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February 18th, 2011 by Gwynne Monahan

Cloud Coverage – February 2011 Edition

Cloud computing has become a hot topic, more so, it seems, since LegalTech New York.

Here are some pieces of note, in no particular order:

• The Economist: Tanks in the cloud. While its aim is to answer the question, “How big is the computing cloud?” by comparing it to the statistical methods of counting German tanks during World War II, it none-the-less provides an excellent overview of cloud computing in general, and more specifically, its three components: Software as a Service (Sass), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The article also points out that “computing clouds — essentially digital-service factories — are the first truly global utility, accessible from all corners of the planet.”
• LegalTech New York 2011 Wrap-Up: Products, Trends, and More. Legal Technology News technology editor Sean Doherty points out, in the very beginning of his article, that the term “cloud computing” was one to avoid using during LegalTech New York, and not without reason. It is a term, he says, whose definition varies “according to a speaker’s background and context. Cloud computing can be web mail, hosting services, online practice management, or Amazon EC2.” Fair point, which brings us to the next article.
• Heavy Cloud Cover.” David Snow, ALM’s editorial director for technology, offers a definition of cloud computing in the beginning of his article. He defines it as “the pool of resources and networking opportunities the internet provides.” He goes on to summarize the adoption of cloud computing by Ward and Smith, an 80-lawyer, five-office firm in North Carolina, noting that the lawyers didn’t want to deal with the old document management system “in need of massive hardware and software upgrades at intimidating costs.” Moving to the cloud not only made technology costs fixed but also let the lawyers take advantage of collaborative tools.
• Kennedy-Mighell Report: To Cloud or Not to Cloud: That is the Question for Start-up Firms (Podcast). In the first segment, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell answer an audio question from a listener who wanted to know what tech might work for a start-up, mid-sized firm and the potential of cloud computing in the small-to-mid-size law firm market. They take you through the pros and cons, costs of hardware and software v. cloud services, security, functionality and other issues and things to consider as start-up firm. And yes, Clio is a sponsor of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, as is LexisNexis.
• Reality Bytes. From BCBusiness, Vancouver & BC Business News, its focus is on Gigacenter, a new data center being built by IBM and  and RackForce. It helps connect the dots between “the cloud” and what makes the cloud work, namely large server facilities that perform what desktops and servers in the broom closet used to do. It provides an excellent overview of how computing power has gone from the office broom closet to server facilities, and what that has meant for consumers.
• Law Practice Management in the Cloud: A Panel Discussion. LegalTalkNetwork panel discussion, conducted during LegalTech New York 2011, that goes into detail about the technical aspects and legal challenges of cloud computing. Moderated by Tom Mighell, the panel includes well-known legal technology experts Carolyn Elefant, Robert Ambrogi and Andy Adkins.

What cloud computing-related articles have you read lately?