M&S Engineering Increases Security and Productivity with Panzura

Jason Schmidt

M&S Engineering (M&S) is a full-service engineering firm in Texas, with offices across the state. It employs electrical, civil, structural, and MEP engineers, along with experienced field personnel in order to provide engineering, design, consultation, analytical, and planning services. A premier electrical distribution/transmission engineering company, the M&S corporate mission is to provide clients with quality, efficient services at the greatest overall value. 

The distributed workforce of M&S is a strength that also presented challenges. Remote workers needed to access files and manage data, while being mindful of security, potential ransomware attacks and an aging server infrastructure.

GOALS

When the company was looking for a solution to aid the entire organization, including the remote teams, several goals were set:

1. Enable the remote workforce to access and work on CAD/engineering files among multiple locations.
2. Help with management of the organization’s data and streamline backups.
3. Remove disparate silos of data.
4. Provide robust disaster recovery.
5. Provide additional protection for the organization’s data.

The engineering and design software used for modeling complex electrical transmission systems results in large data sets with substantial file sizes that increase over time. Analysis of point cloud data and the resulting large files requires a robust computer infrastructure. These large data sets can be a challenge to efficiently synchronize among offices. File sync, including oversight to verify they were properly merged and preserved without being overwritten, resulted in inefficient use of time at M&S. This was multiplied when different groups in different locations were involved.

SOLUTION

M&S decided to implement Panzura and Panzura Mobile to simplify the file management environment. Panzura provides a single global file system where all users can see the same data no matter which office they work from. With Panzura, employees working remotely would no longer need to create data silos by copying files to and from their local system in order to access and share with others.

Panzura stores your data as a single source of truth in the cloud, allowing your organization to work without creating file versions, duplicating or overwriting each other’s work. To learn more, reach out to the experts of the Applied Software Digital Transformation Team, and start a conversation.

RESULTS

The organization has been able to minimize the hardware needed in each office while making the same data accessible in real-time at all locations. The patented technology of Panzura has made access to files quicker than on the previous LAN infrastructure, so accessing large data sets no longer slows users down. Panzura also resolved file locking issues when users in multiple locations are accessing the same project at the same time, so they no longer need to expend time copying files in order to obtain the most up to date information.

Utilization of the cloud with Panzura has enabled the company to centralize its data, streamline backups and disaster recovery, and minimize software and hardware costs for backups. The Panzura security features and immutable file system provide additional benefits in the fight against ransomware attacks, as well as providing a secure and robust file system.

Using Panzura and the cloud has enabled M&S Engineering to increase productivity, simplify IT infrastructure and reduce costs, all while positioning the company for future growth and expansion, with a foundation for future cloud technologies.

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