The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/163881
Orlando Scott-Cowley CISSP, CCSK, Technical Evangelist at Mimecast, is an Internet and messaging security and compliance expert. He has 12 years of high-level technical consultancy experience working with Fortune 100 companies, governments, vendors and resellers. Orlando writes and speaks for influential publications and events in the U.S. on a variety of topics, including compliance; unified email management, archiving and security; and the emergence of cloud and SaaS technologies. Contact him at orlando@mimecast.com. What's your opinion of Microsoft Office 365? Do you see an exciting new cloud-based productivity suite or a new cloud-based darkness that will never come near your network? For legal IT professionals, Office 365 is probably the latter; a system defined by worries about flexibility, arms-reach IT, compliance and rapid changes. But these concerns shouldn't keep Office 365 out your legal IT strategy. There will be some legal IT departments that haven't considered Office 365 and some may have already deployed a few users running in coexistence or testing mode, but it's likely that's where the current plans for rollout have stopped. Initial findings will have probably identified issues with flexibility and the key compliance requirements legal IT has for its core business systems, not to mention security concerns around storing data in the cloud. If your preliminary evaluation of the platform leaves you wondering how to deliver on key requirements and integrations, then opting for a hybrid model could be the way to go. Complementary and collaborative cloud solutions that work alongside Office 365 are a potential gold mine, given how effective Office 365 can be. A SHINY NEW TOOL? Microsoft first launched Office 365 in early 2011. Since then, and with the wave 15 release of Office and Server 2013, an updated version was released in February, which includes new home and enterprise pricing plans. For most legal IT departments, Office 365 would be a significant move of their core IT infrastructure into the cloud. Luckily, the cloud has reached a state of general acceptability, and Microsoft's support of a key line of cloud-based business applications helps not only the market, but also CIOs when they decide to modernize their IT operations. Peer to Peer 65