In this excerpt from our white paper on managing ediscovery in the cloud, we explain the basics of the cloud and its biggest benefits in ediscovery. Click here to download the full white paper.

As early pioneers of cloud computing in legal tech, the cloud has always been an integral part of Nextpoint’s business model. Now, many providers are making the switch to the cloud, and more and more law firms are embracing ediscovery in the cloud. Even if you’ve used cloud services for a long time, you may have never stopped to consider – why is the cloud the best solution? And if you’re looking to adopt cloud technology or switch to a new provider, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of the cloud and why it’s the only ediscovery solution for modern litigators.

The greatest upside is that cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Rackspace can invest billions of dollars each year in research and development of cloud platforms, providing more robust services and security than any company or law firm can hope to provide. Thanks to those investments, SaaS ediscovery systems cost about 35 percent less than solutions that are hosted in-house.

Nearly 60% of businesses transitioned to the cloud in 2022, and this trend is expected to continue. The benefits that are enticing businesses to adopt cloud computing include:

• Reduced costs – only pay for the resources you consume
• Increased data protection against computing failures and network outages
• Flexible and scalable – no need to purchase hardware that you won’t use. Access nearly unlimited computing power on demand.
• Increased speed and supercharged processing power.

That’s the power of cloud computing, but it is also part of the challenge cloud computing poses for law firms. So much data is being created in today’s networked and super-massive computing environments that it will quickly overwhelm litigation. Law firms struggle to process and review gigabytes of data, while many types of litigation routinely involve multiple terabytes of information. The cloud is creating a tsunami of digital evidence, but it is also the only cost-effective solution to meet the challenge it has created.

Why Cloud Ediscovery?

Ediscovery is ideally suited to maximize the benefits of cloud computing. The volume of electronic data is such that when a legal matter arises, a law firm or corporate counsel can suddenly be faced with a mountain of electronic data, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to process in-house or with the service of outside consultants. Then there’s licensing fees, software installation, hardware costs, and consulting fees – all of which make ediscovery costs spiral out of control. As law firms and their clients become increasingly distressed by these kinds of bills, the Software-as-a-Service model promises to cut many of these needless costs by providing an all-in-one processing, stamping, reviewing, and production platform.

The bottom line is that litigation software built for local networks simply cannot cope with exploding volumes of digital data. The right ediscovery cloud platform offers low-cost data hosting, built-in processing functionality, and levels of security no on-premise solution can match.

Security: The Real Danger is Doing it Yourself

In considering on-premise versus cloud solutions, firms that host sensitive client data on-premise are likely to find that they themselves are the greatest security risk. A network hosted on-premise can afford very little in the way of network security beyond what can be found in an off-the-shelf network appliance. Even more problematic, on-premise systems (and ‘private cloud’ systems in a single facility) offer nothing in the way of physical security or environmental controls beyond what is found in a typical office building. The fact is, many local networks are managed from a supply closet or backroom that anyone with access to an office can enter.

Organizations that rely on local, on-premise solutions often have to fall back on unsecured and archaic mechanisms to move and share data, including mailing it on disks. And depending on the size of an organization, on-premise networks lack redundant storage and backup; if a disaster strikes, data is likely lost forever. The largest and most reputable cloud providers have redundant data centers with robust physical security dispersed across the country, or even the planet.

For example, Amazon Web Services’ data centers have extensive setback and military grade perimeter control berms as well as other natural boundary protection. Physical access is strictly controlled both at the perimeter and at building ingress points by professional security staff using video surveillance, state of the art intrusion detection systems, and other electronic means.

Now compare that to the security of on-premise servers, your typical hosting provider’s server room (private ‘cloud’), or to that of any other company whose primary business is not data security. The safest bet for your clients’ data would be to utilize one of the leading cloud infrastructure providers when moving ediscovery data to the cloud. But whichever ediscovery provider you choose, be sure to do some hard comparative research.

Cloud platforms give users control over large data sets, including permission-based access and security roles that are supported by the highest levels of security. That’s because large cloud providers have built-in encryption and security protocols backed up by large teams of security experts with real-time monitoring tools. When considering a cloud ediscovery service, find out the levels of security your provider has in place. Make sure they are taking advantage of the cloud platform in all phases of transmission and data storage, including:

• Firewall to prevent outsiders from breaking into a closed computing system.
• Encryption to protect data as it is being transmitted, and while it is at rest.
• Intrusion Detection to identify potential threats.
• Geographic Redundancy of all data for disaster recovery and backup.

Scalability: Big Data is Here

In the 1970’s Bill Gates was telling people, “No one will need more than 637 kilobytes of memory for a personal computer.” Today, personal computers ship with 2 terabyte hard drives.

Organizations today love data. Modern businesses are finding new and interesting ways to generate and use it. The growth of data is clobbering business IT environments, our federal government, federal court system, and pretty much any data-driven business. For example, it took Nextpoint 13 years to reach our first petabyte of data. (That’s 1,000 terabytes.) After that, it only took two years to add a second petabyte, and the exponential growth has only continued.

In special circumstances, like a data-intensive ediscovery matter, the computational requirements grow exponentially with the amount of data. This is particularly true in heavy processing, indexing, and analytics-based tasks like native file processing, near-dupe identification, and search functionality. Because cloud computing platforms have virtually unlimited ability to scale up for big jobs, reviewers can use advanced analytic tools to analyze data that would break most computer systems.

Law firms may be tempted to throw more hardware at large data challenges, but when clients that used to provide several gigabytes of data for discovery are now delivering terabytes of structured and unstructured data for review, a few new computers cannot address the problem. Thanks to cloud computing, computing power is now a commodity that can be accessed as needed.

Accessibility: Multi-Party Case Management

Hosting documents in the cloud makes it possible to effectively review huge data collections with reviewers working simultaneously in locations around the world. Data is easily kept organized and there is more control over the review process.

Many matters today involve similar documents and data sets. The cloud gives companies the ability to store a document set, along with the appropriate privilege codes, redactions, and stamping so that it can be accessed in future matters that may arise. They can allow data sets to be reused and accessed by new parties as appropriate.

Cloud platforms offer the ability to reduce duplicative efforts by multiple parties on cases with similar issues, facts, discovery, and relevant case law. There are so many actors involved in multidistrict litigation in different jurisdictions, with differing internal technology environments, it is critical that the solution selected encourages collaboration among co-counsel.

Mobility: Working on the Road

There was a time when a lot of companies pretended BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) was just a fad, and that employees should remain tied to applications and data stored on their desktop in a cubicle. The pandemic upended this mentality, and the cloud allowed applications and data to be device independent, freeing the workforce to work wherever and however they needed.

With SaaS services, users can securely access the data from anywhere an internet connection is available. When selecting a cloud platform, make sure it is natively accessible via all devices and OS’s including including Macs, PCs, iPads, iPhones, and

Android mobile devices.

The Cloud is the Only Answer for Ediscovery

These are the considerations to take into account when assessing the cloud for ediscovery. According to a 2022 report from ACEDS, 38% of firms still use on-premises technology for ediscovery, while 14% use a hybrid cloud solution, and 43% are fully in the cloud. A huge percentage of firms are moving to the cloud each year, but there is still a sizable number of attorneys working with technology not equipped for today’s information-rich litigation environment.

There are obvious ethical obligations and technical issues to take into account when moving client data to a cloud repository or transitioning to a new cloud provider. Check back for our next post on cloud-based ediscovery to see all the questions you need to ask when interviewing potential vendors. If a vendor can satisfy these demands, your firm will be able to deliver data processing power, data security, and a cost savings that old-school review software cannot hope to match.