The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/230349
features Dale Qualls is the Director of Information Technology at Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP. He has been with the firm since 1998 and uses OSS in the daily operations of the firm's technology environment. Dale has been in the IT field for more than 25 years and holds technical certifications from both Novell and Microsoft. He is also the Vice President of ILTA's Emerging Technologies Peer Group. Contact him at deq@pattishall.com. WHAT MADE THE CUT? Buzz-Worthy Technology in 2013 by Dale Qualls Oh 2013, you were so good to us technology-wise. Advances in technology (in both the legal and possibly-soon-to-be-legal environment) were huge in 2013. Here is my take on some of the greatest thingamajigs (purely a technical term) that I came across (in no particular order): 40 Peer to Peer AirStation HighPower N450 Gigabit Wireless Router www.buffalotech.com 1. WHERE ARE THE WIRES? Gigabit wireless (technically known as 802.11ac) could be one of the largest advances seen this year in the infrastructure arena. What a humongous jump from the 1 Mbit/s speed of the original WaveLan technology in 1991. Vic Hayes, the "father of WiFi," must be so proud! Having the ability to transmit data wirelessly at these speeds, as long as your LAN is properly secured, might allow you to do away with your wired networks completely. Unfortunately, we won't actually see 1 Gbit/s except in perfect conditions, but the speeds currently being offered are impressive at anywhere from 400-800 Mbit/s. Check out the offerings from Cisco (including the ever-popular Meraki cloud-based product), Aruba, Ruckus and a handful of others. Just imagine what will happen when in-flight wireless catches up to these speeds! Peer to Peer 41 ILLUSTRATION BY THOMAS BOUCHER, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Bring the future of communication to your law firm today. Microsoft Lync delivers a unified communications solution and gives users a consistent experience for presence, IM, voice, and video across PCs, Macs, phones, and browsers. Get up and running quickly Lync is easy to use and works well with the devices you use every day. Work from virtually anywhere Employees can work remotely and stay in touch from wherever they are. Be more productive Easily find out a colleague's status and provide instant feedback. Project Leadership Associates (PLA), is a Microsoft Lync Premier Support Partner with Gold competencies in Messaging and Communications. Having served more than 500 legal clients, PLA is the largest provider of business and technology consulting solutions, focused on the legal market, in the U.S. Special Offer: 10% Off Lync Consulting Services PLA is offering ILTA members a discount on a Microsoft Lync Jumpstart or a new deployment project. For more information, contact Gordon Dunkley by March 31, 2014 at 312-441-1952 or GDunkley@projectleadership.net. www.projectleadership.net/lync