Clouds4Coordination (C4C): Cloud-based project coordination in the AEC sector

Projects in the construction (AEC) sector generally involve collaboration between various participating companies over the (building construction) lifecycle using different systems and storage solutions. As part of this, the compatibility, control and access of data objects created is critical to the success of a project. Currently, coordination between participants is often a labour intensive manual process and can require a monopoly of software systems to be enforced. The C4C project will demonstrate how a multi-vendor Cloud computing system can be used throughout the lifecycle, thereby preventing single vendor lock-in and enabling a variety of Cloud environments, accessible at different costs, to be used. Data sharing through C4C will be managed and provenance-tracked to automate coordination and staged data verification, which will be based on the BIM process model. This approach will also offer a pragmatic, scalable delivery mechanism for the UK BIM agenda to be realised.