Building contractors were told this week that cloud computing could make a huge difference to the construction industry, especially when it comes to project management.

Autodesk, which develops some of the most influential design software such as AutoCAD and 3DS Max, claimed this week that the construction industry could use cloud hosting to power remote servers, given the nature of working on a building-site, an essentially rugged environment.

This would enable an industry which has otherwise been slow in taking up cloud technology (mainly due to security / reliability concerns) to flourish, changing the nature in which projects are run.

Autodesk senior VP Amar Hanspal thinks that the technology is now ripe for the construction industry to jump on board, just as they did for Building Information Modelling (BIM).

Hanspal said that by using technology such as mobile phones, the work force could be reached and drawings, building models and instructions …