Peer to Peer Magazine

CASE STUDIES Current Applications: One of the biggest benefits is the ability to keep all of our litigation support applications current. The VDI platform allows us to mirror the production environment using the most recent snapshot. We update applications in the test environment to make sure that no issues arise. We can provision a small test pool to end users and make sure that everything is working as expected before provisioning all users to the pool. This can happen in a very short period of time, with very little effort — no longer requiring the creation and packaging of our applications. Point releases can occur overnight with the new pool presented to users the following morning, a process that remains relatively transparent to the end user. License Control: We are now able to clearly see how many licenses are needed for certain applications. For example, if we purchase 100 seats for a particular litigation support software and the maximum users on VDI at any given time is 50, we can see that the additional 50 seats are not needed. Consolidation of all the litigation support applications has enabled us to see what applications are actually being used. Then the firm has saved a significant amount of money by only buying software that is needed. NEW USES, NEW CHALLENGES In 2010, we built out a document review lab for managed review services that housed 51 contract attorneys. As part of that project, we created a new desktop image tailored for their use. The main focus of this image was the security of client data, limiting the contractors' ability to access firm data as well as most websites on the Internet. The network team created several scripts and purchased a new firewall to help accomplish these goals. As the managed review services work grew this year, it came to light that the day would come when we would exceed the lab's capacity. And the controls we put in place for that environment were having a negative effect on our ability to make changes to those physical workstations using SMS. If we had to expand our managed review services capacity to meet client or case demands, this would come with very little notice and require a lot of work to image new workstations. I also couldn't be sure if this expansion would occur in my Columbia, SC office or in a remote office location. With that in mind, I discussed these concerns with our network manager. I wanted to devise a solution that would enable us to scale quickly and with very little infrastructure, leveraging the firewall hardware technology that we had already invested in and the security that we had already developed. We decided to build out a new contract attorney desktop in VDI using a Wyse terminal to test the 38 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer environment because it allows for dual monitors — the setup we had in the existing discovery lab. Not long after we began building out the updated VDI environment for the contract attorneys, we received a new matter that required us to scale from 51 contract attorneys to 120 in less than five work days. Having planned ahead, we were able to meet the deadline. Deploying the VDI images using Wyse zero-client terminals allowed us to scale as quickly as we received the new hardware. Everything being centrally managed enabled us to deploy a consistent and secure environment in very little time at all. It actually took longer to unpack the Wyse terminals than it did to configure and deploy the VDI image to them! We have found that users prefer the VDI desktop in our managed review services because they experience better performance as we rebuild the pools at regular intervals to return workstations to a pristine state. All managed review services are now conducted through the VDI desktops, currently totaling 146 workstations. We managed to find a "green" benefit in this strategy as well. The use of VDI desktop coupled with Wyse terminals reduced our power consumption by 75 percent versus using a desktop computer for the same purpose. ALWAYS READY FOR THE STATE OF CHANGE The VDI technology has allowed us to quickly scale and adapt our litigation support platform to whatever needs our client matters present. This is an area that is in a constant state of change and one area of the firm that continues to see dramatic growth. We have seen significant efficiencies from leveraging this technology in litigation support, and that has had a positive impact on end users and our ability to meet their ever-changing demands. I am confident that investing in VDI technology for litigation support was the correct path to solving user issues of the past, and I believe that this technology has laid the groundwork for continued growth in the future. ILTA Richard Pachella is the Litigation Support Manager for Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. With more than 10 years of experience, Rich has a proven record of proficiency and proactive leadership in developing efficient and cost-effective electronic discovery workflow strategies involving multiple discovery scenarios in complex litigation and regulatory matters. He can be reached at richard.pachella@ nelsonmullins.com.

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