BIM与云计算——技术探索（一）

萧闫子

BIM and the Cloud

Chris France
CIO, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting

We have heard a lot about Cloud Computing and SaaS (Software as a Service), but what about moving our high performance graphics workstations to the cloud?  This article describes how Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, located in Charlotte NC, built a private cloud that included their high performance graphics workstations (HPGW). A private cloud differs from the public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services or Google by the fact that the cloud computing infrastructure and resources are controlled by the individual business that deploys it. (See a brief discussion by Tom Bittman of Gartner on private cloud computing in this YouTube video.)

In general, most of the current discussion around cloud computing has been dealing with the servers (or back-end systems).  Only recently have businesses begun to put their desktops and workstations into the cloud. Little’s cloud is the first AEC workstation cloud in production and is on track to reduce our workstation and laptop hardware expense by 67% ($2M) over the next 10 years.

Why is this solution viable now—what has changed?  There are several reasons.  First, the cost of network bandwidth has decreased.  You can now get 10mb of metro Ethernet for the same price a T1 (1.5mb) used to cost.  Also, Windows 7 and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) have gotten much better at moving screen images of media-rich applications.  Finally, hardware costs are coming down and rack-mounted server-class workstations are within the reach of many firms.

Business Benefits of Workstation Clouds

The current economy has been challenging for all organizations and has caused everyone to rethink everything.  The driving force behind this cloud innovation at Little has been Building Information Modeling (BIM).  Designers are now able to construct a fully documented, 3D building on a computer before they actually build it on-site.  This requires a lot of computer power as well as a few obstacles to overcome.  Little’s cloud strategy “kills 11 birds with one stone” and has many applications outside of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry as well. These 11 business benefits are discussed below.

1. Growing Desktop Computing Needs

As an architectural and engineering firm, Little has heavy desktop computing needs—very similar to the gaming industry.  Our industry applications require a lot of simulation, analysis, rendering, and 3D modeling in order to design buildings.  We had been on a 2-yr refresh cycle for our laptops.  Each year, Little spent between $250,000-$300,000 and the laptops were getting more expensive as we added more software capability.  In 2009, we could not afford to refresh our laptops as we normally did, but we still had increasing desktop needs. Switching to a workstation cloud strategy allowed us to shift to a 4-5 year refresh cycle by providing access to high performance workstations.  Our laptops could easily operate as “cloud access devices” and new laptops could be purchased for less than $1000 when required.  Now our laptops are kept until the wheels fall off.

2. Collaborating Over Wide Area Geography

As a multi-office firm, Little’s designers would be assigned to a project based on their expertise and the needs of the client project.  It was very common to have people in Orlando, DC, and Charlotte working on the same building model.  While the software vendors are working on solutions to make their products operate over a WAN and infrastructure companies can provide WAN accelerators—this still was not good enough.  Was it too much to ask to have the distributed project teams working just as if they were sitting in the same office?  I didn’t think so.  By shifting everyone to the cloud, we were able to give that “same office” experience to a distributed project team.

3. Collaborating with Outside Firms on the Same Model

The next logical step in BIM model development was to accommodate the standard industry practice of hiring consultants to help design the building.  Many firms do not have all the design resources within their company.  They regularly work with outside engineering, fire protection, or acoustical consultants—but everyone is working on the same building (and the same model).  Now that many of these consultants are using BIM tools, it would be ideal if they could all work on the same model just like employees of the same firm can do.  But without the cloud technology, project teams are forced to trade models via an FTP or project websites on set schedules.  Real-time collaboration is difficult between external entities.  While at Little we have not yet had a project that required real-time collaboration with outside consultants, we have the technology in place to allow it to happen when the need arises.

来源：AECbytes.com