Are Storage and E-Discovery in the Cloud Right for Your Firm?

Back in our college days, when we spent our summers making court runs for a local law firm, we occasionally got pulled from court run duty to organize files for the firm’s busier attorneys. We’ve never met a sticky label we didn’t like, so we could usually turn two years’ worth of filing into a perfectly-organized system in 10 days.

If cloud computing services had been available in our college days, we would have endured fewer paper cuts.

Cloud computing allows lawyers to store information in a virtual site. Documents stay synched, reducing that amount of time lawyers waste sending different versions of documents their colleagues. More importantly, information stored on the cloud is available to any authorized user with an Internet connection. Cloud computing services are particularly popular among tech-savvy Silicon Valley law firms.

So how should lawyers who are new to cloud computing services handle electronic discovery (e-discovery) in the cloud?

The most critical component of e-discovery in the cloud is to plan.

• Plan a way to get data out.
• Plan how you will migrate data to the cloud, and what data should be migrated.
• Plan who can use cloud data, and when they can use it.
• Plan how you will use the cloud to meet your e-discovery obligations.

Is the cloud right for you? If you're considering the leap from corporeal world to the cloud, check out FindLaw's Technology Center for more information about cloud computing for lawyers.

And for more information on case law, law office practice, and legal news in California, add FindLaw's California Case Law blog to your RSS feed.

Related Resources:

• Five Key Considerations for Law Firms Before Moving to the Cloud (FindLaw)
• Beware of the Cloud: It Poses Real Threats to E-Discovery (FindLaw's Strategist)
• Does Your Firm Need a Cloud-Based Litigation Organizer? (FindLaw's Technologist)
• Safety In the Cloud (FindLaw's Technologist)