The benefits of cloud are indisputable with scalability

Subroto Panda, Chief Information Officer, Information Technology Group, Anand and Anand

"The need of the hour is to manage the enterprise application ecosystem at a large scale, remotely and in a secured manner, which has triggered organizations to evaluate and recalibrate their strategy towards accelerated cloud adoption to increase resilience and agility within the technology backbone of the companies at large.

Cloud is a server in Data center that hosts several number of servers and server-based software, which tenants can access from anywhere, at any time. With a cloud infrastructure, the law firm’s server and IT platform is replaced by a hosted and managed virtual desktop that enables your entire staff to access applications and documents (including Word, Excel, Outlook, practice management, and billing software) using any device (a PC, Mac, iPad, etc.).

The benefits of using the cloud, after all, are indisputable, including scalability, reduced costs, less burden on IT, and rapid deployment but for law firms, this creates a complex conundrum. Every practice has a heightened need for security and compliance, thanks to sensitive client information, and firms of all sizes are understandably concerned about the safety of using public cloud computing services. In addition, even today, many practice management and other software packages require a server, which has traditionally been on-site, making cloud adoption daunting.

A hybrid cloud model helps organizations increase their speed to market by optimizing IT performance and providing the agility needed to meet changing business demands. Hybrid cloud models improve business continuity and reduce potential downtime and resulting costs. Business continuity basically means that in the event of a failure or disaster, business operations are able to continue as usual with minimal downtime or interruption. 

Law firms choose where to house their data and workloads based on compliance, policy, or security requirements. The hybrid environment also lets security teams standardize redundant cloud storage, which is an important aspect of disaster recovery and data insurance.

 A hybrid cloud’s centralized management also makes it easier to implement strong technical security measures such as encryption, automation, access control, orchestration, and endpoint security so you can manage risk effectively.”