Effectively managing data in construction- sector businesses helps them to be more resilient in the event of a cybersecurity breach or loss of data, and helps them to use their data efficiently to support operations , says data management consultancy Gabsten Technologies MD Hemant Harie.

While construction-industry businesses generate data specific to the industry that has its own data management requirements, it still retains a conventional business information technology (IT) profile. Companies in the industry typically have IT departments and centralised infrastructure, which will impact on or can disrupt the business.

Many construction businesses view data management as a compliance requirement, but the impacts of IT disruptions have been recognised as severe by those companies that have suffered breaches and outages, he says.

"While being able to recover quickly from a breach or loss of data helps to avoid delays in projects, effective data management practices make construction-industry businesses resilient against disruptions and [enable them] to operate more effectively during constrained economic times."

For example, construction-industry businesses produce large amounts of artefact data during the delivery of a project. This is data that is specific to a site and/or project and some of it is transient, such as scheduling and project management data, while much of the documentation produced must be stored for at least several years.

Data management in the construction industry typically involves mobile devices, such as laptops and smartphones. Data management solutions and architectures must be designed to ensure that data is protected at all times and that there is adequate backup and recovery processes in place. This includes encrypting data on these devices and deploying suitable applications on them.

Effectively managing the availability, synchronisation, flow and protection of artefact and operational data across on-premise, cloud and mobile devices is central to improving resilience and supporting operations, says Harie.

"It is important that companies go through a recovery test prior to a cyberattack or loss of data. This helps them to understand their average recovery times, while the process highlights what data is crucial to which processes, which, in turn, enables them to identify what to protect and how to design their data management architecture."

Gabsten Technologies has significant experience in providing data management services and solutions for the construction industry. It consults with and provides recommendations for clients on data management system design and structure, says Harie.

"There are technologies available to facilitate the synchronisation of large engineering file and document changes, even over low-bandwidth connections, and there are suitable data management solutions that can readily be adopted by construction companies to meet their needs."

Harie highlights that cloud platforms and service providers can play a key role in construction industry businesses’ data management, storage and recovery strategies, and can serve as core components of backup and disaster recovery processes.

"The IT teams in companies have to be ‘jacks of all trades’, while we specialise in data management. "However, we work closely with these internal teams to meet their needs as their environments and projects cENGINEERING NEWS COUPON ON PAGE 16 E539130hange.