CAMPBELL, CA -- (Marketwired) -- Nov 04, 2014 -- Panzura, the pioneer of next generation enterprise storage infrastructure for the cloud era, today announced that prominent architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) firm GRAEF-USA, saved more than $250,000 in storage costs at just two sites in addition to empowering employees with cross-site collaboration capabilities with Panzura's patented file locking technology. GRAEF-USA achieved "lights-out" storage management, eliminated the need to replace its network-attached storage (NAS) devices, and enabled employees to work collaboratively on building information modeling (BIM)/computer-aided design (CAD) applications across offices.

GRAEF-USA saw benefits almost immediately with Panzura's file locking technology. Results included:

• Reduced storage bill from $250,000 to $364 per month by using Amazon S3 and eliminating hardware storage replacement and maintenance fees annually by collapsing all tiers of storage at every site into a single cloud-based Global File System;
• Condensed storage footprint across offices from 80 terabytes to 15 cloud-based terabytes by eliminating unnecessary file duplication;
• Decreased file latency across offices and enabled employees to collaborate among six locations without having to create, and later merge, up to five different versions of files;
• Reduced project overhead costs; the 35 percent of hours on a project that were considered project overhead are now minimal to non-existent; and
• Eliminated vendor-specific collaboration tools, since Panzura works with all 395 applications used by GRAEF-USA, allowing engineers to work from MicroStation, Revit, and other AEC applications in a shared workspace.

"Panzura was able to significantly reduce our exponentially growing storage costs as well as virtually eliminate our project overhead, as we no longer had to consolidate different versions of the same file," says David Neumann, Director of IT at GRAEF-USA. "We always wanted to move our data to the cloud, but we needed fast local access speeds. Panzura solved that last piece to the puzzle and fulfilled our dreams of moving our data to a centralized system. This is the way of the future."

Panzura's patented global file locking technology is the only solution that solves cross-site BIM and CAD collaboration issues and has become crucial for internal and external collaboration needs with AEC applications. Panzura's unique file locking capability reduces application sync time of users in distributed sites from 20 minutes to 10 seconds, truly enabling all users to work as if they were in the same room.

"It is crucial for AEC firms to use applications like AutoDesk, Revit and MicroStation across virtual teams, but these tools were made to work at a single site and not across sites," said Randy Chou, co-founder and CEO of Panzura. "We are proud to announce that with Panzura, GRAEF-USA has been able to completely transform how they work with these applications in addition to experiencing major cost and time savings."

About Panzura
Panzura is the catalyst in the transformation of cloud storage into high-performance enterprise file systems. Panzura's revolutionary global locking file system seamlessly combines the flexibility, performance and productivity benefits of distributed storage with the manageability, security and economics of centralized storage.

With Panzura, the cloud -- public or private -- not only serves as every tier of storage, it becomes the fabric that enables globally distributed teams rapid file access and easy collaboration. Panzura delivers one file system across hundreds of offices that allows users to work together as if they were in the same room. For more information, visit www.panzura.com.