By Clio Certified Consultant Andres Hernandez, BIIS Solutions, Inc.
Remember the first time you progressed from a piggy bank to a bank account? This moment usually marked the beginning of the future, the potential of careers and wealth. Why do we automatically put our hard earned money into a facility with security cameras, guards, bank tellers, and a huge shiny vault, instead of keeping money under the mattress at home where it seemed secure enough? We do so because we know it’s secure and accessible from almost anywhere. Keeping money in a bank is common sense, and the same common sense can be applied to today’s currency: data.
Where is most data stored? Most law firms insist on keeping hard copies in space consuming filing cabinets, or files on computers or servers that require high license costs and constant maintenance. These piggy banks of data require time to organize, experts to manage, and resources away from your core business, which is practicing law.
Start to think of this “data” as all your hard-earned savings that contributes to your wealth? Is it really safe in your local data center in your own office? How convenient is this data if you depend on multiple machines just to remotely access it? Now there is a better way of doing things.
Today’s technology is at the point where all of your data can be stored in a secure system and accessed from anywhere, and at your convenience without the high costs of a traditional server infrastructure.
How is this possible? Two words: cloud computing, which simply means “applications on the internet.” Just like banks secure and give access to money, cloud computing does the same with data.
What does this mean for the legal industry? It means cloud computing is your virtual bank, where you deposit and keep all of your firm’s billing, communications and practice management information. No need to use high maintenance, costly servers in your office.
Banks provide you with security, ease, convenience and quick access to all of your money. Cloud computing can do the exact same thing with all of your data.
