Top Reasons Why Law Firms need to Move to the Cloud

The traditional setup in most companies, law firms included, is that there is a reasonably sized IT department that takes care of all the computers including the company server or servers.  This department is made up of personnel who are also responsible in ensuring that all programs and applications required by the business are running properly.

So if you put together the manpower, software, and hardware requirements you will need a substantial capital to run your law firm for this segment alone.  The issue now is whether it is rational to abandon this traditional setup in favor of cloud computing.

Cloud Technology

To be able to answer whether cloud computing is a better we need to look at the advantages that the technology brings.  For many small and medium sized businesses cloud computing is a relatively new technology.

This is because about a decade or so ago, the technology was only available to big business because of the cost.  However, advances in technology have a way of lowering the cost of deployment and implementation.  Why should law firms move to the cloud?

• Scalable – for the common law firm what does scalable mean? Essentially, this translates to the ability to add or remove resources quickly without having to earmark a huge budget on the technology.  This means that you can get the latest server without actually buying it and if in about 5 years you need an upgrade, the cloud provider simply switches you to a bigger one to make the resources you need available.

• Secure – the common notion is that physical break-ins are the biggest threat to the security of computer systems. However, in reality, is that the biggest threat actually comes from employees using the system.  The risk is that employees can easily copy off the on-site server any files that they wish to do so because of the lack of application of permissions.  Often small to medium sized law firms do not even have a decent security protocol in place to prevent employees from copying, modifying, or deleting files.  This is not so with cloud computing, which offers the latest in encryption technology and security protocols higher than what is commercially available.  More importantly, the security measures are implemented round the clock and in such a way that files can only be accessed with the proper permission.

• Backups – the traditional way to backup files of law offices was to have the backup files stored in another on-site server or in removable drives stored in the office. This means that if anything happened to the office, the backups are rendered useless.  With cloud computing, more redundancy is implemented aside from the regular backups.  To make sure that the integrity and security of the backups are maintained, they are stored in at least two offsite servers so they remain protected from theft, corruption, and natural disasters among others.

• Licensing – businesses are required to use licensed server and application software only in their computer systems. For law offices that have multiple sites, this can mean huge amounts of money because of the sheer number of servers that you have to pay licenses for.  Cloud computing does away with this problem because licensing is centrally located allowing all your offices and employees access regardless of their location.

• Maintenance – one of the requirements of computer system is regular maintenance. This is done to ensure that the system remains efficient.  This also translates to more expenses for law firms.  Subscribing to cloud computing does away with this cost because it simplifies system maintenance by assuming responsibility for the work giving law firms more time to concentrate on more essential business activities.

• Compatibility – if your law firm maintains its own system, it has to either develop or pay for a separate system that is compatible with mobile devices. Why is this necessary?  You may have noticed that more and more people are turning to mobile computing instead of remaining behind a desktop or laptop computer.  Using cloud technology, you do not even have to worry about this because their system is compatible with almost every platform available including those in mobile devices.  This gives you the luxury of working virtually anywhere in the world.

Aside from these, there is also the popularly known advantage of lowering operating and labor costs.  If these reasons are not enough, how about the advantage of having a management-free technology specifically designed for lawyers?

Contact NexStep today and gets your law office on the most advanced technology in cloud computing.