A Quick Look At Cloud Computing For Lawyers
Some of the information contained in this article comes from an excerpt from the book 'Cloud Computing For Lawyers.' This book appears to be a great, informative knowledgebase for lawyers that have made the switch to the cloud, or lawyers that are considering making the switch to the cloud.
Keeping confidential data out of the cloud
For lawyers that do not wish to store confidential data in the cloud, "this can be accomplished by using desktop or server-based software to handle confidential documents and data while offloading non-confidential tasks to the cloud." This way, the confidential data stays on your local servers while other not-so-sensitive data can be sent to the cloud to reduce storage consumption on your local servers. However, without a good backup plan, this can leave your confidential data at risk to be lost- fire, flood, stolen laptop, etc. Data that is stored in the cloud will not be affected by these happenings because the data is not stored on a local hard drive.
Storing confidential data in the cloud
For lawyers that plan on storing confidential data in the cloud, third party services may be a necessity in order to completely safeguard and backup data in order to prevent unauthorized access or data loss. "Software as a Service' (SaaS) applications can be used to perform these security measures. The SaaS applications work in conjunction with the security measures that the cloud provider uses, and these are usually quite strong as well- such as SSL, 256-bit encrypted transfer and storage, two-step authentication, secure backup with restore features, and more.
There is a wide variety of cloud storage solutions and project management tools- such as Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, SugarSync, Basecamp, and Skydrive. There are also applications specifically made for use in law firms, but these programs can often be bloated and bogged down with too many unnecessary features that just get in the way. Each of the cloud services named above can be effectively used for case files, task management, storage, and much more. One way to get the most out of these applications is to use a service called cloudHQ, an extremely useful service that can provide sync between each of the cloud services (cloud services do not provide this option on their own) and it also provides a secure backup in case of accidental or malicious deletion or other causes of data loss.
There is a wide variety of cloud storage solutions and project management tools- such as Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, SugarSync, Basecamp, and Skydrive. There are also applications specifically made for use in law firms, but these programs can often be bloated and bogged down with too many unnecessary features that just get in the way. Each of the cloud services named above can be effectively used for case files, task management, storage, and much more. One way to get the most out of these applications is to use a service called cloudHQ, an extremely useful service that can provide sync between each of the cloud services (cloud services do not provide this option on their own) and it also provides a secure backup in case of accidental or malicious deletion or other causes of data loss.
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