Hutchinson & Partners: A Case Study
Silk Park View from Edgeware Road, Hutchinson & Partners
Hutchinson & Partners adopted Inevidesk at the tail end of 2020. Here, Jörn Rabach, Director of the Practice’s Berlin office, discusses their experience:
`Having looked into different high-end graphic VDI setups for many years, I have long thought that the flexibility and efficiency of these systems represent the ideal IT environment for an architectural practice.
Unfortunately, for a mid-sized architectural practice, this type of technology never seemed quite within reach. If not for the complexity of integrating a VDI system into an existing IT setup, it was certainly the cost that made this a nonviable route to pursue.
This reality, however, changed when Inevidesk first presented their bespoke built AEC VDI solution.
Their approach to the VDI market not only addresses the prohibitive cost point of similar systems, but also provides a simple way to integrate the system into an existing IT infrastructure while delivering outstanding performance and responsiveness comparable to traditional workstations.
We at Hutchinson & Partners opened our Berlin office in Mid-2019 with a strong research focus, an ambitious agenda to further our knowledge, and to learn from a new environment while contributing our own expertise.
From an IT point of view it was critical for us to remain as integrated with our London head office as possible. The goal was to maintain a maximum level of efficiency. Enabling seamless collaboration between our teams, giving everyone access to the same data at the same speed, avoiding unnecessary duplication of files, and maintaining our well established BIM workflows for every project were our priorities.
In addition to achieving these goals, implementing Inevidesk also enabled us to minimise our IT investment at our remote location. Without the need to replicate, store, or back-up data, our Berlin setup is reduced to a local network with internet access and thin clients for each of our employees which allow them to access their high spec virtual workstation from anywhere. Files never leave the London server, which not only simplifies our day to day workflow, but also makes our setup more secure.
Finally, although we have decided to host the vdesk pod infrastructure on premises in our London office, we have taken a step towards a fully virtualised environment. Continuing along this path in the future would enable us to move to a fully off-prem hosted solution, removing the need for server rooms and heavy IT infrastructure in our main office, and thereby free up precious space.
The possibility to gradually shift from a traditional IT environment to a virtual one is significant, and the simplicity in which this can be done is truly unique. At a time where many architects are assessing how they intend to work in a post-pandemic world, Inevidesk offers a service that can address some of the challenges of our time.’