04 March 2024
The 2024 AEC Data Insights Report from Egnyte shows that the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is embracing the shift to cloud storage and other digital construction tools.
The data storage requirements of the companies surveyed grew at an average compounded annual growth rate of 50.3%.
This rapid growth trend began during the pandemic, but as companies started to see the benefits of the cloud, growth has maintained that pace.
Cloud storage and collaboration solutions have become an increasingly normalised part of the AEC industry workings and can help meet new regulatory requirements, such as those of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Compliance (CMMC) in the United States and the Building Safety Act in the UK.
The construction industry leads the active collaboration category by far with a 29-fold increase in active collaboration over time. Data storage requirements have risen from an average of 3.34Tb in 2018 to 25.64Tb in 2023, representing a compound annual growth rate of 50.3%. The construction sector accounts for 60% of recurring IT issues in the AEC industry that could harm a company’s infrastructure or productivity, likely due to the larger number of stakeholders and possibly to less stringent governance protocols.
“The insights we gleaned from this year’s report reflect the conversations we have with AEC firms on a daily basis. Companies are relying more heavily on digital collaboration to get the job done – a trend that shows no signs of slowing down,” said Ronen Vengosh, senior vice president of Industry Solutions at Egnyte.
“Their increased reliance on cloud collaboration and file storage coupled with the high frequency of cybersecurity threats these firms encounter highlights the need for secure, reliable cloud collaboration solutions.”
