The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/448505
About the Author James Opiyo is the Director of Vertical Strategy for Financial Services & Professional Services at Level 3 Communications. Level 3 Communications provides premiere, secure global communications services to enterprise, government and carrier customers. Contact him at james.opiyo@level3.com. BETTER BUDGET ALLOCATION Law firms that own, manage and maintain on-premise IT resources are responsible for the high capital expenditures (capex) associated with buying hardware, software and any storage devices needed, plus additional investments related to maintenance of the equipment. By moving applications to the cloud, law firms should be able to transform those high capex into opex (operating expenditures) that are only associated with on-demand usage of IT resources, mostly on a subscription basis. INCREASED OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES A cloud content exchange environment, allows you to maximize productivity and create a collaborative atmosphere. LexisNexis, for example, offers law firms a cloud-based file-sharing platform called LexisNexis Firm Manager, which allows firms to access and manage their law practices, including sharing documents, through a Web browser. BUILT-IN DISASTER RECOVERY Implement disaster recovery (DR) by backing up important files in the cloud. Firms may also find that the cloud service provider offers DR at a much lower cost than a law firm would incur in creating its own DR infrastructure. SECURE DATA Meeting the first three business objectives has a trickle-down effect to the client: Increased organizational efficiencies backed by a collaborative and highly productive staff positively influence the way services are delivered. In addition, the cost efficiencies, enhanced collaboration and increased productivity that come with more efficient cloud-enabled communication create greater overall customer satisfaction. But what about security, which is top-of-mind for many law firms planning to migrate applications to the cloud? Important players in the cloud ecosystem are committed to instituting and promoting security measures. The mission of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) — a broad coalition of industry practitioners and key stakeholders such as cloud service providers, HP, Microsoft and Google — is to promote the use of best practices regarding security assurance in the cloud. The CSA offers a Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) to qualified cloud service providers (CSPs). For a law firm considering a migration to the cloud, there are two areas of security that are especially important to consider: • The security of information stored in the cloud (i.e., security provided by CSPs) • The security of information transmitted to and/or retrieved from the cloud (i.e., security provided by your network service providers or NSPs) The CSA can help law firms with information relevant to security measures and best practices that govern data stored in the cloud. Law firms should learn what security measures specific CSPs have developed and implemented to protect information stored in the cloud. Law firms should also work closely with their NSPs, which play a critical role because they provide your connectivity to the cloud. DRIVEN BY THE CLOUD The cloud is not some technology fad: It is a service that has been in use for decades and will continue to transform business competitiveness well into the future. Law firms can garner many benefits by adopting cloud services, but they must be knowledgeable as they put these services into place. Develop strategies for cloud adoption that evaluate which applications are ideal for a cloud environment, understand the cost benefits derived from cloud adoption and understand the overall cloud environment in terms of security, performance and regulatory compliance measures governing the cloud ecosystem. Cloud computing can help firms fulfill their business objectives and meet the future competitively. WWW.ILTANET.ORG 59 1. Security: When migrating applications to the cloud, law firms should ensure that the NSP is offering a highly secure private network connectivity to the desired cloud resource as opposed to a shared public Internet connectivity. Additionally, law firms should make sure that the NSP has a comprehensive suite of managed security services to be able to prevent and/or mitigate risks from malicious cyberattacks. 2. Network Performance and Reliability: Law firms should select an NSP offering direct connectivity to the desired cloud resource, which increases performance and reliability. Direct connectivity means that the NSP is connected to the cloud provider's data center, and therefore can guarantee end-to-end performance service level agreements (SLAs). Also, law firms should find out if the NSP has multiple route options for high-availability solutions and whether they provide latency guarantees. 3. SLA Guarantees: When evaluating SLA guarantees, law firms should be cognizant that network SLAs and cloud-service SLAs are separate, so they should be sure they are comparing apples to apples.