From VPN delays to real-time access: how EVS scales with LucidLink

About EVS

EVS is shaping a sustainable future through quality engineering solutions for utility-scale solar plants, substations and energy storage facilities.

Headquartered in Minnesota, with offices in Colorado and employees based in India, EVS brings together civil, structural, electrical, geotechnical and land survey disciplines, with licenses to practice in 48 states.

Introduction

EVS is growing fast, expanding its team sevenfold in just six years. But with that growth came a problem: sharing and accessing massive AutoCAD drawings and design files across a global team. 

Legacy file servers and VPNs couldn’t keep up with the demands of a distributed workforce, leading to wasted hours and frustrated engineers.

That was before LucidLink. Today, EVS enjoys on-demand access to project files, smooth global collaboration and a simpler, scalable IT model.

We spoke to Wally Warwick, IT Manager at EVS, to learn how LucidLink became the backbone of EVS’s engineering workflow.

The challenge: slow VPNs and expensive workarounds

EVS’s on-prem file server worked fine when everyone was in the office. But as the team grew and became more distributed, VPN access became a major bottleneck.

“Opening or saving a file could take five to ten minutes,” says Wally. “Multiply that across dozens of engineers, and you’re burning expensive hours just waiting for files.”

Alternative solutions like VDI platforms or Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro didn’t measure up. 

“Many tools couldn’t even detect folders,” Wally explains. Buying new SAN hardware for $80K wasn’t viable either: “If we were buying new servers, we’d be shelling out a ton of money before we even knew if it would pay off.”

The solution: one cloud workspace for every engineer

In late 2023, EVS rolled out LucidLink. For engineers, it was simple: LucidLink mounted as a local drive, preserving familiar workflows.

“LucidLink lets us replicate our shared drive experience, just in the cloud,” says Wally.

With streaming access, AutoCAD, Civil 3D and specialized tools like ETAP and WinIGS open files almost instantly, even over home broadband. Engineers no longer need to wait for downloads, or worry about broken folder structures and duplicate SharePoint sites.

Today, LucidLink serves as EVS’s primary storage platform. All project files — from CAD drawings to Bluebeam markups and electrical analyses — live in one unified filespace, accessible anywhere.

The results: faster access, lower costs

LucidLink transformed EVS’s workflows, boosting efficiency, cutting costs and letting the team grow without adding extra infrastructure.

Results at a glance:

• 90% faster file access: 5-10 minutes over VPN to under 30 seconds with LucidLink

• 200+ billable hours/month recaptured: less waiting, more designing

• $80K saved: avoided planned SAN upgrade

• IT headaches avoided: “remote file-access was on my task list every week. Since switching to LucidLink I haven’t thought about it once.” 

A foundation for growth

For EVS, LucidLink is more than a storage platform — it’s the backbone of a high-performance, distributed engineering workflow.

• Engineers collaborate as if they’re in the same office, opening massive CAD and electrical design files in seconds.

• IT gets centralized control and security, plus more time to focus on strategy instead of firefighting.

• The company can bid on bigger projects and onboard new engineers fast without costly infrastructure upgrades.

“LucidLink lets us hire the best solar engineers, wherever they live, and have them be productive on day one,” says Wally.

Looking ahead, EVS plans to use LucidLink for even stricter compliance and greater resilience. Features like mobile access, granular permissions and local failover are on the roadmap — ensuring business continuity even in the most demanding environments.

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