ArchiCAD & cloud computing

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with Archicad used in a Cloud computing environment. Advance2000 is trying to get our business, and they claimed that they have called Graphisoft and that it is possible to run Archicad in their system.

To clarify: It is my understanding that our "workstations" and "servers" will be virtual machines that are running on server hardware at Advance2000's data centers. The computers in our office would just be dumb terminals, as we remote desktop to the "workstations" running on powerful server hardware.

Does anyone else have any experience with this? My initial reaction is that this is a horrible idea. But I would like to get all the facts before making a decision.

Thanks,
Phil

[Eduardo Rolon]

At the University I teach they switched to Dell terminals running VMWare. AC17 crashes every time you open the 3D Window. They have been working on it for the last 3 weeks trying to solve it and we are still waiting.
As a option for a school classroom it is acceptable as an office solution I would stay away from it.

[Anonymous]

Hosting teamwork files 'in the cloud' would appear to be quite possible and achievable.
The big issue with teamwork is the initial connection - as the download is huge. If you are hosted by a third party the option of creating travel packs for that first connection is removed as it is unlikely they'd log on and create them for you.
Just for connecting to a BIM server you need good internet connections.

What you are suggesting may or may not be acceptable - it would need to be tested before you committed to it.
If the virtual server can connect to the virtual user session(s) at high speed, and all the internet traffic is just the screen and key commands it may be OK, but issues I see:
- Users typically need the grunt of the CPU and GPU variety - does the proposed server environment scale resources dynamically as the users demand more?
- No internet =no work (you cannot even run ArchiCAD)
- Confidential data resides on 'others' servers
- Your license 'key' must be plugged in - presumably at the server end?
+ Additional computing resources can be supplied on demand.
+ IT management easily handled off site

Let us know how you go - I suspect its not far off before GS try offering hosted BIM server solutions with (regional) partners.

[Marton Kiss]

rwallis wrote:
- Your license 'key' must be plugged in - presumably at the server end?

As attaching USB keys to virtual computers is not always easy or possible. In situations where this cannot be solved we usually recommend using USB to ethernet HUBs. Many clients of ours have good experience with that.
Here is Wibu's official guide about it: http://www.wibusystemsusa.com/solutions/codemeter-in-virtual-environments.html

Marton

[Anonymous]

Thank you everybody for your feedback.

As of right now, we're no longer considering going with advance2000. When we asked a couple dozen specific questions, they continued to use loose marketing terms instead of the hard details we were looking for.

The death knell was their response to 2 questions concerning archicad - How do you get Archicad to run under remote desktop environments? (standalone versions will not) and There are reports that the 3D view crashes in a virtualized environment. Can you test for this?

There response was "we've gotten revit and autocad to work, we'll figure it out"

So we're done, thanks again for all the responses.
Phil

[Marton Kiss]

belly917 wrote:
Thank you everybody for your feedback.

As of right now, we're no longer considering going with advance2000. When we asked a couple dozen specific questions, they continued to use loose marketing terms instead of the hard details we were looking for.

The death knell was their response to 2 questions concerning archicad - How do you get Archicad to run under remote desktop environments? (standalone versions will not) and There are reports that the 3D view crashes in a virtualized environment. Can you test for this?

There response was "we've gotten revit and autocad to work, we'll figure it out"

So we're done, thanks again for all the responses.
Phil

Phil, from GRAPHISOFT side, what I can surely answer:
- How do you get Archicad to run under remote desktop environments? (standalone versions will not) - you will need a so called NET license for that. Basically if you have a standard license (single), you won't be able to run ArchiCAD through remote desktop. We blocked this, as many users would have been able to use one license with that being signed in on the same computer. If you have a NET - network license, you will be able to do such. As many licenses will be used as many different users use ArchiCAD on the same computer.
- As for 3D view in virtualized environment - this really depends on the technology used for the virtualization, so tests are definitely needed.

Marton

[Eduardo Rolon]

In our case we are running the Uni version and finally Dell was able to get it to work last friday. It is somewhat laggy but nothing my students have become aware off.

[Rakela Raul]

"somewhat laggy but nothing my students have become aware off."

they will now !! be careful with that killer virus in your area

[Eduardo Rolon]

Students doing research in blogs about performance?
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Didn't know that news jumped to the mainland. They say that it is under control.