with a centralized fund that agencies can apply for, in the meantime, aside from money, why are federal agencies so resistant to switching out old IT?

Insider threats and the misuse of data stored in the cloud has long been a concern for agency and IT leaders. But what remains clear, according to a new survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), is that there is clear lack of procedure for dealing with these instances in cloud computing.

Flood risk assessment and mitigation is a critical part of any civil engineer’s job. After Superstorm Sandy devastated the New Jersey/New York shore in 2012, it was discovered shortly thereafter that federal flood maps drawn up by FEMA were wrong. Unfortunately for many home and business owners, developers relied on FEMA’s assessment of risks when they built new homes near the water and property owners made decisions about whether to buy flood insurance based on those maps.

Cloud computing has made collecting, storing, and processing data easier and cheaper than ever. Agencies are increasingly leveraging big data to drive actionable insights and improve cyber threat detection. Furthermore, more than 60% of agencies are using big data to reduce costs and operating expenses, writes Information Week.

Nothing seems to surprise us anymore when it comes to cybersecurity. Attacks against government agencies and businesses are constantly in the headlines. Just last year, DLT partner, Symantec, discovered more than 430 million new unique pieces of malware across its Global Intelligence Network – that’s an increase of 35% over the previous year.

We all know that sifting through data is an overwhelming challenge for federal agencies. Various data types, stored across a range of disparate siloes, and a lack of resources to analyze the sheer amount of data, has long held up data analytics in government.

Federal fiscal year-end is the busiest season for government IT spending. With only a few weeks left to spend the $3.8 trillion apportioned in Uncle Sam’s 2016 budget, the pressure is on to spend prudently and procure efficiently. But with growing media and public concern that year-end spending is wasteful, how can your agency make smart IT investments of tax payer dollars come September 30?

With continued unpredictability about the annual federal appropriations process, the 2016 federal fiscal year-end busy season is likely to be as crazy as usual for federal procurement teams.

Could user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) be the missing piece of the puzzle that security teams have been waiting for in their bid to outmaneuver threat actors?

U.S. airport infrastructure is under pressure. With a rebounding economy comes more air travel. This places more demand on airport operators to guarantee passengers and cargo carriers a safe, secure, and efficient experience. But in an increasingly merger-driven airline industry, where hubs are being consolidated at breakneck speed, keeping pace with change is a challenge. Add to this the problems of public perception.

Incident response (IR) teams are overwhelmed. Larger attack surfaces, state-sponsored cyber terrorism, and the industrialization of cyber crime all create fires and headaches for IR teams.