Autodesk for Government, a portfolio of cloud collaboration and document management tools, has been approved for use on US federal government projects
With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investing over $1tn into infrastructure improvements, the government is increasingly embracing digital transformation for public sector AEC projects.
However, in addition to data requirements and expectations around sustainability, these works also carry strict security and compliance standards to protect federal information.
To ensure the adoption of secure cloud technologies, the US federal government established the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, which authorizes cloud services that meet key security standards.
The new Autodesk for Government portfolio, which includes Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro for Government and Autodesk Docs for Government, has achieved FedRAMP Moderate Impact authorization, clearing them for use on federal AEC projects.
A single source of truth from design to operation
US federal government projects often face challenges from teams working in silos.
Architects design in one environment and engineers in another. Both disciplines may be leveraging Building Information Modeling (BIM) to design and coordinate their work in Revit, but they still frequently rely on outdated methods to transmit PDFs to servers to share information with federal agencies, general contractors, and other stakeholders.
Files and models become outdated not long after they’re sent. Emails get buried in inboxes. Changes downstream by contractors may not get recorded into the original models.
Autodesk for Government aims to reshape how projects are delivered.
Autodesk Docs for Government is a common data environment that aggregates design models and files and centralizes issue management. It’s a single source of truth that brings collaborators together from design all the way through handover.
In Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro for Government, users can access a model timeline to track the status of design packages from each collaborating discipline to streamline the project and improve efficiency among teams. Revit models hosted in the cloud can be worked on simultaneously by each discipline.
Users can communicate real-time design updates and designers can spend less time fixing errors that waste materials and money and more time innovating sustainability-led designs.
At each stage, the secure cloud environment keeps a digital record of the models and files. At handover, the federal agency has accurate data that can be used to efficiently operate and maintain the asset.
A secure environment for GSA projects
Announcing the FedRAMP approval on the Autodesk website, Jack Hsueh, director of strategy, digital project delivery on the AEC strategy team, wrote: “We’ve achieved FedRAMP Moderate Impact authorization for our Autodesk for Government offerings, which means we’ve gone through a rigorous review process that validates our security controls.
“This allows government agencies to quickly review our security package and issue their own ATO for our offering, enabling that agency and its contractors to use the offering on authorized projects.
“We’re proud to announce that our FedRAMP authorization is sponsored by the US General Services Administration’s Office of the Chief Information Officer OCIO (GSA IT).
“As a federal government agency, the GSA’s purpose is to streamline government operations and save money. Digital transformation in the building industry promises to help meet those goals. By working in the cloud with seamless collaboration, intuitive workflows and secure data, project teams can deliver public projects faster and with less waste. These are outcomes that we all–taxpayers included–can get behind.”
