Skyrocketing AEC Data Reinforces the Need for Data Governance Best Practices

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As the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry sees tremendous growth in data creation, companies need to emphasize data governance best practices .

This is one of the findings of a new study on the AEC industry which reveals that it has experienced a compound growth rate of 31.2% in data storage since 2017. The amount new data captured or created is staggering, but its full value depends on how the data is managed, stored, accessed and protected.

According to Egnyte's AEC Data Insights report, "The AEC industry is experiencing both unprecedented growth, challenges and opportunities. Demand is high, supply chains are unpredictable, but through them , the whole industry is growing. So is the amount of data it uses and stores to operate in this roller coaster environment."

Egnyte surveyed approximately 3,000 organizations about their current and recent data management and storage practices. While the company expected to see an increase in data creation and storage, it was surprised to see how much it has increased.

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"Probably the most surprising finding was the growth rate of our customers' storage over the four years," Ronen Vengosh, vice president of AEC at Egnyte, told VentureBeat. “While consistent with other industry reports, the fact that on average our customers have almost quadrupled their data storage – from 0.9TB in 2017 to 3.5TB in 2021 – is a quite a striking indication of how AEC companies have become data companies."

The pandemic has dramatically accelerated the digital transformation of the AEC industry, Vengosh explained. More and more AEC companies have migrated to the cloud over the past two years. This is largely due to the ability of the cloud to enable more effective communication and collaboration between remote employees and those working at project sites, while enabling them to securely analyze and process large amounts of data.

"In addition, the industry is experiencing a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of advanced data-intensive technologies (drone video, laser scanning, etc.), and we are seeing organizations collecting and storing all of this data, often without robustness. practices for sorting out which data should be retained and which should be deleted,” Vengosh said.

This growth has had a big impact on data infrastructure, Vengosh said. AEC companies have had to make strategic decisions about how to effectively manage and secure their growing volumes of data without disrupting productivity or project results. This comes as the AEC industry faces tougher regulations and compliance requirements.

Main findings of the report

The Egnyte AEC Data Insights report contains several key findings, Vengosh said. They include:

AEC companies store and act on more files than other industries. The typical AEC company handles 149% (2.49x) more files than the cross-industry average. This includes industries such as real estate, retail, manufacturing, and life sciences. The growth in data volume is explosive. The average...