The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/163881
Gateway (TMG) and Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) on the network, now only available as cloud versions. But, given the investment Microsoft is making in Office 365, it's clear we'll all be using at least some of its cloud platform in the very near future, and most likely all of it soon after. MINING FOR GOLD How do we deal with the proverbial infrastructure elephant in the server room, or the baggage I referred to earlier? We can't CTRL+ALT+DEL on our existing infrastructure, but we can take an ALT+TAB flick through our server inventory to see what we can move to the cloud today in preparation for a move to Office 365 in the future. Moving to wholesale cloud solutions like Office 365 means we have to consider how we address the business and operational needs for all point solutions — the technology and functionality that has grown up around our key server infrastructure over the years. Take Exchange Server, for instance. This key piece of server infrastructure usually is surrounded by a raft of supporting technologies, such as antispam, antivirus, encryption, data loss prevention (DLP), email archiving, file archiving, disclaimer management, mobility tools, clustering, continuity and more. These point solutions have been added by the business over the years as new technology solutions were required. Legal IT likely has precise requirements for all of these point solutions. The complexity that exists in most legal IT environments is often the result of strict compliance requirements that need to be continually addressed, especially when making large migrations to a new platform. That can present a challenge. Those requirements in our IT infrastructure, particularly in regards to email, might not be met exactly by Office 365. Your IT team might have already considered Office 365 and found it does not address your precise needs for functionality. These worries about porting your existing functionality, like for like, to Office 365 may be slowing down your firm's migration to the cloud. More organizations are looking for ways to move to Office 365 with a hybrid cloud setup; whereby one, or even many, third- and fourth-party cloud providers work cooperatively alongside Office 365 to make sure every single requirement is met. Quite often the addition of another cloud solution alongside Office 365 starts with a cloud security vendor whose platform sits in front of Office 365 and Exchange Online Protection (EOP) to offer expanded levels of security and functionality. A hybrid cloud approach might sound odd, but for law firms that have very specific gateway requirements and zero tolerance for malware, spam and downtime, adding another gateway service in front of Office 365 is not any different from the classic approach we already know well. Many law firms already have a cloud or hosted antivirus/antispam (AV/AS) solution as well as a LAN-based 68 Peer to Peer gateway. The hybrid cloud approach will also give you an advanced gateway with features typically available only through third-party vendors. These features can include advanced content control and encryption, closed circuit messaging, large file sending, advanced routing and header envelope rewriting, to name a few. Expanding your email management with enhanced cloud services cooperating with Office 365 can also meet your compliance requirements for email and file archiving, as well as email continuity. Office 365 might not address every requirement your firm has here, so adding an independent and immutable thirdparty archive service gives you the flexibility to archive your email and file data into a secure hybrid cloud that connects seamlessly with Office 365, while delivering archived data to users through whatever platform they choose — be it Outlook, a smartphone, a tablet or a Web interface. Concerns for email continuity are key in any decision to change how your firm manages their email environment and keep your email availability as close as possible to 100 percent. Microsoft Office 365 delivers a 99.9 percent availability SLA, which is comparable to most firms' own availability — but it's fair to say there is significant concern about putting your availability out of the reach of your own IT department. A third-party cloud solution, operating in a hybrid model with Office 365 that offers a 100 percent email availability SLA and is independent from the Office 365 infrastructure, can deliver on your requirements for uptime and control. STRIKE IT RICH Even if your initial evaluation of Office 365 finds it doesn't meet all your needs, adding another cloud solution in a hybrid model can help you make sure all the bases are covered. Hybrid cloud solutions give your firm the option to move a few, or many, users to Office 365 whenever it suits you. If your firm is not completely sold on the idea, why not begin by migrating a few users? Following this sort of planned and measured route on your journey to Office 365 means traditional conservative values placed on technology and the demand for increased compliance need not slow your firm down. Staying competitive in today's market is about having the technology to support your users and their demands for mobility, access and scalability; the old culture of "we'll wait until such-and-such firm has tried it" doesn't seem to hold water anymore. One way or another, you've got to keep your options open. A hybrid cloud model not only gives you choices in implementing Office 365, it can help you find gold in them thar clouds faster.