By guest author Shaloo Shalini and Bhavana Sharma
The legal industry is not immune to “resistance to change” when it comes to shaking up IT infrastructure and deploying newer, cheaper, and more efficient technologies such as cloud computing. In addition to the conservative mindset, there is no real business reason for established law firms to change their on-premise applications for cloud-based offerings. Another inhibitor is reliable access to business-critical information which firms need to have on-premise instead of virtually in the cloud. Compared to technology firms, there aren’t as many law firms that just getting started. Also, unlike in new technology startups, competition is not yet prompting law firms to jump onto the SaaS capex to opex bandwagon to get started more quickly or scale up sudden lawsuit load surges – those are not at all common. Well, it may just be a matter of time. >>>
By guest author Shaloo Shalini and Bhavana Sharma
One of the main motivations for cloud adoption in the legal industry is the speed at which cloud-based offerings can be deployed. However, a big barrier to adoption is integration with existing on-premise enterprise applications. Within the legal industry, only the peripheral user-focused processes which have very basic integration requirements are the ones that have moved to the cloud. Michael discusses in this part of the interview that the primary driver for selecting a cloud-based offering at Gibbons is “business need and appropriate fit” followed by usability, integration capability with existing systems, governance, and security. >>>
Cloud Computing and Its Origins
In 1966, Douglas Parkhill talked about utility computing in his book The Challenge of the Computer Utility. He described a future where many computing activities would be provided through computer utilities, analogous to the electricity industry. This future of utility computing has arrived in the form of cloud computing. The term was made popular by Nicholas Carr’s book Big Switch in 2008 and became a reality thanks to the likes of Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, and many other innovative startups. There seems to be opportunity galore for entrepreneurs in the cloud computing market, which is projected to grow beyond $100 billion in the next five years. >>>
By guest author Shaloo Shalini and Bhavana Sharma
In this part of the interview Sramana drills deeper into the legal hold process, the application of cloud computing in law firms, current vendors offering solutions to legal industry, and how security and governance of the system are top requirements for any IT solution deployed by a law firm. Law firms require detailed audit information from any IT application they use. Michael discusses how cloud solutions for the legal industry have yet to mature and meet all such data and information security requirements. >>>
By guest author Shaloo Shalini and Bhavana Sharma
In this interview, Sramana and Michael Aginsky discuss cloud computing adoption from the legal industry perspective. The legal industry has evolved slowly but significantly and reaped benefits from tremendous changes in information technology over the past decade. Law firms are actively gearing up to beat competition and get out of the old “relationship” mode of doing business. They are actively adopting newer technologies, including cloud computing and social networking [survey data here], for almost all aspects of what they do – consulting with clients, colleagues, or experts; increasing compliance and regulation demands; wading through a constantly expanding sea of legislation and case law; managing outsourcing partners; keeping abreast with latest developments; or managing a mountain of matter files. >>>
By guest author Shaloo Shalini
Given the huge market size predictions from Gartner, IDC, and others, it is but natural that there are opportunities in cloud for entrepreneurs to come up with innovative solutions and address market needs. In the final part of the interview, Sramana and José discuss entrepreneurship opportunities in the cloud. José emphasizes the fact that cloud computing is granting small to medium-sized businesses access to the technological resources they need to compete with the big enterprises, therefore sparking much-needed innovation. By according companies of all sizes the same access to data centers, server farms, and software platforms, cloud computing is helping to create a level playing field. >>>
By guest author Shaloo Shalini
This part of the discussion centers around the impact of clouds on the evolution of IT in a large organization such as Novell, the need to upgrade IT skills to make services more valuable to business, private clouds and data security in the cloud. >>>
By guest author Shaloo Shalini
With 35% of ISVs adopting SaaS in terms of delivery and pricing models, large enterprises can save a significant amount of money by moving to the cloud. José compares the savings to outsourcing and quotes Merill Lynch, which estimates two to ten times cost savings with cloud-based pricing schemes. But not all enterprise workloads can move into the cloud, so this is only part of the IT budget for a large enterprise. >>>