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More than 4 in 5 corporate counsel store data in the cloud
New research from CLOC shows that over 80 per cent of corporate legal organisations allow their data to be stored in the cloud.
Jerome Doraisamy
Source: legalexecutiveinstitute.com/cloc-institute-2019-legal-ops-business/
According to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) Cloud Survey, 82 per cent of corporate legal teams and businesses allow their data to be stored in the cloud by a legal service provider, with an additional 6 per cent saying they are planning to allow legal service providers to host data in the cloud.
Responding to the findings, CLOC wrote that those who responded “yes” understand that the “benefits of the cloud increase efficiency on complex matters, minimise response time on document revisions and maintain the ability to control access to highly sensitive information while also reducing the burden on law firms’ responses”.
“Technology solutions such as spam management, eDiscovery, document management and Microsoft Exchange/SharePoint drive up the expense of IT services for law firms due to the amount of resource consumption and technical expertise required to maintain such systems. Therefore, it is important for clients and firms to discuss where data will be stored and accessed in order to ensure the proper resources are put in place,” CLOC wrote.
For those who responded that they don’t allow legal service providers to store client data in the cloud, a follow-up question was asked by CLOC: “If you don’t allow [this], do you feel that using a third-party email system (for disaster recovery purposes) to store all firm email in the cloud is violating your organisation’s guidelines?”
Of the team or business responses received by CLOC, nine said it would violate guidelines and 22 said it would not.
“For some organisations, the reason for not allowing was that the use of the cloud by an outside party is a violation of their data policy,” CLOC wrote.
Elsewhere, the survey found that 77 per cent of respondents (excluding law firms) expect their legal service providers to seek approval before placing any client data into the cloud.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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