— CDE Backup™ —
CDE Backup™ keeps a complete, current copy of your project in your own Azure.
— Overview —
See how CDE Backup™ protects your projects, in under two minutes.
This overview shows what happens when a CDE goes offline, how the copy is kept current, and where the data lives. Download our brochure for more information.
— The problem —
Your projects live as a single instance, inside a single vendor CDE platform.
Construction projects often sit in a single CDE platform. If it is hit by ransomware, has a prolonged outage, or you lose access, there may be no independent backup from which to continue working, restore project data, or access critical information records.
This has already happened. In 2020 Bouygues Construction was hit by the Maze ransomware attack and had to shut down its project systems. Any project whose record lived only inside an affected system had nothing to efficiently restore from.
A vendor’s own backups exist to restore the vendor’s platform. They do not give you an independent copy you control. That risk sits with IT security teams, risk managers, and the project directors whose teams stop working when the platform does.
Same incident. Two different mornings.
A vendor's backup usually just restores their own platform. CDE Backup™ keeps an independent copy in your Azure tenancy, under your control, so your team can keep working even when the CDE itself is down.
Your Azure tenancy
— The impact —
Losing a CDE will stop design, approvals, and site work all at the same instant.
Drawings, approvals and correspondence all flow through the CDE, so an outage can affect every team on the project at once. Despite this, most risk models overlook it as a major project risk. Maintaining a copy also improves your position when vendors reprice or contracts end.
What does a CDE outage cost you?
Drawings, approvals and site instructions all run through the CDE, so an outage stops every team at once. Enter your team and rate to see what the idle time costs.
How many projects run on the CDE that goes offline?
An outage reaches every project hosted on that platform, so count each project your organisation runs there.
Who relies on the CDE on each project?
Count the people on a typical project who need drawings, approvals or correspondence from the CDE to do their work.
Time and cost
How much of their work stops?
The share of each person's day that depends on the CDE. Without access, that work waits until the platform is back.
How long is the CDE offline?
Working days without access to the CDE, from the moment it goes down until your team can use it again.
5 working days without access to drawings, approvals or correspondence
— What it does —
CDE Backup™ copies your files, versions and metadata into your Azure on a schedule you set.
CDE Backup™ runs the same engine as CDE Sync™. It keeps an ongoing copy of project files, every version, the metadata and the mapping between platforms in your Azure tenancy on a schedule you select.
CDE Backup™ keeps a copy you own
Every CDE on the project is copied into your own Azure on a schedule you set. If one platform goes offline, your copy stays intact and ready to restore.
— How it works —
Set up CDE Backup™ once and the copy keeps itself current with your CDE.
Your IT team approves the Azure destination, and the schedule runs from there on. Each backup carries files and versions, folder structure, metadata and attributes, and the mapping between platforms. It works with every platform CDE Sync™ connects
— Security & Data —
Your backup sits securely inside your tenancy, under your controls.
Utopia Digital holds SOC 2 Type II and Cyber Essentials, with 62 audited controls and independent penetration testing every year. The platform suits projects with Security of Critical Infrastructure obligations in rail, energy, water, aviation, and defence. Choose from 33+ Azure data regions so your data stays sovereign in the country you need.
Secure by design, zero files stored
Every Utopia Digital product streams your files straight between your systems and never stores them. We hold only encrypted credentials, configuration and audit logs.
Bentley ProjectWise
Autodesk Forma
0 FILES STOREDData streams straight through, in the Azure region you choose.
SOC 2 Type II and
Cyber Essentials
Independently audited against 62 controls across 8 security categories.
CertifiedZero persistence
file movement
Files stream directly between your platforms and are never stored in ours.
By designMultiple Azure
data regions
Choose the Azure region your data is processed in, to meet residency rules.
Your choiceAnnual penetration
testing
Independent penetration tests every year, plus cyber resilience exercises.
Every year— The Utopiaverse™ —
CDE Backup™ fills your own Azure with live project data.
This is where the Utopiaverse™ comes together. Every project you back up builds the unified record in your own tenancy, kept current while the project is live. Because the data already sits in your Azure, AI Insights can search it with RAG and OCR across every project and every platform.
Welcome to the Utopiaverse™
Each Utopia Digital product adds a layer. Together they turn every CDE into one data foundation in your own Azure, ready for AI.
UTOPIAVERSE™
— Product family —
Five products on one platform, covering the whole of a project’s lifecycle.
CDE Sync™ runs during delivery. CDE Backup™ keeps a copy in your Azure throughout. CDE Migrate™ moves you when platforms change, and CDE Archive™ captures the record at completion. The Utopiaverse™ brings uses Azure, with AI Insights across the portfolio.
Four products. Two engines. One Utopiaverse™.
Every product shares the same connectors, the same zero file persistence architecture and the same SOC 2 Type II controls. What changes is what moves, how often, and where it lands.
The pairs people mix up are Sync against Backup, and Migrate against Archive. In both cases the engine is the same and the destination decides the product. Select a row to open it in the lifecycle view.
— Integrated CDEs —
— FAQs —
Common questions about CDE Backup™
What is CDE Backup™?
CDE Backup™ keeps an ongoing copy of your project files, versions and metadata in your own Microsoft Azure tenancy, so your project record does not depend on a single CDE.
Why back up a CDE if the vendor already has backups?
A vendor’s backups exist to restore the vendor’s platform. CDE Backup™ gives you an independent copy, outside that platform, that you control.
What happens to our project data if a CDE is hit by ransomware?
The copy in your Azure sits outside the affected platform, so the files, versions, metadata and mapping are still intact for your team to work from.
Where is the backup stored?
In your own Azure storage account, in the region you choose, under your own access and retention policies.
Does Utopia Digital keep a copy of our data?
No. Files stream from your CDEs into your Azure and are never stored or cached by Utopia Digital.
How often does the backup update?
On the schedule you set when you configure the backup.
What does a backup include?
Files and every version, folder structures, metadata and attributes, and the mapping between platforms, so the record still makes sense outside the CDE.
Which CDE platforms can be backed up?
Every platform CDE Sync™ connects, including Autodesk Forma, Bentley ProjectWise, Oracle Aconex, Procore, Asite, InEight, 12d Synergy and SharePoint.
Can older backup data move to cheaper storage?
Yes. You can set when older data moves to cold storage to keep costs down.
How is CDE Backup™ priced?
CDE Backup™ is covered by both the CDE Project ID Model and the Enterprise Data Model, and runs on the same platform as CDE Sync™.