Engineering IT · PEO-aware · Zero-trust
IP-Protecting IT for Toronto Engineering Firms
Large-file collaboration, zero-trust remote site access, and IP protection for engineering and design practices — without slowing down your billable work.
- IP-protection focus
- PEO-aware
- Zero-trust
- GTA engineering practices
or call (416) 624-4841 — engineers routed to a priority queue during deadline windows
The math you don't see on a balance sheet
The risk isn't hypothetical
IP loss, version drift, and late stamp-sets don't show up in your accounting system until they cost you a client. The numbers behind the silence:
A day's friction, billed back
The IT papercuts that quietly eat billable hours
A senior engineer loses roughly 38 minutes a day to friction most firms accept as "just IT." Across a practice, that is a standing unbillable line item nobody budgets.
Recurring loss
The friction is the cost. We rebuild the workflow so engineers stop noticing the IT — the highest compliment engineers give.
Each item below is a real, observed pattern from our intake interviews with Toronto engineering firms.
- 38 minAvg. daily IT friction per engineer (intake)
- 2–5×Rework hours after a version-loss event
- 08:40Central file is slow to open
Senior engineer launches Revit central. SharePoint sync is contending with another model. 9 minutes to a usable session.
~9 min lost · every engineer · every morning - 11:15Plotter queue locked again
PDF set going to a client portal — the office plotter driver is in a stuck state. Plot Manager isn't responding. IT can't be reached.
~25 min lost · IFC set delayed - 13:50Field engineer can't reach drawing server
On-site at a client construction office. Legacy VPN failing. Engineer ends up emailing themselves files and editing locally — version drift starts.
Version split + IP on personal device - 16:20Detailer overwrites partner's edits
No worksharing on a SolidWorks assembly. The detailer's save squashes a partner's evening revisions. Reverting via OS file history fails.
~3.5 hr senior rework - 17:55Stamp set blocked at deliverable time
Partner is signing-and-sealing the IFC set. The export bookmark in Bluebeam is missing — last build was on a laptop that's now offline.
Client deliverable slips 1 day
PEO & contract alignment
The four obligations we evidence by default
Compliance isn't a quarterly project. Every Toronto firm we run gets a standard build mapped to PEO professional-practice guidance — so a contract audit lands on documents, not your IT.
Custody of Work Product
Every drawing, calc, and signed-and-sealed PDF lives in versioned storage with engineer-tied access logs — not on a desktop that walked out the door.
PEO Professional Practice GuidelinesRecord Keeping
Project files retained per your contract (often 7–25 years for civil/structural), with immutable copies and a defensible audit trail of who-changed-what.
Aligned to PEO record retention guidanceStamp-Ready Document Control
Drawing revs locked, IFC and IFR sets evidenced, and signed-and-sealed PDFs archived against the source CAD — so an audit reconciles in hours, not weeks.
Project-contract document controlIP Protection Controls
DLP on CAD extensions, conditional access on M365, EDR on every workstation, and external-share governance on SharePoint — IP exfil costs more than a project.
Underwriter + contract evidenceDesign stacks we run in production
Engineers who know your CAD tooling
Worksharing in Revit Central, PDM Vault for SolidWorks, Bluebeam Studio sessions across firms, ProjectWise for federal scope — without a 90-day learning curve on your tools.
Don't see yours? We coordinate with most CAD vendors and license servers directly.Ask about your stack
IP protection control plane
Six controls orbiting every drawing
The standard build wraps your CAD library in six overlapping controls — so a single compromised laptop, a contractor offboarding, or a vendor incident doesn't move your IP.
What sits on top of your CAD library
- DLP on CAD extensions
- Conditional access (M365)
- EDR every workstation
- Versioned, off-site backup
- Tailscale zero-trust
- Audit trail on shares
Zero-trust site mesh
Engineers reach drawings — attackers don't
Tailscale replaces exposed RDP and weak VPN. Every node is identity-tied; nothing is published to the internet. Field, home, and client offices connect the same way the head office does — securely, and without the VPN-client babysitting.
Head officeVaughan · Toronto
Home officeEngineer WFH
Field laptopConstruction site
Tailscale MeshIdentity-tied accessNo exposed services
Client officeSite visit + drawings
Plotter + license srvShared resource
CAD librarySharePoint / DMS
Project schedule
14 / 30 / 60 days to a stamp-ready posture
The firm keeps running while we work. Stabilize control coverage first — structure the workflow second — deliver evidence third.
Endpoint inventory locked, EDR live everywhere, MFA on the M365 tenant, BitLocker on every workstation. The "house is on fire" controls land first.
- EDR firm-wide
- MFA enforced
- BitLocker on every laptop
SharePoint redesigned for assemblies, Tailscale replacing legacy VPN/RDP, DLP on CAD extensions, conditional access tuned to engineer roles.
- Tailscale replaces VPN
- SharePoint for assemblies
- DLP on CAD exts
PEO-aligned record retention documented, backup restore drill verified, project-contract IT clauses evidenced, runbooks locked, posture frozen.
- PEO record retention
- Restore drill verified
- Contract evidence packet
Changing providers
Switching is the part nobody explains
The objection is almost never whether this is worth doing. It is what happens to a firm with drawings due while it is being done. So, plainly:
- No destructive changes in the first 30 days.Discovery and stabilisation only. Nothing is migrated while we are still learning what you run.
- No cutovers during a live submission window.The calendar decides the schedule, not us. Work moves rather than the deadline.
- No gap between providers.We run in parallel with the outgoing one through the handover, and we will talk to them directly so you are not the go-between.
- Week 1
Nothing changes yet
We inventory what you run, map who has access to what, and get read-only visibility. No migrations, no cutovers, no password resets. The current provider stays exactly where they are.
- Weeks 2–4
The safety net goes in first
EDR, MFA and a verified backup land before anything is moved. If the handover went badly from here, you would still be in a better position than you started — that is the point of the order.
- Week 4
The keys change hands
Tenant ownership, domain registrar, licence agreements and documentation move into accounts you own. We run parallel with the outgoing provider through this, not after it.
- Day 90
You can leave
The onboarding term ends and the agreement is month to month. Everything is documented in your tenant, so a future provider — or you — can pick it up without us.
The standard build
Ten controls, every tier
The same build runs whatever the sector. What changes is who asks you to prove it — for you that is PEO and your project contracts. Pick any control to see what it does.
Identity
Device
Data
Network
MFA on every account
Enforced by conditional access policy, not left to each person to switch on.
StopsA leaked password alone opening a mailbox.
In every published tierCheck this on your firm
Transparent pricing
What does this actually cost?
The published per-user rate is the same for every industry. What an engineering firm adds is scope — CAD hosts, model worksharing, PEO-aligned record retention.
Billed per user, per month
The published rate is the same whichever industry you are in — there is no separate schedule for engineering firms. What varies is scope, not price per seat, and we confirm the tier with you on a 20-minute call before anything is signed.
See the full plan comparisonFit
Who this is not for
Three situations where we are the wrong call. Worth two minutes now rather than twenty on a call that ends the same way.
One engineer, one workstation
The build assumes shared project storage, a domain and drawings that more than one person touches. A single seat does not need it.
Do the security basics yourselfYou want it billed by the hour
Managed IT is a fixed monthly per-seat fee, and it is the only way we run somebody's systems — being paid more the more things break is the wrong incentive. Hourly work exists on the help desk for a single repair; that is a fix, not a provider.
See the break-fix menuYou need a signature on the contract clause
We build and evidence the controls a project contract names, and we will sit on the call with your client. We do not sign the clause — the professional obligation is the firm’s and cannot be outsourced.
Your files are enormous
Not a disqualifier — sizing the sync, the local cache and the backup window around real model files is the job. A provider who has not asked your project folder size yet has not started thinking about it.
Illustrative scenario
What an engagement actually looks like
A composite example rather than a client record — the profile is illustrative, and the steps are the ones we would genuinely run.
22-person Toronto structural firm
Commercial & institutional projects • Revit + AutoCAD
- SharePoint
- Tailscale
- Huntress EDR
- AWS Canada
- Microsoft 365 BP
The situation
All CAD on a single on-prem server with no backup, staff reaching files over unsecured RDP, and a near-miss ransomware event that only stopped at the perimeter.
What we deploy
SharePoint with version history and DLP, Tailscale in place of RDP for all remote access, Huntress EDR firm-wide, and nightly encrypted backups to AWS Canada with versioned retention.
What changes
Drawings and project files carry version history and immutable off-site copies, remote site access runs through zero-trust rather than raw RDP, and file movement is logged instead of invisible.
- 21d
Day 1–21
EDR firm-wide, Tailscale replacing RDP, file inventory complete.
- 60d
Day 22–60
SharePoint migration with versioning, DLP policies live, AWS backup verified.
- 90d
Day 61–90
Posture documented, insurance evidence supplied, runbook locked.
Self-Assessment
1-Minute Compliance Check
Tailored security and compliance scorecard. Four questions, no email required to see your score.
Keep reading
Where to go next
The things this page named
Not quite your sector?
Do some of it yourself
Ready to make IT the thing your engineers stop noticing?
Book a free 30-minute review. A senior engineer will audit your CAD storage, remote access, and IP-protection posture — and tell you exactly where the friction is.
PEO-aware, IP-protection-firstAutoCAD · Revit · SolidWorks · Civil 3Don-site response across the GTA
FAQ
Engineering IT — Common questions
From PEO record retention and large-file SharePoint to CAD apps, license servers, and contract IT clauses — the questions we get asked most.
8 results
CoverageCan you handle large CAD / Revit / point-cloud files in SharePoint?
Yes — we design SharePoint for assemblies and large geometry, including sync policies, file-size limits, and selective sync for engineers.
CoverageDo you support specific CAD applications?
Yes — AutoCAD, Revit, SolidWorks, Civil 3D, Bluebeam, and Tekla are environments we support, including license server, plotting, and external file references.
CoverageHow do you secure remote site access without slowing engineers down?
Tailscale zero-trust mesh — every engineer gets identity-tied access without exposing services. Works from field, home, or client offices with no VPN client to babysit.
CoverageDo you align with PEO technology guidance?
Yes — version control, access logs, retention, and document management are designed to meet PEO expectations for record-keeping.
CoverageCan you support our project contracts that require specific IT controls?
Yes — many government and institutional contracts list IT controls (DLP, MFA, encryption, audit logs). We map our setup to your contracts and produce evidence on request.
CoverageWhat about engineers working from client sites?
Tailscale gives them direct, identity-tied access to internal resources without VPN. Conditional access ensures only managed devices connect.
PricingWhat does this cost for an engineering firm?
Pricing is per user, per month, and it is the same published rate for every industry — see the plan comparison on /pricing. Which tier fits depends on the control set you need rather than on your sector, and we confirm it with you on a 20-minute scoping call before anything is signed. Hardware, third-party licences, and one-off projects (cabling, migrations, office moves) are quoted separately.
CoverageDo you sign NDAs and project-specific confidentiality?
Yes — NDAs, contract-specific undertakings, and supplier security questionnaires are part of standard onboarding.