For the construction management firm John Moriarty and Associates (JMA), effective collaboration is the key to success. The firm’s myriad projects depend on the ability of multiple stakeholders, in offices and in-the-field sites across the country, to share and co-edit large construction documents quickly and at any time.

With the support of their managed service provider, Network Coverage, JMA implemented Egnyte to manage and collaborate on these files, moving away from an on-premises file server hosted by Windows. As a result, they neutralized a host of challenges in data capacity, version control, cybersecurity, and beyond.

Challenges: Local File Server Hobbles Remote Collaboration

JMA typically tackles large, intensive projects such as high-rise residential buildings or complex healthcare facilities. Large construction projects involve large construction documents, with multiple dispersed stakeholders making frequent updates to files as projects progress. “We’ll have construction workers and architects in the field, as well as folks in the office, all collaborating on massive, 400-page building plans,” explains Ted Neary, Information Technology Manager at JMA. “When we were using a Windows file server, any time a field worker needed to access a file or view an update, they would have to go to the on-site trailer to either make their updates or connect to the Windows system via VPN to get the updated version. It was a real time suck.”

Eventually, between the proliferation of file versions and the sizes of the files themselves, storage capacity on the Windows system became a concern. “We were constantly having to work with JMA to invest in more infrastructure and storage hardware,” says Eric Tomah, Chief Information Officer at Network Coverage.

Even worse, the Windows server provided no way for the team to exchange files between the office and in-the-field workers—a frequent necessity in a collaboration-intensive industry like construction management—other than via email attachments. This was both impractical given the enormous file sizes the team worked with, and unacceptable from a security perspective. “The size of the attachments through emails was really limited,” comments Neary. Tomah adds: “If a subcontractor or a worker in the field needed a document from the office, they’d have to receive it as an attachment, download it locally, and open it. This was really time-consuming, and posed a big security risk, as you’re basically at the mercy of your email provider and whatever encryption they do, or don’t, have.”

Solution: Replace Windows with Egnyte’s Cloud-Based Solution

JMA met with Network Coverage to explore a cloud-based alternative to Windows, one that could facilitate smooth and secure collaboration without capacity and versioning roadblocks. “We met with JMA regularly to provide strategic guidance in areas like technology and cybersecurity,” says Tomah. “Through these dialogues, it became clear that Egnyte, a solution we’d vetted for years and recommended to other clients, was best suited to address the issues JMA was facing.”

“We actually interviewed a number of Network Coverage’s other clients to see how they like Egnyte,” adds Neary. “They all spoke glowingly about it.” Network Coverage played a strong role in getting JMA set up on Egnyte, leading the team through planning and implementation and providing post-migration support.

Once the team was up and running, they leveraged several key aspects of Egnyte’s functionality to facilitate efficient, secure collaboration:

• Security and governance
  As files moved among project stakeholders, the team knew they would need to take steps to prevent in-transit cyberattacks and data loss. “We introduced Egnyte’s security and governance features as part of our loss prevention strategy,” comments Tomah. “This provided alerts into potential threat actor activity. Egnyte handled all of the administration, infrastructure, updates, and availability, and it’s all centralized in the cloud, so we weren’t beholden to potentially faulty hardware.”
• Link sharing
  With their files stored in the cloud, JMA could now share and access content via password-protected links, relieving their local data storage capacity challenges and eliminating their reliance on bulky email attachments. File updates automatically synced to the cloud, so that each link always showed the latest version. “With Egnyte, the ability to send links directly to subcontractors gets rid of the limited email attachment problem,” explains Neary. “If field workers need to look at, say, one specific office on the 30th floor of a skyscraper, they can pull the plan up instantly on their iPads, rather than wait for an email attachment that might be out of date by the time they get it. That’s just huge.”
• Integration
  Like many firms in their field, JMA included the construction software provider Newforma as an integral part of their tech stack for sharing, accessing, and managing documents. Network Coverage worked with the Product teams at both Egnyte and Newforma to integrate the two platforms using Egnyte’s Public Cloud Connector. As Tomah explains: “This allowed Egnyte to function as a storage provider for Newforma, which offered a lot of flexibility in how JMA accessed the data they needed.”

Benefits: Better Collaboration and a Stronger Competitive Position

Under the guidance of Network Coverage, JMA has leveraged Egnyte to collaborate more efficiently, ensure data security, and strengthen their reputation among their clientele. “With Egnyte’s security and governance features, not to mention their reporting, auditing, and permissions management functionality, JMA is much better protected against data exfiltration and can have peace of mind when sharing data internally and externally,” says Tomah.

“Having a way for people in various geographic areas, both in the office and in the field, to share files and quickly access the latest version is critical for a distributed company like ours,” Neary adds. “It’s now so much easier for our offices in Virginia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and all over the country to collaborate in real time, without anything getting lost in transit.”

This has put JMA in a strong position to take their business to the next level. “The kinds of companies we work with want to know that their construction management firm is at the forefront of technology, and can finish projects on time and under budget,” explains Neary. “By setting us up on Egnyte, Network Coverage has enabled us to provide that assurance.”

Asked what advice he has for other companies in his field, Neary needed only a few words: “If you’re worried about data access or security, use a system like Egnyte to get your data off your basement servers and into the cloud. Your life will be much easier.”

As one of the largest independent registered investment advisors in the United States, The Colony Group manages enormous amounts and types of financial and other non-public personal information. “Our services encompass wealth management, investment management, tax compliance, business management, financial dispute resolution, and beyond,” explains Evan Cohen, Director, Information Technology.

Using Egnyte, Cohen’s team migrated a wealth of sensitive financial and personal information from 21 separate offices into one consolidated environment, streamlining collaboration and file access workflows and strengthening trust across its user base. All the while, Egnyte’s content management platform offered unparalleled ease of use, making user adoption a breeze for the whole team.

Challenge: Siloed Data Slows Collaboration—and Client Services

The Colony Group consists of numerous teams dispersed across the country, previously using various systems to house and manage files. This system disparity often came from mergers, who join with the firm with legacy systems in tow. “The result was content management workflows that spanned Office 365, Laserfiche, other document management systems, Word documents, file cabinets, and more,” explains Cohen. “Teams kept their data siloed on their own systems and their own work areas because it was necessary to avoid disruption to client service, but that causes problems when you have multiple teams trying to work together as one company.”

This disconnected environment produced challenges for Cohen and his IT team on multiple fronts:

• Locating and collaborating on files
  Finding and sharing content required rifling through an expansive roster of content management systems. If you were not familiar with the technology at issue, it was a needle-in-a-haystack process that caused unnecessary delays. If teams needed to collaborate on a topic or client need, the lack of common access to common resources was a deterrent that the firm needed to eliminate
• Content governance
  To satisfy clients — as well as regulators — firms like The Colony Group need to know where sensitive content is located, and who has access to it, at all times. “High-profile individuals like celebrities and athletes hire us to transact on their behalf, from paying bills to making discretionary investment decisions,” says Cohen. “These and all of our clients need to trust that we have everything under control.”

It soon became clear that more efficient collaboration and data governance would require unifying their content into one centralized environment. “Whether it’s client data or research we’ve conducted on investment funds,” Cohen says. “We wanted to get it from one place—not 40.”

Solution: One Source of Truth for All Sensitive Data

The team brought in Egnyte to serve as a centralized environment for storing, accessing, and sharing data. Ashley Ayala, IT Project Manager at The Colony Group, helped with the discovery, planning, and implementation.

“Training folks on Egnyte was incredibly easy because the system appears on team members’ devices as the same kind of folder structure they’re already accustomed to using,” Ayala explains. “It was disruption-free, which made user adoption so much smoother. I even had someone tell me ‘I don’t use Egnyte,’ not realizing she was using it every day.”

“The migration process was great as well,” adds Cohen. “It was really easy to import data from our legacy systems into our preferred folder structure in Egnyte.”

Once the team had completed the migration, Egnyte made it easier to find, collaborate on, and control access to content through features including:

• Sensitive content discovery and classification
  The team was able to classify information based on its level of sensitivity and search for files of various classifications—all within Egnyte. This helped with locating files, conducting reports, and maintaining visibility into where content is stored. Cohen offers an example: “When we make trades, securities are assigned unique identifiers called SEDOLs, which regulators require us to report on. Previously, paperwork containing SEDOLs could be stored in a dozen different systems. Now they’re all in Egnyte. We can do a quick sensitive content search for a particular SEDOL and export the results to our Compliance team in a nice package, which gives them a huge head start on recording, testing, and reporting on those numbers.”
• Viewing and controlling file access
  As geographically dispersed teams viewed and exchanged different files with different levels of sensitivity, the Compliance team needed assurance that file access is only available to the proper stakeholders. “With Egnyte, all it took was one quick audit to see what files have been shared, when, and by whom. And it was easy to grant and revoke file access as needed,” explains Cohen.
• Salesforce integration
  Egnyte’s smooth integration with Salesforce facilitated easy access to client-related files from both platforms. This yielded major dividends in client engagement. “Egnyte’s Salesforce integration is years ahead of the competition,” Cohen says. “When our Wealth Management team is servicing a client, they can pull up any and all material related to that client relationship, in real time, without leaving the Salesforce interface where they’re most comfortable. That leads to faster, more confident client services.”

Benefits: Easier Collaboration and a More Agile Business

Like many financial services firms, The Colony Group consists largely of industry veterans whose expertise lies less in technology than in areas specific to wealth management. As such, to ensure a smooth transition from the company’s legacy systems to Egnyte’s unified solution, it was essential that Egnyte offer an easy and intuitive workflow.

Here, Egnyte has exceeded expectations. “We’ve completed one merger since implementing Egnyte,” says Ayala. “The system was so easy to use that within just a few hours, the team from the merger firm was operating just as fluently as they previously were.”

Team members in any geography now have access to the same centralized content management system, where they can access files through a quick search and share them via secure links in just a few clicks. And Egnyte’s granular access permissions functionality provides confidence that files won’t fall into the wrong hands.

The impact on The Colony Group has been tremendous. “Egnyte has made it easy to consolidate, organize, protect, and collaborate on data so that we can make our company more agile, better trained, and able to level-up our services to our clients,” Cohen says. “We can now focus on new acquisitions and strengthening our tech stack with next-generation technology, including some new Egnyte features.”
 

The Colony Group’s implementation of Egnyte is still recent, and their momentum is strong. “The number of team members managing and collaborating on content through Egnyte, instead of email or legacy software, continues to grow,” says Cohen. “We’re full speed ahead.”

Optimal Risk Group provides security risk management consulting for some of the world’s most complex and high-profile customer engagements. For example, the London-based provider of tailored risk management services oversees the physical and digital security of clients ranging from banking datacenters, critical national infrastructure, and high-net-worth individuals.

Partnering with Egnyte has empowered Optimal Risk to fulfill their top obligation: providing clients with complete confidence that their sensitive data is protected by smart policies and cybersecurity measures.

Challenge: High-Stakes Security Demands Powerful Technology

When it comes to physical and digital security for Optimal Risk’s clients, the stakes couldn’t be higher. “The organisations we advise include critical national infrastructure that provide vital public services, like processing clean water and transporting natural gas,” explains Mike O’Neill, Group Managing Director at Optimal Risk Group. “What keeps the operators of these assets up at night is the idea of their information being insecurely passed between stakeholders, which could make that information vulnerable to attacks by adversaries ranging from lone threat actors to hostile foreign governments.”

“Some of the other assets we protect are private residences ranging up to $250 million in value,” adds Rick Mounfield, Director at Optimal Risk. “Working with these homeowners involves handling a great deal of personal information, including multiple addresses, businesses, and personal travel details. They rely on us to provide total assurance that this highly sensitive information is secure.”

But the tool the team was using for data security, Microsoft SharePoint, wasn’t providing these critical assurances – neither to Optimal Risk nor to their clients. “We have a dispersed global workforce, which involves a lot of data changing hands,” comments Mounfield. “Our growth has increased the complexity of our projects and with that comes risks through data sprawl. We needed a tool that could keep that data isolated and well-governed, and SharePoint wasn’t fulfilling that need.”

Solution: Strong, Demonstrable Data Protection Through Egnyte

During Optimal Risk’s trial period with Egnyte, Mounfield realized the platform was the powerful cybersecurity solution Optimal Risk was looking for. “It was an easy sell to get Egnyte implemented across the organisation, from our consultancy to our environmental crime enforcement business to our training business,” he says.

The team found it easy to migrate files into Egnyte from SharePoint and to build a unique folder structure that fit their data management workflows. From there, they leveraged a suite of features to keep data well-protected and governed and provide stronger confidence to Optimal Risk’s clients.

• Content Lifecycle policies
  The team used Egnyte to set policies for the automatic archival or deletion of sensitive files after specified intervals. As Stephen Haslett, Director of Cyber Investigation and Digital Forensics at Optimal Risk, puts it: “We’re able to confidently tell clients, for example, that certain files will be deleted after 30 days, after which only the client will possess that file. This conveys that the risk of anyone accessing the file through Optimal Risk is essentially nonexistent.”Egnyte also facilitated strong, detailed oversight throughout the content lifecycle. “Every time a folder or file is viewed, clicked, downloaded, or shared, we can see when it happened and who was involved,” Haslett says. With this level of visibility, Optimal Risk’s clients can confirm, easily and at any time, that data has never fallen into the wrong hands.
• Secure access to content
  Egnyte’s secure link sharing and granular access permissions management gave the team full control over who could access highly sensitive data. “We can invite specific individuals to specific folders where they can view, download, or upload files, and set policies to prevent others from accessing that folder,” explains O’Neill. Haslett adds: “We can also share individual files with clients through secure, controlled links that only they can access, and that expire after a certain interval.”
• ISO 27001 compliance
  With cyberattacks on the rise, firms like Optimal Risk are in jeopardy of losing clients if they don’t comply with ISO 27001, the global standard for information security management. The visibility Egnyte provided into how content was managed, accessed, modified, and exchanged enabled the Optimal Risk team to demonstrate their adherence to ISO 27001. Stuart Crighton, Senior Consultant at Optimal Risk, also recognized the ways Egnyte could be used internally to further strengthen the company’s compliance. “Within Egnyte, I can see exactly who has read a given document that’s necessary for ISO compliance,” Crighton says. “I can also see who hasn’t read it yet, so I can give them a nudge.”

Benefits: Stronger Security Drives New Business Growth

Partnering with Egnyte has empowered Optimal Risk to solidify their reputation as a leading security risk management consultancy protecting some of the world’s most high-value assets. “We’re all about authenticity,” says Mounfield. “Other companies make promises that their clients’ data is secure but can’t demonstrate it like we can with Egnyte. When a client asks us to confirm that their data has been removed from all external IT, I can use Egnyte’s governance features to show them exactly who worked on that data and when it was erased.”

The peace of mind Optimal Risk’s clients enjoy has yielded concrete business benefits. O’Neill offers a powerful example: “We recently met with some operators of category-5 critical national infrastructure sites – the highest security level – who were extremely nervous about their security being compromised and data ending up in the wrong hands. We showed them exactly how, with Egnyte, they could control access to folders, view and download data, and confirm that content was properly deleted at the end of a project. When they saw this, we could actually see them become more relaxed. Egnyte made them confident that we were the right company to work with. We won the contract soon after.”

That confidence doesn’t just extend to Optimal Risk’s clients – the internal team feels it as well. Charlie Swanson, Learning and Development Lead, explains the impact Egnyte has had in his department: “We store all our resources in Egnyte. This sounds risky from a security perspective, but Egnyte is such a strong system that we’re confident in storing all our content there. This allows learners to easily access their portfolios from a single, centralized location, with full confidence that it’s protected throughout its lifecycle.”

For the team at Optimal Risk, working with Egnyte is a simple matter of practicing what they preach. As a company whose mission is to strengthen security and manage their clients’ vulnerabilities across sectors, Optimal saw no other choice but to partner with a solution that could deliver what Egnyte offered. As Mounfield puts it: “I always tell our clients, as well as other security professionals, that if you’re worried about any kind of cyberattack, or vulnerability, or file backups, or migrating to the cloud, or ISO 27001 compliance, you need to speak to Egnyte right away.”

Engineering/Remediation Resources Group (ERRG), a minority- and woman-owned small business providing turnkey environmental remediation and munitions response services, was at a crossroads. The deadline for CMMC 2.0 compliance – a new federal regulation requiring companies working with the Department of Defense (DoD) to demonstrate cybersecurity controls supporting NIST 800-171 regulations – was rapidly approaching. “With about 80% of our revenue coming from federal government contracts, we had a choice,” says Brad Hall, Vice President at ERRG. “We either get compliant with CMMC or we cease to exist.”

Based on what they’d observed in other companies, achieving CMMC compliance was no walk in the park. “Software is a major compliance resource, and we saw companies make software vendor selection choices that really hamstrung them in the end,” says Hall. “After seeing the challenges and dysfunction they ran into, we didn’t want to suffer the same fate.”

Since partnering with Egnyte, ERRG has met roughly 90% of the requirements under CMMC 2.0 and is well on their way to achieving full compliance before the proposed deadline. They are being assisted by Network Coverage, a national Managed Services Provider and CMMC Registered Provider Organization helping ERRG achieve their compliance goals.

Challenge: Find a CMMC-Ready System Without Disrupting Workflows

ERRG had been using Microsoft SharePoint for its storage, monitoring, and file access controls. But the system was clunky and inefficient, and the team was starting to lose patience. “It was an old system that required a lot of overhead and IT support,” explains Hall. More importantly, the team worried that on-premises SharePoint environment, as a legacy system, wasn’t up to the task of facilitating compliance with the new regulations.

Their suspicions were confirmed when, in 2021, ERRG suffered a ransomware attack. “This was an eye-opening event for us,” says Hall. “It was exactly the kind of attack that the CMMC requirements aim to prevent. We knew we needed a new partner to prevent it from happening again.”

But a successful compliance journey would involve more than finding software that had the necessary security capabilities. It also meant minimizing disruption to a team who had never had to think much about cybersecurity before CMMC. “Our staff consists largely of engineers, geologists, and construction managers. In roles like these, cybersecurity is the last thing on your mind,” explains Hall. “They were accustomed to being able to access any file at any time, and CMMC would change that. So we needed to educate them a bit, and we needed a tool that would allow us to get fully compliant without being too disruptive to the team.”

Solution: Egnyte’s Unified Solution Accelerates the CMMC Journey

Within a month of the ransomware attack, ERRG made the decision to move file storage off its legacy SharePoint environment and into the cloud with Egnyte. They began migrating files into the new system and quickly discovered that the Egnyte platform could also become a key resource for addressing CUI security.

Two key aspects of Egnyte’s functionality were particularly impactful in empowering ERRG to reach the level of CUI security and controls necessary for CMMC compliance:

• Sensitive data discovery and classification
  Egnyte made it easy to zero in on particular files containing sensitive content that the team needed to address. Considering the volume of content ERRG works with, this would otherwise have been a needle-in-a-haystack project. “The security and governance tools in Egnyte were great. We’d never seen anything like it,” comments Hall. “The reports that we get from the system show us exactly which folders contain sensitive information like PII, so we know which ones are still out of compliance and need to be cleaned up.”
• Access and sharing controls
  The team was able to set granular file access permissions based on parameters such as username and role, ensuring that only the right people are able to view, modify, or delete any given file – all while still making it easy for people to locate and access the files they need to see. “This made it much easier to make our data more secure and controlled while still allowing people to get their jobs done,” says Hall. “Making these major changes in access controls that CMMC requires could have been really disruptive, but with Egnyte, we were able to make it as smooth as possible.”

Benefits: Racing Toward Compliance with the Wind at their Back

The switch to Egnyte has empowered ERRG to align their CUI security with the federal government’s requirements and race toward full CMMC Level 2 compliance. “Coming on board with Egnyte was a huge improvement,” says Hall. “The security level is far better than it ever was before. We never dreamed of being in the position we’re in now.”

Today, the firm has implemented 90% of the changes required for full Level 2 CMMC compliance and is on pace to complete physical security controls before the proposed deadline with time to spare. Along the way, they’ve had access not only to the functionality of Egnyte’s product, but to its team’s deep technical CMMC expertise, which has given them peace of mind that they’re handling the transition properly and nothing is falling through the cracks. This is further driven by the Network Coverage team’s expertise, not only as a premier Egnyte partner but in aiding in remediation and assessment efforts as ERRG prepares to complete the certification process.

ERRG has also benefited from aspects that extend beyond compliance. “We brought Egnyte on for CMMC, but the platform has also made things much easier and more efficient in areas like collaboration,” Hall explains.

During ERRG’s compliance journey, Hall reflected on the ways he expected CMMC 2.0 to impact the AEC space as a whole – and why, ultimately, he sees the regulation as a net positive. “A lot of companies are going to be a lot more secure in the new CMMC environment,” he says. “It will also put us in a position to assist some of our federal clients. CMMC affects all of us, and some agencies in the DoD itself are behind schedule on compliance. So while we’re getting compliant, we can serve as a consulting partner to help them do the same.”

For Wyanoke Group, a publisher of healthcare information based in New Jersey, adopting a fully cloud-based infrastructure was a long-held dream. After years spent using on-premises technology to house, share, and collaborate on internal and external content, they realized they needed a better system to provide the level of security that their clients demanded.

“We tried setting up a hybrid solution through Microsoft that combined on-premises file management with backups in the cloud,” explains Chuck Hosier, Vice President of Cybersecurity and IT Services at Wyanoke, who has been with the company for 25 years. “But Microsoft sunsetted that system, so we were back at square one.”

After partnering with Egnyte, Wyanoke finally made their cloud dream a reality – and achieved greater data security as a result.

Challenge: Local File Servers Cause Security and Cost Headaches

The Wyanoke team dealt with numerous headaches and inefficiencies related to their local file system. As just one example, Hosier explains: “We had to back up our content on tape, which took time and forced us to maintain huge tape libraries.”

Their biggest challenge, however, was the insufficiency of their on-premises system to deliver the level of security Wyanoke required. Specifically, the system gave the team very little control over who had access to the many files they shared internally and externally every day. “When we needed to share files, we had to use email attachments,” explains Hosier. “These files could include sensitive customer information that’s now sitting in the inboxes of email recipients. We had no way of stopping them from forwarding it to other people, and no insight into whether the content was sufficiently encrypted.”

These data security shortcomings made local file storage untenable for Wyanoke’s clients. “Many of our clients are in Pharma, where security and integrity of data are absolutely paramount. These clients demand that vendors have a secure way to store and transfer their data. To meet that demand, we needed a better cloud solution.”

Solution: Migrate to the Cloud and Gain More Control

Hosier had recently learned that some of Wyanoke’s clients were Egnyte users and decided to evaluate Egnyte’s cloud-hosted file server. He was immediately impressed. “Egnyte was what we had been seeking for years,” says Hosier. “It’s a full cloud-first solution with great uptime and security.”

John Leibrand, Senior Director, Privacy and Compliance at Wyanoke, was particularly impressed with how Egnyte met the standards associated with ISO 27001. “As an ISO-certified company, we’re obligated to ensure data is encrypted both at rest and in transit, that access controls are solid, and that we have strong reporting. Egnyte provides all of this. The security is top-notch, and it’s easy to report on anomalies. For example, if someone who usually accesses 50 files suddenly accesses 1,000, we’re immediately alerted.”

Egnyte particularly impressed the team with:

• Access controls for company files
  Egnyte empowered the team to share content using password-protected links, which would expire after a specified date, instead of file attachments. Users could also set granular roles and permission parameters to limit who could view, modify, or delete files – and could do so on their own, without having to impose upon IT. “Egnyte really helped us meet our clients’ security demands,” explains Brandon Veiga, Director, IT Support Services at Wyanoke. “It also gives power back to the user, enabling them to share files more easily and securely than they could with a local file server.”
• Native integration with Salesforce CRM
  Integrating Egnyte with Salesforce allowed Wyanoke’s sales team to share files securely without having to pivot away from their preferred workflows. “Our sales reps practically live in Salesforce,” says Veiga. “With this integration, our 50-odd Salesforce users can go through the whole end-to-end process of creating, uploading, and sharing files from the Egnyte source, without leaving the Salesforce interface they’re comfortable with. And it was so easy to set up the integration and user licenses.”
• Rapid deployment and data migration
  Egnyte’s ease of use and attentive support team made it easy to migrate Wyanoke’s large volumes of content from their on-premises system into Egnyte. “We were able to handle the technical aspect of this large-scale migration, as well as get 300-plus people on board, as smoothly as possible, thanks to the Egnyte team, the available training and documentation resources, and the ease of using the system,” says Hosier. “And the support was great. They really made us feel like we’re part of the Egnyte family.”

Benefits: Secure Sharing, Efficient Workflows, and Happy Clients

Armed with Egnyte’s cloud-first data governance and collaboration solution, the Wyanoke team has gained the cybersecurity and file access controls that they need to succeed. “Our clients, particularly in Pharma, often send us long questionnaires to evaluate the level of security we have in place,” explains Hosier. “We can now check all the boxes they’re looking for and confidently meet any security standard a client may bring.”

The switch to the cloud has empowered Wyanoke to streamline workflows and operate much more efficiently. The team is able to access files from anywhere without relying on a VPN – a major benefit for a geographically dispersed staff that often works from the road. And their IT team has become much more productive. “Being responsible for IT infrastructure at Wyanoke, up to 25% of my time was spent maintaining local file store infrastructure,” comments Hosier. “My team and I now get that valuable time back.”

“Employees are getting set up in the system about 30% faster,” adds Leibrand. “And we’ve probably seen a 60% drop in support tickets related to file backups and recoveries because Egnyte saves changes and backs up files automatically.”

Hosier sums up Egnyte as more than just a content repository: “From secure file sharing and getting ahead of ransomware attacks, to easy setup and efficient workflows, we get it all with Egnyte.”

As a leading consulting engineering firm, MG Engineering knows the importance of risk management. “We operate within a risk-averse industry,” explains Demetrios Gianniris, Associate Principal, Head of Ops and Technology at MG Engineering. “There are codes and best practices, and we strive to be nimble and innovative while keeping those in mind.”

With Egnyte, they proved that large engineering firms with large data volumes can build productive file management workflows in the cloud – while still adhering to the codes and practices their highly regulated industry demands.

Challenge: A Mixed Workflow Leads to Inefficient File Management

MG Engineering often works on over 300 simultaneous projects encompassing over 20 terabytes worth of related files, with individual files ranging up to 5.5 gigabytes in size. Initially, they were using Egnyte’s Storage Sync technology to sync this data from the cloud to their own on-premises servers.

However, they soon discovered that once all the data had been sent to their servers, managing such a large volume of files locally was highly time- and resource-intensive. “Storage Sync is perfect for teams that manage small or mid-sized volumes of data,” explains Gianniris. “But with volumes as enormous as ours, we realized we would work faster if we kept those workflows in the cloud instead of syncing to on-premises servers.”

Particularly challenging areas included:

• File backups: “Our original plan was to have a complete copy of all our data in each office, and only use the cloud to access files remotely,” says Gianniris. Given the size and volume of the files involved, creating these backups would require a tremendous expenditure of time, staffing power, storage space, and budget.
• Collaboration: The team was using a virtual private network (VPN) for much of their remote file sharing. But VPN proved ineffective at facilitating collaboration on large files – and with most workers dispersed across three offices and many others working from home, sharing files this way proved to be a slog.
• File management: For each project, the team built a digital folder structure for managing files related to that project. But storing, sharing, co-editing, and archiving files with their part-cloud, part-on-premises hybrid workflow was highly inefficient. “We had a team of people who had to scour the whole network to find specific files and move them to the right location,” says Gianniris.

Facing delays and budget shortfalls, Gianniris started exploring ways to rely more heavily on the cloud. But his primary technology partner, Autodesk, didn’t work well with the numerous cloud platforms Gianniris tried out. “Autodesk doesn’t play nice in the cloud unless you’re using their cloud offering, which, at the time, hadn’t been developed,” Gianniris explains. “So we were stuck.”

Solution: A Cloud-First File Management System in Egnyte

Gianniris knew he needed to reduce his reliance on on-premises servers. He decided to take his use of Egnyte to the next level and use the platform to build a more cloud-centric file management workflow. Though the team was reluctant at first, their reservations disappeared when they saw the results. “Once we transitioned to enterprise cloud for our document storage, we were able to work much faster and more productively, largely because Egnyte handles uploads and transfers of large files really well,” explains Gianniris. “It’s also the rare cloud platform that works well with Autodesk. All of a sudden, these massive Autodesk CAD files worked a lot better.”

The team was also impressed with Egnyte’s integration capabilities. In particular, by integrating with mxHERO, they were able to replicate their shared Microsoft Outlook inboxes in Egnyte, allowing them to remove large, storage-consuming file attachments from their local server and store those files in the cloud instead. “We rely on our Outlook inboxes every day, but we were almost completely out of storage space because of these huge attachments,” explains Anjelica Orsini, Office Manager at MG Engineering, who plays an instrumental role in managing the firm’s IT. “Storing files in Egnyte instead of Outlook, and sharing them via links rather than attachments, frees up critical space and keeps things more secure.”

Working with Egnyte’s professional services, the team also accelerated the creation of complex folder structures to house files for internal and external collaboration. “It used to take us fifteen minutes to create a folder structure, but in Egnyte, we can do it in thirty seconds or less,” says Gianniris. “All it takes is the click of a button. Considering we often do this twenty or thirty times a day, those time savings really add up.” Once the folders were built, the team was able to quickly upload and migrate files of any size into Egnyte. From there, the cloud-based system allowed them to locate files from anywhere with a quick search, rapidly share files among dispersed stakeholders, and automate file archiving. “Egnyte serves as a great hub where all of our data lives, and where all our stakeholders can communicate.”

Benefits: Faster Workflows, Reduced Spend, and Happier Clients

Since implementing Egnyte, MG Engineering has made their workflows significantly faster and more cost-effective, yielding savings from project initiation to closeout. “Being all-in on the cloud has eliminated the need to create copies of all of our files or hire a full team to take on the laborious process of locating, moving, and archiving large files on a local server,” says Gianniris. “This has allowed us to save over $50,000 every year, as well as thousands of hours that we can reinvest in more high-value activities.”

These efficiencies have also enabled MG Engineering to ensure top-notch client services. “When our clients ask us for a file, they expect to get it immediately,” Orsini explains. “With local servers and manual processes, this would take ages. But Egnyte makes it easy for us to find, access, and send documents to clients in seconds. That’s a huge benefit.”

Egnyte hasn’t only enabled MG Engineering to save digital storage space – they’re freeing up physical space as well. “Now that we’ve seen how well Egnyte handles large volumes of large files, we plan to scan all of our files, dating back years, and store them in Egnyte,” says Orsini. “We’re currently working through what were originally about 900 boxes of files, which, historically, our team would spend hours or days wading through when we needed to find something. Once it’s all in Egnyte, all those documents will be at our fingertips.”

Summing up the ways Egnyte has benefited the team, Gianniris offers an anecdote: “Since we leaned more into the cloud, I’ve had people come up to my desk and ask me, ‘Did we do something with the network? Things are suddenly running much faster.’”

At Revolution Medicines, a clinical-stage precision oncology company, collaboration is key. As a medium-sized biotech organization whose internal workflows are augmented by a large virtual support system, they rely on a host of external partners to keep highly time-sensitive workflows running smoothly. If Revolution Medicines and their partners in both research and development are unable to communicate and share data effectively, operations can grind to a halt in a flash.

“With nearly 250 employees at the end of 2022, we are considered a medium-sized business” notes Wally Reiher, Chief Information Officer at Revolution Medicines. “Like many businesses our size in our space, our business model relies heavily on outsourcing. Collaboration is central to being able to do that effectively.”

Armed with Egnyte’s powerful content management system, Reiher and his team have accelerated and streamlined their collaboration both internally and externally, paving the way for smoother and faster workflows.

Challenge: Facilitate Collaboration Among a Complex Network

Revolution Medicines’ roster of external partners is broad in both number and variety. The company works closely with organizations specializing in critical functions across all aspects of research and development, including synthesis and screening, pre-clinical studies, and manufacturing.

“Orchestration of these many partnerships depends on efficient collaboration tools so our scientists can focus on their projects without distraction,” explains Reiher.

To facilitate this level of collaboration, Revolution Medicines needed a system that could:

• Store and organize copious amounts of data produced from a large-scale multifaceted collaborative platform
• Empower internal and external stakeholders to easily access data and collaborate in real time
• Ensure security by controlling access to the data at a highly granular level

“In a previous company, I implemented another solution for file storage and access,” says Reiher. “But my team ran into limitations with permissions management. To achieve the level of collaboration that we practice at Revolution Medicines, we would need something much more flexible.”

Solution: A Cloud File System That Breaks Down Collaboration Barriers

At the time Reiher joined Revolution Medicines, the company had just completed a meticulous vendor evaluation process leading to their selection of Egnyte for file management and sharing. Reiher oversaw the implementation process and was immediately impressed with how quickly the team was able to build an environment within Egnyte for their collaboration materials supporting a variety of research workflows, both internal and external, such as research plans, protocols, and reports. As the company matured, Egnyte was also used for a variety of other external collaboration workflows, including business development; supporting advisory boards; and academic collaborations.

“We entered partnerships with large companies where the alliance required a place to store all the files we’d be working on together, and it was agreed that we would do the hosting because we could implement the collaboration space more rapidly,” says Reiher. “Using Egnyte, we were able to build the necessary file infrastructure within a day. Dozens of individuals collaborating on an enormous volume of materials with controlled access rights – all set up in a matter of hours.”

Once setup was complete, these teams were able to manage their operations within Egnyte easily, efficiently, and securely. Highlights included:

• Permissions controls: Egnyte has provided the team with the ability to provision access to files based on user role and to control whether a user can modify a file, delete a file, or be limited to read-only access. “Access control is crucial when working with multiple external partners,” Reiher notes. “We can make sure a CRO can manage their own files and have access to the files they need to perform their tasks—and nothing more.”
• Simple and fast data migration: It was easy to import data from other systems into Egnyte and ensure data quality in transit. “Egnyte makes it really easy to import files from another repository such as an eTMF with fidelity,” says Reiher.
• File co-editing: Various stakeholders were able to collaborate on the same file simultaneously, with their edits registering in real time. “There was a lot of demand from our user base for concurrent editing,” says Reiher. “They absolutely had to have it.”

Benefits: Faster and Easier Workflows That Streamline Operations

Since their initial implementation, Revolution Medicines has significantly expanded their use of Egnyte, making the platform a fundamental vehicle for collaboration internally and with myriad partners. “We have over 200 controlled folders in Egnyte permissioned specifically for external collaborators and can govern access rights with the click of a button,” explains Reiher. “This has allowed us to provide needed access while maintaining the required control over our content. The end result is that everyone, both internally and externally, can collaborate effectively and securely.”

The team has also enjoyed downstream benefits from their rapid setup, easy data migration, and real-time collaboration. These time savers have put them in a strong position to maintain aggressive timelines while keeping collaboration secure and data quality high.

Throughout their experience, the team has been impressed with Egnyte’s customer support. “With a lot of companies, you’ll open a support ticket or send in a feature request, and never hear back about it, but we’ve always been able to count on Egnyte to quickly resolve any support needs we may have,” says Reiher. “I also appreciate that Egnyte continues to enhance their products.”

“It was a natural fit for us to go with Egnyte,” he adds “Folks have been really happy with this platform. We look forward to continuing this partnership.”