Own Your Data

Data Ownership in AEC Projects

Data ownership requirements in the AEC industry’s complex projects are inherently difficult to centralize. To make matters worse, these requirements often stifle the very information exchanges needed for effective communication. You might give up on sharing entirely if it means reading a hundred-page-long EIR document. Add in project-specific requirements like data safety guarantees, non-disclosure agreements, and more — and the result is an industry where data flows are often slow, clogged, and inefficient.

To address this, Speckle was designed and licensed with a federated architecture in mind. There is no “Speckle Cloud” — you choose your own. In other words, you're free to deploy a Speckle Server however and wherever you like. Below, we outline a few deployment scenarios.

Deployment Scenarios

1. Internal Local Deployments

These are Speckle servers running behind your company firewall or within your local network. They’re not accessible from the outside world, but your team — designers, engineers, project managers — can use Speckle for their day-to-day work. They're secure, isolated, and perfect for internal collaboration.

2. Company-Wide Open Deployments

Let’s face it: you work with clients and external consultants. In this case, consider hosting a company-wide Speckle Server that’s accessible over the internet and secured by your IT team. This allows collaborators to access your server (or you to use theirs). Crucially, data ownership remains with you — you explicitly choose who has access via Speckle’s Discretionary Access Control system.

3. Speckle as a Service

Maybe you're a BIM consultancy helping clients navigate interoperability challenges. You can offer managed Speckle Servers as part of your services. Speckle is MIT licensed — meaning you're free to build a business around it. Go ahead and start that startup!

Data Ownership

Local Level

Data sent to a Speckle Server isn’t automatically available to everyone. You own the information you produce and control how and with whom it’s shared. Speckle offers granular privacy options: link sharing, read/write permissions, and project teams.

Global Level

You always choose where your data lives. Cloud providers offer a variety of locations, allowing you to pick based on latency and legal jurisdiction. Unlike other CAD platforms, Speckle lets you decide — for free — what to do with your data. After all, it’s yours.

Whether you’re a small office using a spare computer or running a £20/month virtual machine in the cloud, you’re in control. And if things start to slow down? No problem. The Speckle Server is stateless and built to scale.

No matter the scenario, you always choose where your data resides.

Final Words

This approach leads to a new kind of ecosystem — one where information isn't locked into files or third-party services. Project data can live organically across teams and Speckle deployments, selectively opened up based on the evolving needs of collaboration.

It’s a shift in both the social and informational architecture of how we work together — whether in complex megaprojects or simpler design efforts.