Gabrielle Orum Hernández, Legaltech News
Although offerings have expanded
exponentially, cost, scalability and security still drive most decisions around
cloud-based solutions.
"The cloud" remains among the most popular yet
mystifying elements of a modern legal technology strategy. Cloud computing,
which stores increasing amounts of data and services on servers accessible via
the internet, has flipped traditional notions of data security and efficiency
on their heads.
But while cloud
computing raises concerns for attorneys, law firms and legal departments are
adopting the technology at growing rates. Fifty-six percent of Am Law 200 firms
polled in the "Partnership Perspectives Survey" use some form of
cloud technology, and 47 percent of those polled in the "2016
ILTA/InsideLegal Technology Purchasing Survey" predicted that over a
quarter of their firm's software and service offerings could be cloud-based in
the next one to three years.
Smaller firms remain
some of the most enthusiastic cloud adopters. Sixty-one percent of small firms
polled in the 2016 ILTA survey said that over half of their firm's software
could be cloud-based in the next one to three years.
As cloud options expand,
attorneys are looking at the choices they have for cloud-based services and
thinking through what things to consider before they adopt or expand their
cloud hosting.
Cloud Technology Options
The number of types of
cloud-based tools are growing, and attorneys can theoretically use cloud-based
services for nearly all of their office work.
Natalie Kelly, director
of the State Bar of Georgia's Law Practice Management Section, helps firms
navigate, implement and organize their office management systems. After a lull
in the early 2000s, law firms, she says, are trending back towards cloud
adoption, enticed by vast improvements in speed, data storage and integration
with other software. "I think most firms are starting to really understand
that they have to look to the cloud, because that's what's coming and that's
what's there," she says.
Document management
tools are one service starting to move toward the cloud. These tools generally
take relational database or other file structures law firms previously hosted
on internal networks and store files in the cloud space.
Some, like
NetDocuments and iManage, count the legal market as a specific focus, while
other consumer-facing products, like Dropbox or Box, can also house work
product.
Additionally, some firms
are making use of cloud-based practice or matter management software. Also
using a relational database structure, these products store case information
online and can generally tailor databases to specific content areas.
Kelly says she commonly
hears frustrations from law firms who want the accessibility of cloud
technology in their practice management tools, but struggle to get the same
level of customization and feature integration they had in internally hosted
practice management databases.
Of these tools, Kelly
says, "Cloud-based practice management tends to be all over the place, and
because those systems are constantly being developed, it's kind of hard to wade
through."
More recently, big
software staples like Microsoft's Office suite and Adobe Creative Cloud have
begun making their way to the cloud as well. Microsoft's cloud-based Office 365
runs Microsoft's software online rather than directly on users' machines, and the
company has been pushing hard to get businesses to adopt their cloud-first
approach.
John Jelderks, director
of information technology at Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg, says
that Microsoft's tools are so ubiquitously used at their firm that it's hard to
resist the company's push to migrate their services to a SaaS-based
cloud-hosting model.
"A lot of it really
comes down to following where Microsoft is leading," he says.
"What
we need to do as a law firm is we need to look at Microsoft as one of the main
drivers of this, and we need to look at the partners who work with those
applications."
Other tools certainly
exist—e-billing, task management, and accounting software have all started to
make headway in the cloud sphere. Overall, however, the reasons firms choose to
adopt or avoid cloud technology are generally not service-specific, but rather
revolve around cost, scalability and security.
Questions of Cost
Steven Ayr, business
counsel at Fort Point Legal, started his law career right at the peak of the
recession and was forced immediately into private practice. As a solo
practitioner, Ayr found that the starting price of cloud technology allowed him
to set up a full functioning practice on a tight budget. "There was no
money with which to start a practice, so I started looking for the cheapest
solution to act bigger than I was," he said.
Ayr was able to parlay
cloud technology, notably popular systems Dropbox and Asana, into a fairly
successful solo practice. The strategy was so cost-effective that Fort Point
Legal adopted it when he joined their team.
David Melczer, director
of information technology at LeClairRyan, similarly says that cost was the
primary driver in the firm's decision to adopt a cloud-first strategy. Before
transitioning to a cloud-based provider for document management, the firm
employed a nearline storage strategy, renting server space from a private cloud
provider. Because the firm has data and files for about 750 users to manage,
storing the data with a cloud-hosted vendor translated to significant savings
in IT support and server space.
"Cloud storage by
comparison to nearline storage is much, much cheaper," Melczer says.
Though he considered upgrading the firm's server storage to accommodate their
data, the IT costs of setting up, maintaining and securing data far outweighed
the costs of hosting data with a cloud-based vendor. "When I ran the
numbers, it didn't make sense to do it ourselves."
Cloud-hosted vendors are
trending towards SaaS pricing models, meaning that firms and legal departments
often need to budget for monthly, per user costs. These regular costs tend to
be lower than standard fees for maintaining or renting internal servers.
Ayr found that mimicking
the technology the firm's clients use in their businesses can give them a
competitive edge in getting and keeping clients. "It's as much marketing
as anything else. We can say, 'We use the same tools as you,'" he says.
Though these services
have free versions, Ayr stresses that the data security you can leverage through
cloud services is something worth investing in.
"Don't use the free
services," Ayr warns. Dropbox, for example, only keeps free account data
encrypted when it's at rest on their servers, not when it's in transit, which
could put attorneys at risk for violating their duties of confidentiality to
clients. "If you're not paying for it, you are the product. They're mining
you for information."
Scalability and Mobility
Given the number of
different products and services now available in the cloud, firms are open to
adopt as much or as little cloud hosting as they'd like. Many have taken
advantage of the adaptability of cloud technology to design systems that are
easily scaled as firms shrink or expand.
Melvin Baskin, director
of information governance for architectural professional services firm
Dewberry, looked at migrating the firm's law department to a cloud-based system
in stages.
"One of the things
we were looking for was a document management system to manage records that
would be a platform we could roll out incrementally over time to the entire
firm," Baskin says.
Around half of the
respondents to the 2016 ILTA survey found flexibility to be a compelling reason
to take on cloud computing technology, while an additional 44 percent cited
versatility and mobility of cloud solutions as additional reasons for adoption.
Ayr similarly found the
cloud strategies he adopted easily adapted to a bigger practice. Because he
started off on popular cloud-based providers like Dropbox and Google Apps, Ayr
said he's been able to maintain the same structure and functionality in his
technology set-up, even while expanding the number of users and amount of data
produced.
"I like using
larger, more mature providers rather than the brand new guys, even if the brand
new guy is doing something cool. You want to make sure they're going to be
around and their structure isn't going to pivot," he says.
Kelly says that to take
full advantage of this versatility, it can be important to make sure you
research potential integrations among document and practice management software
with tools like Office 365, e-billing and accounting services, and
communications tools.
"What's being
provided in the practice management world can kind of constrain you," she
warns, especially in retaining features from earlier, hardware-bound technology
strategies.
Not only are users
finding cloud technologies to be easily scaled across a firm, but individual
attorneys also get flexibility to take a more mobile office approach. When
accessing work product requires only an internet connection, attorneys are free
to take work home, on the go, or even reach it via tablets and smart phones.
Jelderks notes that this
was a primary consideration for him in working toward a cloud-first solution
for his firm. Though perpetual access to work product can prompt a 24/7
workday, Jelderks explains that clients are already demanding this level of
access and engagement from attorneys.
"Attorneys are
already expected to work on information when we have client deadlines; they're
expected to get the work done. They already work at odd hours from home. They
already work from hotels when they're on the road or on vacation. We're really
trying to help them get their work done, because the expectation is already
there," he says.
Although cloud
technology can make data and apps far more readily accessible than
machine-bound software, internet access can be a limiting factor. Though
internet connectivity is much less troublesome than it has been in the past,
Kelly notes that practitioners outside and even within metro areas may still
have unreliable service.
"When it goes down,
then what? You've got to be able to answer that question. Can you afford
that?" Kelly cautions.
A Secure System
Security looms large in
discussions around cloud technology, and many attorneys are concerned about
hacking threats to cloud-hosted data.
"Security is still
a very, very big question mark," Kelly says. "As long as there are
major corporations who suffer from hacks, that kind of keeps that level of
skepticism there, but it also hopefully drives vigilance."
Whether these concerns
are founded or not, they certainly represent a wide cross-section of the legal
market. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed in the most recent
ILTA/InsideLegal purchasing report, for example, found security concerns to be
the most compelling reason to avoid cloud computing.
Those who have switched
to cloud services, however, say that they generally benefit from the security
that cloud-based services can provide, especially when third party providers
host data.
Jelderks says that for
the medium-sized firm, cloud-based document hosting provides better security
assurances than the firm can produce in-house.
"It's really a way
for us to provide a more secure experience for our clients than we could for
our clients using a small IT staff," he says. Furthermore, he adds that
using a vetted vendor with a dedicated security assurance can give clients more
piece of mind regarding their data security than the firm's IT support may
offer.
Dewberry's Baskin and
LeClairRyan's Melczer echo Jelderks, saying that the security they can create
with a cloud-based vendor is both stronger and cheaper to produce than they can
provide internally. But while many firms may find cloud vendors to be more
secure, only 25 percent of respondents in ILTA's survey found security to be
the most compelling reason to adopt cloud technology.
Kelly suggests that
attorneys may simply be responding to a lack of tangible control of data.
"Simply the idea that lawyers don't have control of their information, it
can be problematic," she says.
Though there are an
increasing number of cloud-based products that law practitioners can choose
from, Ayr chose to stick to products from large enterprises, with massive data
security needs have already vetted for use.
"As a small user,
you get the benefit of the larger users who have gone through and taken a company to task
and are making sure they're using things properly," Ayr says.
Barack Ferrazzano,
LeClair Ryan and Dewberry all use iManage Cloud.
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