Cloud-Based eDiscovery Creating Efficiencies for Law Firms

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED TO TMCNET’S CLOUD COMPUTING MAGAZINE

Bloomberg (News – Alert) and many other news outlets are questioning whether or not 2016 is the “year of cloud-based e-discovery.” This makes sense, given that 2015 was the year cloud-based innovations erupted into the mainstream. Experts are predicting that e-discovery will soon adopt and completely immerse itself into the cloud universe.

Law firms especially have taken to hosting secure servers externally, eliminating security concerns by hosting on internal servers or breach of privacy in confidential information through access by local IT professionals, who might be tempted to manipulate files and change details in local cases.

External cloud servers have become unbiased custodians for cases that may last several years on end. Concerned with the security related to accessing clouds through the Internet, there are some law firms that are quickly realizing that external sources are indeed more secure than hosting in-house, although completely against the move in previous months. External sources are becoming more secure as technology is being strengthened to meet the growing concerns for secure portals.

In meeting cost efficiencies, legal teams are also finding that hosting on external servers is cheaper to maintain than hosting internal machines and hiring the operators to engineer them.  Firms are aligning with their exact needs by finding providers that can meet those exact needs, thus eliminating the need to create these needs in-house. They are also learning that external sources allow for a more concrete “uptime” than they have experienced through proprietary servers.

Lack of resources and a full staff of necessary professionals to operate systems under a set budget is one thing that sets internal servers apart from external clouds. They are now able to integrate programming and the ability to provide access to attorneys while out of the office. With increased security and lower costs for e-discovery systems, clients will also save in service prices, ensuring long-term relationships with clientele.  

Cloud-based e-discovery solutions aren’t one-size-fits-all solutions to e-discovery tools for law firms, however. Some smaller law firms may realize that they don’t need such a complex server to meet their immediate needs. Likewise, larger firms, who have put a CISO, Chief Information Security Officer, in place to ensure security at all times, may also realize that they can efficiently do everything in-house, especially in the situation where their caseloads are enormous and that migrations would be extensive. This includes the need for large storage solutions.   They still face concern of internal data breach.

Larger firms, who may choose not to make e-discovery available through a cloud, may still institute a system that includes cloud technologies, whether through integration or through a separate system altogether. Because many enterprises are realizing the need for “always on” connectivity, remote access of the work environment continues to provide further documentation and control of cases from outside the office place. This benefits firms, whereas external contributors or remote personnel are associated with a specific case.

Through this they have systems in place to ensure proper communication, internal collaboration and – of course productivity… the ongoing theme of cloud innovations.