What gets in the way
- Big files, many hands. Drawings and models are large and get revised by several people, so a slow connection or a file that won’t sync costs hours and can leave two versions of the same design.
- Work that leaves the office. Engineers work from site, from client offices and from home, so remote access to project files has to be quick for staff and closed to everyone else.
- Clients asking how you protect their data. Clients, insurers and head contractors can ask about your security before they award work, and Defence projects come with a cyber security standard of their own.
- Years of project history. Old jobs get reopened for variations, defects and disputes, so the archive has to be kept, backed up and able to come back when someone asks for it.
How we help
- Cloud Solutions: We give project files one home in SharePoint and OneDrive, or on virtual desktops and hosted servers where very large models suit them better, with Microsoft licences matched to the seats you use.
- Microsoft 365 & Identity: Multi-factor on every account and conditional access that blocks sign-ins from places your engineers never work, so remote access stays open for staff and shut for everyone else.
- Backup & Recovery: Backups scoped to your project archive and Microsoft 365, with test restores on a schedule so an old job can come back when a variation or dispute needs it.
- Managed Security Tiers: Four stacked tiers of protection, up to application control and full disaster recovery management, so you can match each machine’s protection to what clients and tenders ask for.
- Network & Connectivity: Business grade internet with a failover path and a monitored firewall, so large uploads don’t stall the office and one outage doesn’t stop the whole team.
- Hardware & Procurement: Workstations built to one standard and tracked for warranty, so the machines running your design software get replaced on a plan rather than when they fail.
Obligations worth knowing
- If you do or want Defence work, the Defence Industry Security Program now requires all members to achieve and maintain the full Essential Eight at Maturity Level 2. Source
- ASD recommends the Essential Eight mitigation strategies as a baseline for organisations, which makes it a useful yardstick even before a client asks about it. Source
Where the project files live decides most of your IT
In an engineering firm the project folder is the business. Drawings, models, calculations and correspondence for each job get opened by several people, revised for years and pulled back out when a variation or a defect claim arrives. When those files live in one place with sensible permissions, most other IT problems get smaller.
We’d start by agreeing where project files belong. For many firms that’s SharePoint, with OneDrive syncing what each person needs, set up through our cloud solutions work. Where very large models make syncing painful, a virtual desktop or hosted server sitting next to the files can be the better answer. We’ll tell you which suits your files rather than pushing one.
Remote access without leaving the door open
Engineers sign in from site offices, client meetings and home. That’s normal, and it’s also where most attacks start, with a login rather than a virus. Our Microsoft 365 and identity service puts multi-factor on every account, blocks sign-ins from places your staff never work and flags new mailbox forwarding rules as they appear. A payment request sent from a compromised engineer’s mailbox looks very convincing to a client. If one ever lands in your inbox, here is what to do in the first half hour.
When a client or Defence asks how you protect their data
ASD recommends the Essential Eight as a baseline for any organisation. For Defence work it’s a requirement: the Defence Industry Security Program now requires members to achieve and maintain the full Essential Eight at Maturity Level 2. Our managed security tiers step up to application control and full disaster recovery management when a contract calls for it, and Bastion IT is SMB1001 Gold certified, so we’ve been through a certification process ourselves.
Underneath all of it sits backup and recovery with scheduled test restores, because a backup nobody has restored is a guess. You’ll see the date of the last successful restore in your monthly report, written for a principal rather than a technician.