IT Support for Architecture Firms, Built Around the Central Model

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An architecture practice is a strange IT client. Forty people open one federated model at nine o’clock and every one of them is waiting on the same file. The most valuable thing on the network isn’t the finance system. It’s a central model a generalist provider has never heard of. And the person who understands the software best, the BIM manager, is the one most likely to be locked out by a security policy written for an accounting firm.

We’re NexSys. We’ve provided IT support for architecture firms since 2013 and take on nobody outside architecture, engineering and construction. Half our engineers came out of practices: Peter Lewis from Woods Bagot and Bruce Henderson, Noel Tippett from HASSELL, and Russell Swainston, a decade at Cox Architecture as National Service IT Manager.

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IT support for architecture firms starts with the workstation

Autodesk’s published requirements for Revit 2026 are specific in ways most IT companies never read. They recommend the highest single-core base clock speed available, because Revit does most of its work on one core. They put memory at 16 GB entry-level and 64 GB or more for large models, video memory at 4 GB minimum and 8 GB or more for large models, and 100 GB of free disk for temporary files alone. A workstation bought on core count and a 512 GB SSD fails three of those four out of the box, which is why the high performance workstations a generalist quotes are so often the wrong ones.

We spec from your models rather than a phone call. Bring the largest project you have open and the spec gets more accurate, because a residential studio in Revit LT and a practice documenting a hospital with linked structural and services models aren’t buying the same machine. Rendering seats get a GPU-led spec, documentation seats get clock speed, and nobody pays for cores they’ll never use.

Cloud storage, cloud solutions and where the central model and large project files live

This is where IT for architects most often goes wrong, predictably. Someone moves the project files to SharePoint or OneDrive because the Microsoft licence includes cloud services, cloud storage and the collaboration tools that come with it, and secure file sharing with project teams looks solved. Autodesk’s knowledge base answers the question directly: if you expect an experience similar to file-based worksharing on a local network, the answer is no, because sync-based storage was never designed for the constant exchange between a local copy and a central file.

The limits bite even before you get to Revit. Microsoft caps the full decoded path of a file in OneDrive and SharePoint at 400 characters, and recommends syncing no more than 300,000 items across your cloud storage, which a decade of projects passes without noticing. AutoCAD external references on a SharePoint site aren’t found unless the files are downloaded locally, and per-user paths break absolute references between machines. So we don’t put central models there. Depending on the practice we run a specified server with low-latency storage, streamed cloud storage for distributed teams across multiple offices, or Autodesk’s cloud worksharing, with remote access for external consultants that doesn’t hand them the whole drive.

Design software governance: versions, templates and plugins

Ian Simpson, who runs our Design Technology arm, has spent 25 years around Autodesk, Bentley and Bluebeam, and his view is one many IT providers would push back on: version drift costs a practice more than its Autodesk bill. When half the office is on one Revit release and half a year ahead, every linked model is a negotiation, upgrade day is a project, and the template your BIM manager built quietly forks. So we govern the design software the way a practice governs its drawings: version control per project, a managed update pathway that respects project deadlines, and a plugin list that’s reviewed, not accumulated.

Licensing sits inside that. As an Autodesk Elite Partner we can see your subscription position, and most practices we audit are paying for seats nobody has signed into for a quarter. Autodesk sells named-user subscriptions only, each tied to one person on up to three devices, one at a time, so a seat that isn’t assigned to a working drafter is just money. We reassign, retire, and tell you the number.

Cyber security and data security for sensitive client data, without locking out the BIM manager

Tier 1 builders and government clients now ask consultants to state their Essential Eight maturity level, and Level Two is usually what they mean, because your design files are their valuable intellectual property, client information and sensitive data as much as yours, and a data breach at a consultant is their breach too. Two controls land hard on a practice. Application control means only approved software runs, and in a studio where Dynamo scripts and rendering plugins arrive from a dozen sources that’s a fight unless it’s done with publisher-signed rules and a fast approval path. Restricting administrative privileges is the one that upsets BIM managers, and it needn’t. The control asks that admin be a separate account, used when needed and reviewed, not that the person who installs add-ins loses the ability to.

There’s a caveat. If your practice is three people on ArchiCAD with no worksharing and no government clients, a managed contract with us is more than you need, and we’ll say so. Buy hours from a good local technician and call us at the fourth hire.

Core services: managed IT services for architectural practices, with a desk that knows what a worksharing conflict is

The service is the same list any managed services provider or IT partner publishes: proactive monitoring and ongoing maintenance of your IT infrastructure around the clock, 24/7 helpdesk support, patching, endpoint protection, access controls, secure access for remote teams, backup and disaster recovery planning, and licence management. The difference is triage: a failed sync before a deadline is handled differently from a printer, because the person on the desk has sat in your chair; Long Vo, who runs it, was National IT Manager at Hames Sharley. Backups are tested by restoring a live central model, not by reading a log, and stored where an attacker with a drafter’s password can’t delete them, which is what Level Two asks for.

If you already have internal IT, co-managed IT means they keep the day-to-day IT management and we take the infrastructure management, the security tooling and the pages at 2am, with the split written down first and reviewed every quarter.

Questions architects ask first

Can we keep our Revit central models on SharePoint or OneDrive?

Autodesk’s knowledge base says that if you expect an experience similar to file-based worksharing on a LAN, the answer is no. Use a specified server, streamed storage for split teams, or Autodesk’s cloud worksharing, and we’ll say which fits your models.

Do our BIM managers lose local admin under the Essential Eight?

No. Admin becomes a separate account used when needed and reviewed, and the BIM manager keeps the ability to install add-ins from that login rather than the everyday one.

What does IT support for architects cost?

More than an accounting firm of the same size, because the workstations, high performance storage and backups are heavier, and less than the support cost of one stalled submission. We quote from the existing systems, not a rate card, and unlimited support on the desk is standard.

Where do performance bottlenecks in an architecture practice usually come from?

Three places, in order: a central model on the wrong storage, a workstation bought on core count rather than clock speed, and large CAD files or rendering software on the same machine that’s trying to open Revit. System performance across the operating systems and the network is measured first. Then something is bought.