Jordan & Skala Engineers is a growing company with 5 offices. It needed a scalable solution to optimize their network and their resources as more and more work was distributed across sites. Using GlobalSCAPE WAFS files mirror instantly in real time using byte-level differencing. So as soon as a file is saved or closed, the file deltas appear in every other location on the network. Users are never waiting for files to upload, download, or open across a network.
GlobalSCAPE Keeps the Data Pipeline Flowing
at Jordan & Skala Engineers. Gaining access and collaborating on critical project ? les was once a small concern at Jordan & Skala
Engineers. However, continued success and growth leads to increased staff, branch of? ces, and proj-
ects to be managed. As the small ? rm expanded-nearly doubling in size in three years-the task of
accessing and sharing project data between of? ces one ? le at a time became a limiting factor in the
effective growth of the company. What was once a small concern became a business-critical issue
that demanded a solution.
So what does GlobalSCAPE WAFS mean to a ? rm like Jordan & Skala? It means the freedom to take
on projects that demand talents and resources from all of their of? ces, thinking beyond the next ? le
transfer, and thinking instead about the future of the company.
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Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Jordan & Skala Engineers is an MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) design ? rm with 150 employees located in ? ve branch of? ces across the U.S-two of which were added in just the past two years. Some of their smaller, more specialized services, such as telecommunications, are ful? lled exclusively at their corporate of? ce in Atlanta, where nearly half of the ? rm's overall staff is housed.
There was a time in the ? rm's history when collaboration between multiple of? ces was a rare occa-sion. As occasional ? le transfers were needed, remote PC control software facilitated the ? le sharing, with each project requiring a signi? cant amount of manual setup. As the company continued to grow, Network Administrator Travis Smith began to realize the need for a scalable solution that wouldn't require hands-on interaction for each new ? le transfer.
Initially, Travis evaluated a WAN acceleration appliance solution. "In the end," Travis explained, "it had a wide range of features, but not enough of what really mattered." In Travis's opinion, the ap-pliance approach was a cumbersome solution that would have complicated rather than simplifying matters. On top of that, Travis felt that their technology was not optimized for CAD data. "We wanted to ? nd someone who really understood CAD and had a WAN solution that enabled our organization to deliver our projects more ef? ciently and cost effectively," Travis said. ''
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"Some of our engineers still call today to ask me to send a ? le, or to let me know their ? le is ready to be uploaded," Travis said as he laughed. "They just can't fathom how their ? les are mirrored in real time. It gets them every time." Having a seamless solution that would not im-pact how engineers access and work on project ? les was a key deliverable of this solution.
GlobalSCAPE WAFS provides ? le lock coherency and instantly mirrors changes to a ? le using byte-level differencing, compression, and encryption, so as soon as a ? le is saved or closed, only the changes to the ? les are moved across the WAN and appears in every other location on the network. WAFS guarantees that users always have the latest version of the ? le; and be-cause the ? le changes move when they happen, ? les are available at the branch of? ces when the engineers need them. This means that users are never waiting for ? les to upload, download, or WAFS guarantees that open across a network. ''users always have the
More important to Travis, however, is the automa- latest version of the ? le.
tion. "All I do is set it and forget it," Travis said. "When a project is going to require ? le access and collaboration across multiple branch of? ces, I set up the folders once and the engineers can begin working without pause." GlobalSCAPE WAFS is even ? exible enough for Travis to set the unique permission levels that Jordan & Skala requires on individual project folders, and maintain those permissions across the WAN on each local server.
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Another major bene? t that Travis has found with GlobalSCAPE WAFS is that it was designed with CAD in mind. "We don't necessarily have a need for complex 3D geometries, but our ? les are nonetheless complex in a way that is unique to CAD," Travis explained. As MEP engineers, Jordan & Skala references external CAD ? les from the architects,
All I do is set ... [download for more]
