Having a reliable, high performance workstation can be the difference between missing and meeting a deadline. That’s why Environmental Systems Design has moved from home-built, “white box” computers to HP Workstations.

“Engineers are becoming more and more dependent on the capabilities they can access in the latest software,” explains J. Mark Andersen, Associate AIA, vice president of IT for the firm.

“When we moved into 3D modeling of our buildings using Autodesk® Revit®, we needed to get more reliable, higher performance computers to run it. The difference between our old computers and HP Workstations is like night and day.”

ObJEcTIvE:Improve reliability and performance of engineering workstations

APPROAcH:Environmental Systems Design has adopted HP Z400 Workstations as its new standard for engineering

IT IMPROvEMEnTS:Remarkable performance gains • Dramatic improvement in workstation • reliabilityAbility to effectively access workstations • remotely using HP Remote Graphics Software

buSInESS bEnEfITS:Improved ability to meet deadlines• Higher engineer productivity• More accurate, fully realized models • for clientsAbility to offer new services•

HP cuSTOMER cASE STuDy:Environmental Systems Design builds its business on power, and performance of HP Z400 Workstations

InDuSTRy:Architectural engineering

“You can’t thrive in this industry without taking full advantage of today’s best software. And you can’t run today’s best software productively on anything less than the best computers. That’s why we turned to HP.”

—J. Mark Andersen, Associate AIA, vice president of IT, Environmental Systems Design, Inc., Chicago, Ill.

EnvironmEntal SyStEmS DESign, inc.HP Z400 Workstations: performance matched to demanding software

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cuSTOMER SOLuTIOn AT A GLAncE

PRIMARy APPLIcATIOnSEngineering

PRIMARy HARDWARE•HPZ400Workstation

•HPLP2275w22-inchWidescreenLCDmonitor

PRIMARy SOfTWARE

•GenuineWindows®7Professional64-bit

•Microsoft®Office

•HPRemoteGraphicsSoftware

•HPPerformanceAdvisor

•Autodesk®Revit®MEP

•AutoCAD®

•Newforma®ProjectCenter

RELIAbILITy PAySEnvironmental Systems Design, Inc. (ESD), based in chicago, is one of the largest consulting engineering firms in the Midwest. It routinely handles the mechanical and electrical engineering as well as lighting, plumbing, fire protection, telecommunications, and networking for some of the world’s biggest projects.

A few years ago, engineers at ESD had a love/hate relationship with their home-built “white box” computers. When they worked, all was well with the world. but all too often, a computer would freeze up and an engineer would lose his work for the day. Or the computer simply couldn’t open a model.

When computers failed, engineers could be sidelined for hours until they were fixed. not to mention the loss of recent work on the project.

“The white boxes really cost us a lot. first, we lost time just trying to figure out what the problem was,” recalls Andersen. “Then the engineers would have to step aside while we worked on getting them fixed. We were constantly in crisis mode.”

HP AnD AuTODESkThe company chose to address this need with HP Workstations for two reasons. first, ESD had standardized on HP ProLiant servers and prized their reliability. Perhaps more important, says Andersen, was the HP relationship with Autodesk. “HP customizes its workstations to run Autodesk software, and Autodesk certifies those workstations. That kind of assurance means a lot to us.”

because ESD has its own technicians on staff, it also prizes the internal design of HP Workstations and standardization of components. “being able to get at parts easily and change out components quickly is really important in order to keep people working,” says Andersen. “HP has done a good job of making their workstations easy to work on.”

The company has been buying HP Z400 Workstations for its most tech-savvy engineers in order to give them the best possible performance and boost their productivity.

Andersen says the firm benchmarked one of its best white box computers against a Z400 Workstation running Revit. “With the Z400, the performance improvements were remarkable.”

The hardware advantage is magnified even more with the company’s transition to a 64-bit operating system, Andersen adds. A computational fluid dynamics model on the Z400 running Genuine Windows® 71 Professional 64-bit exhibited exceptional performance characteristics.

InTEL® InSIDELes Lewis, IT support manager, says the use of Intel® processors in all HP Workstations is an important product differentiator. “In our experience, you just can’t beat Intel processors,” he says. “for high-end engineering applications, you need the higher cache amount on the Intel processor. That speeds up the performance significantly.”

The proof is in plain sight—on the monitors, that is. The firm’s old white box computers couldn’t even open up some of the more complex Revit models ESD has created. On the Z400 Workstations, engineers can run Revit productively, and load and run other applications as well.

Along with the Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit operating system, the company’s Z400 Workstations are configured with 16 Gb of RAM, a nvIDIA® Quadro® fX3800 graphics card, and dual HP LP2275w Widescreen LcD monitors. Engineers want as much screen real estate as possible, Lewis notes. They routinely put the Revit model on one screen, and related data on the other along with email, Microsoft® Office, and most recently, newforma® Project center software.

Lewis’ team uses HP Performance Advisor software to ensure the firm gets the most out of its HP Workstations. “It’s very good at helping us keep the systems operating at peak efficiency without me having to go to every workstation individually.”

“When we moved into 3D modeling of our buildings using Autodesk Revit, we needed to get more reliable, higher performance computers to run it. The difference between our old computers and HP Workstations is like night and day.”

—J. Mark Andersen, Associate AIA, vice president of IT, Environmental Systems Design, Inc.

Windows®. Life without Walls™. HP recommends Windows 7.

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“for graphic-intensive applications, RGS is just outstanding. With other remote access software, when you spin a model it might stutter, but with RGS, it rotates smoothly.”

—J. Mark Andersen, Associate AIA, vice president of IT, Environmental Systems Design, Inc.

RGS SOfTWARE fOR REMOTE AccESSTo enable their engineers to be productive even when they’re away from the office, the firm also uses HP Remote Graphics Software (RGS). It allows users to remotely log in and operate a workstation, leveraging the suburb performance and graphics capability of the Z400 Workstations even from a modest notebook Pc.

“for graphic-intensive applications, RGS is just outstanding,” notes Andersen. “for Revit, AutocAD®, animation and anything with graphics, it really performs. When you spin a model via remote desktop it might stutter, but with RGS, it rotates smoothly.”

company engineers use RGS primarily to remote in to their workstations in the evening or while traveling on business. but the firm also has two Z400 Workstations that aren’t assigned to specific employees. So when extra engineers are added temporarily to a project team, if they don’t have a powerful workstation on their own desktop, they can use RGS to remotely access the Z400 Workstations.

nEW RESPOnSIbILITIES, nEW OPPORTunITIESAndersen says ESD’s adoption of Revit MEP is indicative of a trend sweeping the industry. “The business is changing because there’s increasing demand for us to use building information

modeling (bIM). It’s not just an added service anymore; it’s becoming a requirement.”

The reason: architects are always pushing the design envelope in ways that create brand new engineering challenges. Andersen notes that leading architects with whom ESD works regularly are designing buildings today that couldn’t be built without 3D modeling and bIM software.

Engineering firms might have generated drawings in the past that were little more than a schematic, leaving the fine details to a contractor. now clients expect the drawings—and the intricate 3D models they’re based on—to be fully realized. “So if someone changes a piece of equipment in any elevation or detail, that change is reflected in the entire set of drawings, and schedules as well,” Andersen notes. “That’s just part of what bIM does for us.”

Higher expectations create new challenges for engineers. but they also create a new opportunity for firms like ESD. With bIM, engineers can take facilities management to a new level. “We can tell you how many of a certain component there are in the building, and show you exactly where they are. We can analyze the building for material usage. We can analyze the building for LEED certification (a green building certification system) and take measures to make it more

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contact the HP Reference2Win Program, 866-REf-3734 for more information.© 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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4AA3-1086EnW, September 2010

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environmentally sensible. All that takes powerful, highly integrated software and powerful, highly reliable workstations,” Andersen continues.

The company currently has more than 100 HP Z400 Workstations in place. It replaces roughly a third of its desktop units each year. Looking ahead, Andersen has arranged to begin testing HP Z600 and Z800 Workstations, because the newest release of Revit MEP takes greater advantage of multi-core technology.

“you can’t thrive in this industry without taking full advantage of today’s best software,” Andersen says. “And you can’t run today’s best software productively on anything less than the best computers. That’s why we turned to HP.”