Peer to Peer Magazine

52 The financial impact of legacy on- premise systems is a vast negative effect on a law firm's bottom line. Today firms are making technolo investments with a longer-term strate in mind. Subscription-based pricing models allow firms to re-appropriate the budget in favor of more predictable spending by converting from capital expenditures to operating expenditures. As firms consider the financial advantages of adopting a cloud strate, it is imperative to choose both the solution and the services provider very carefully. Seek out technolo partners with vast experience moving firms to the cloud. You don't want to pay for a provider's lack of experience. Keep in mind the firm's needs not only today, but also looking ahead. Ensuring the right solutions are selected to meet the firm's business needs will allow you to future- proof your investment. Choosing a scalable platform will allow the firm to accommodate future growth and guarantee the highest possible user adoption, which is critical to maximizing investment. What is a hybrid cloud model? A cloud computing environment that uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms constitutes a hybrid cloud model. This model is the best transition for law firms coming from on-premise arrangements because it can deliver all the benefits of cloud computing—flexibility, scalability and cost efficiencies—with the lowest possible risk of data exposure. It's a well-known fact that law firms lag several years behind the corporate world when it comes to technolo. A hybrid cloud approach could be the perfect solution for firms which have been hesitant to jump into the cloud. A hybrid model provides the ability to control data and applications when needed, while retaining the flexibility provided by self-provisioning and on-demand cloud infrastructure. The Hybrid Cloud Makes Sense for Law Firms B Y B E T H T H O M P S O N L aw firms are not in the business of technolo; they are in the business of dispensing legal advice and, in the process, producing mass amounts of documents and emails. Leaders at today's progressive law firms understand that the days for building and supporting complex on-premise server environments are numbered. Smart law firms are looking to align business objectives with technolo solutions. Enter the hybrid cloud. How did we get here? The evolution of legal technolo has seen many stages, starting with typewriters and moving on to personal computers to tablets and smartphones. Long before there were LANs and WANS the only way for PCs to talk to one another was the "sneaker net," whereby employees shared files on floppy disks walked around office to office. Today the hybrid cloud allows us to share content quickly, securely and globally, helping level the playing field in a very competitive landscape. Client demands are now the driving force behind law firm decisions on technolo investment. Cloud providers maintain stringent security credentials to satisfy these requirements at a fraction of the cost it would take a firm to obtain the same accreditations in-house.

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