at a glance
the ammolite difference
About MAC Engineering
Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, MAC Engineering is an engineering solutions provider specializing in hi-tech and capital intensive industries, including oil & gas, chemical manufacturing, petrochemical, wastewater, and food processing.
Other Services Provided
In addition to enabling remote access to MAC Engineering’s CAD, automation programming environments, and other core business applications, Ammolite implemented a complete suite of enterprise communication and collaboration technologies. These solutions include deployment of Microsoft Teams and migration of the company’s on-premise Microsoft Exchange Server to a hosted solution, further bolstering MAC Engineering’s ability to collaborate and work remotely.
Business Situation
MAC Engineering’s expertise spans the engineering spectrum, including electrical, instrumentation systems integration, automation controls, civil, and mechanical engineering. Services cover all stages of the project lifecycle, from feasibility studies, detailed engineering and design, construction, commissioning, handover, and project closeout. With a staff of 45 engineering and project managers, MAC Engineering relies on computer aided design (CAD) and automation programming environments with specialized processing, graphics, and memory requirements. Engineering staff often work remotely from customer office locations. VPN was used by some users to access project data and development tools; however, resource intensive applications and large datasets required most staff to work on site from MAC Engineering’s offices located in Calgary and The Woodlands.
Inspiration for Change
MAC Engineering is experiencing accelerated growth across its markets, placing an increasing burden on staff to keep pace with customer drafting and automation programming projects. The company’s market growth intersected with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on travel/workplace gathering, and requirement for employees to work remotely from home. Having already outgrown the capabilities of its existing IT infrastructure, the limitations of MAC Engineering’s staff to effectively work remotely were brought into sharp focus. The company’s cash flow depends on billable time from its engineering team, draftsmen, and programmers, underscoring the need to quickly pivot to enable seamless remote work and ensure uninterrupted access to CAD, software development tools, and business critical data and code.
MAC Engineering’s expertise spans the engineering spectrum, including electrical, instrumentation systems integration, automation controls, civil, and mechanical engineering. Services cover all stages of the project lifecycle, from feasibility studies, detailed engineering and design, construction, commissioning, handover, and project closeout. With a staff of 45 engineering and project managers, MAC Engineering relies on computer aided design (CAD) and automation programming environments with specialized processing, graphics, and memory requirements. Engineering staff often work remotely from customer office locations. VPN was used by some users to access project data and development tools; however, resource intensive applications and large datasets required most staff to work on site from MAC Engineering’s offices located in Calgary and The Woodlands.
Inspiration for Change
MAC Engineering is experiencing accelerated growth across its markets, placing an increasing burden on staff to keep pace with customer drafting and automation programming projects. The company’s market growth intersected with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on travel/workplace gathering, and requirement for employees to work remotely from home. Having already outgrown the capabilities of its existing IT infrastructure, the limitations of MAC Engineering’s staff to effectively work remotely were brought into sharp focus. The company’s cash flow depends on billable time from its engineering team, draftsmen, and programmers, underscoring the need to quickly pivot to enable seamless remote work and ensure uninterrupted access to CAD, software development tools, and business critical data and code.
“Ammolite has been the most professional and responsive IT team I’ve ever worked with. It has been like building an airplane while flying as we implemented all of the required systems while accelerating through business growth - I can’t imagine another team that could do that!”
- Chris Rahbek-Nielsen
Ammolite Solution
MAC Engineering turned to Ammolite, a leader in full-service systems management, IT infrastructure design, and procurement. Ammolite rapidly implemented Inuvika’s OVD Enterprise application virtualization solution, which offers superior performance, platform flexibility, and cost efficiency compared to legacy alternatives. OVD provides MAC Engineering with a non-disruptive solution to access CAD, automation programming tools, and other business applications on any device, including each employee’s home-based PC configuration regardless of processing, graphics, and memory capabilities. OVD also delivers a familiar virtual workspace to all of the firm’s engineering, development, and management staff with powerful features that include remote access to personalized desktop applications and data, resuming sessions following a network drop, and minimal latency. This eliminates the need for staff to use a VPN while dramatically reducing bandwidth overhead as files and applications are viewed as live images vs. transferring large data volumes to the endpoint/device.
Pivotal Business Results
Ammolite and the Inuvika application virtualization platform have enabled MAC Engineering to seamlessly transition its on-premise design and automation practices to a distributed work environment. OVD empowered its drafting team to access resource intensive CAD applications remotely from home (running at full network speed harnessing more computing and graphics processing power than would otherwise be available to staff using their personal PCs or laptops). Ammolite’s rapid deployment of OVD also enabled MAC Engineering’s programming staff to replace VPN connections with a more secure method of accessing software development tools and code. Importantly, MAC Engineering has sustained its business growth while ensuring cash flow by enabling uninterrupted workstreams and billable time for CAD, automation, and other practice areas. As workplace restrictions are lifted, MAC Engineering anticipates that Inuvika will be instrumental in enabling its team to work productively from customer locations and provide continued value for staff working remotely and on the go. Ammolite has continued with MAC Engineering as its sole provider of IT management services.
IT Solutions Expertise
Ammolite partners with organizations to maximize their investments in technology. Providing exceptional customer service, Ammolite Technology empowers users through consultations, tools, and training. With decades of combined experience, Ammolite’s experts offer customized IT support, turn-key technology management, and procurement solutions. Vendor partners include Microsoft, VMware, Dell, Inuvika, Lenovo, Google Cloud, iXsystems and Veeam. With locations in Calgary and Victoria,
Learn more about our services
MAC Engineering turned to Ammolite, a leader in full-service systems management, IT infrastructure design, and procurement. Ammolite rapidly implemented Inuvika’s OVD Enterprise application virtualization solution, which offers superior performance, platform flexibility, and cost efficiency compared to legacy alternatives. OVD provides MAC Engineering with a non-disruptive solution to access CAD, automation programming tools, and other business applications on any device, including each employee’s home-based PC configuration regardless of processing, graphics, and memory capabilities. OVD also delivers a familiar virtual workspace to all of the firm’s engineering, development, and management staff with powerful features that include remote access to personalized desktop applications and data, resuming sessions following a network drop, and minimal latency. This eliminates the need for staff to use a VPN while dramatically reducing bandwidth overhead as files and applications are viewed as live images vs. transferring large data volumes to the endpoint/device.
Pivotal Business Results
Ammolite and the Inuvika application virtualization platform have enabled MAC Engineering to seamlessly transition its on-premise design and automation practices to a distributed work environment. OVD empowered its drafting team to access resource intensive CAD applications remotely from home (running at full network speed harnessing more computing and graphics processing power than would otherwise be available to staff using their personal PCs or laptops). Ammolite’s rapid deployment of OVD also enabled MAC Engineering’s programming staff to replace VPN connections with a more secure method of accessing software development tools and code. Importantly, MAC Engineering has sustained its business growth while ensuring cash flow by enabling uninterrupted workstreams and billable time for CAD, automation, and other practice areas. As workplace restrictions are lifted, MAC Engineering anticipates that Inuvika will be instrumental in enabling its team to work productively from customer locations and provide continued value for staff working remotely and on the go. Ammolite has continued with MAC Engineering as its sole provider of IT management services.
IT Solutions Expertise
Ammolite partners with organizations to maximize their investments in technology. Providing exceptional customer service, Ammolite Technology empowers users through consultations, tools, and training. With decades of combined experience, Ammolite’s experts offer customized IT support, turn-key technology management, and procurement solutions. Vendor partners include Microsoft, VMware, Dell, Inuvika, Lenovo, Google Cloud, iXsystems and Veeam. With locations in Calgary and Victoria,
Learn more about our services