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Cloud technology can offer modern law firms a level of flexibility and efficiency your current technology setup cannot match.
The fact that the cloud is a powerful tool for today’s professionals is not new information. As cloud technology has continued to evolve and gain traction in highly regulated industries and fields, the advantages available to law firms have increased as well. And when you think about how your firm operates, that makes a lot of sense.
Regardless of the branch of law your practice specializes in, your case data exists primarily, if not entirely, in digital formats. Case notes, discovery, depositions, client statements and personal information, and even a large portion of evidence is generated and/or stored on your firm’s devices and servers.
What Can The Cloud Offer That My Current Technology Can’t?
Data Security
Your data is continuously under threat from hackers and malicious viruses. The Cloud provides an additional barrier between hackers and your data by storing your files in an offsite location. Even better, your files are encrypted and therefore only accessible to designated members of your team. If a device is lost or stolen, the data stored on that device can be wiped remotely.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
An enterprise-grade Cloud solution is the best way to store confidential information. Cloud solutions like virtualization allow you to recover your entire IT infrastructure quickly, applications and all. Servers, desktops, files, and apps are all stored in a secure offsite data centre, which is essential for effective business continuity and disaster recovery. Whether you’re faced with something as minor as a brief power outage or as major as a weeks-long disruption, your IT assets will stay available to you 24/7. You can pick right up where you left off in minutes.
Cost Efficiency
As more software and IT solutions move to the cloud, the opportunity for cost savings increases. You can avoid paying upfront fees for software licensing or hardware purchases, you can make use of per-user subscriptions and hosted solutions. Cloud computing also helps smaller firms compete with their larger counterparts by offering them access to the same enterprise-grade technology at a budgeable price.
The ability to scale Cloud solutions up or down to fit the current needs of your team means you don’t have to waste money on resources you don’t need, or fork over a large sum to bring more resources on board. Because Cloud solutions are billed on a per-user basis, you only pay for what you use.
Work Anywhere Capabilities
Cloud computing allows you and your team to work whenever and however your schedule allows, so long as you have access to an Internet connection. The modern workforce is more tech savvy than ever, and expect to have access to up to date files and resources both in and out of the office. Their jobs take them all over the city, and they need to have continuous access to their files to be effective and productive.
Enhanced Collaboration
Hosted Cloud solutions let authorized team members access and edit documents in real-time, at the same time. This is an invaluable asset when, for example, you have attorneys and paralegals working on a case together but from separate locations.
Document Control
Collaboration is a fantastic tool, but it makes document control a necessity. Emailing files back and forth gets confusing, and makes it next to impossible to keep track of which version of a document is the correct one. The Cloud prevents this. When a document is stored and edited on the cloud, there is only one version of that document in existence. This guarantees that your team is always working off of the right information.
Ready to make the move to cloud technology? Assessing your current technology infrastructure is the perfect place to start. Contact our legal IT professionals to schedule your assessment and gain a better idea of how cloud-ready your firm is.
Further reading
ICS is a Texas-based 40-year-old technology company specializing in Managed IT, VoIP, Video Conferencing and Video Surveillance solutions for US and International businesses. ICS has over 4000 regional installations and specializes in multi-site businesses between 25 and 2500 employees. ICS’s customers enjoy the experience of ICS’s Total Care program which provides clients flat fee services with obsolescence and growth protection. Whether a customer elects to deploy their IT, Video Conferencing or VoIP in the cloud or on the customer’s premise, ICS can provide a full turn-key solution for our clients under one flat monthly fee.