Cloud Computing is the fastest growing sector in the IT industry today.” The IDC estimates public IT cloud services spending will reach $100 billion in 2016. Well know analyst – Gartner predicts the worldwide cloud services (public and private cloud) market will grow to more than $109 billion in 2012.
The advantages of Cloud Computing are well apparent these days – scalability, cost savings and mobility. Cloud computing is ideal for law offices that are looking for a scalable and cost-effective way to host and store secure data. Due to client sensitivity, security needs to be paramount in any system deployed by a law firm. Our article will address the top 3 benefits of cloud computing for lawyers….
- Flexibility
- Increased capacity
- Lower costs
Flexibility
Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever – and this includes lawyers. Whether on vacation at the beach, in the courthouse or working at home, the cloud enables attorneys to access the applications and documents they need from any computer or mobile device, not just the computer in their office. This improves productivity and efficiency. This flexibility is paramount when working with another law firm on a specific case. Just open a browser, log in with user name and password and you are at work!
Increased Capacity
The cases and specific projects attorneys work on can involve mountains of data and critical information – from lengthy depositions to detailed records to long email correspondences. Cloud storage has a much greater capacity than traditional in-house storage approaches, making cloud computing for lawyers ideal. Law firms that adopt the cloud will no longer need to carry “thumb” drives and the manual processes of backing up their data.
Lower Costs
Typically, it is less expensive to have employees access software through the cloud than to purchase individual software licenses and host applications internally. Also, firms can avoid hardware costs when having to host data and incrementally add more storage capacity.
Security Concerns
In the legal profession where confidentiality is essential, security issues surrounding cloud computing cause much apprehension. However, it doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing trade” – flexibility, capacity and lower costs in exchange for security. Cloud providers should be able to address security concerns and work with you and your company to ensure a proper security framework is in place to ensure your data is safe. Private cloud computing is available which offers a single tenant environment with layers of security for confidential data and storage. Due your due diligence and shopping around, you should be able to find a secure cloud provider that meets the special needs of your legal profession.
If you are analyzing cloud providers for your law firm, click below for the top 10 tips on picking the best cloud provider.