The Woes of WAN for Civil 3D – RESOLVED

While ISPs and WAN accelerators brought bandwidth, thus accelerating data transfers, these mechanisms didn’t solve the connection issues. The challenge is not the transfer of those files, in essence network latency. The challenge is the number of file operation calls that it takes to open a file over a long distance.

For remote and dispersed engineering teams, working with CAD files, particularly complex Civil 3D files, creates some file transfer speed and file locking challenges.

When it comes to the time it takes a data packet to travel from one designated point to another, the lower the better!

For example, a LAN requires about 1ms, while a WAN can take upwards of 80ms.  Basically, WAN accelerators simply accelerate the transfer of data. They don’t accelerate the tens of thousands of calls made by the program and file opening process.

A combination of local servers can help.  For instance, Panzura, the developer of a global file system for enterprises storing data in the cloud, relies on a local server at each office location to handle those thousands of SMB protocol calls locally.  That approach drops the time of each call to < 1ms—moving data just like when everything was on a LAN.

Even with Panzura, there are some calls across the WAN, but those calls are communication between controllers, which have been built from the ground up to support WAN activity.

The Panzura Solution

Regardless of how high latency gets, with the Panzura Solution data consistency is ensured across the whole global file system. This eliminates data corruption from applications that quickly lock and unlock files, such as the Sheet Set Manager in Civil 3D.

When looking to improve file transfer speed and latency with real-time global locking, look for an intelligent hybrid cloud approach. Our Panzura solution stores data as a single authoritative data source in the cloud. This can all happen while caching the most frequently used files on edge appliances at each of your locations or in cloud regions.

Panzura’s global cloud file system empowers your team to work together at the same time in the cloud just like they were still sitting together in the same office, without the risk of losing data or wasting time. 

We can help provide a high-performance work environment for geographically distributed teams. This solution could not come in a better time. Schedule a demonstration or request a quote HERE

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