Moving some – or all – of your infrastructure to the cloud requires careful consideration. How do you know if your firm is actually ready for the cloud, or if the benefits apply to your firm? How will your people adapt? How will you support your new solution – and ensure its security and performance - over time?

To determine the approach and strategy that’s right for your firm, following are some important questions to ask:

1. Your legacy infrastructure: what do you want to retain?

These days, it’s rare that a technology consultant will recommend a ‘dump and replace’ strategy when it comes to your IT. To generate the greatest possible cost savings, it’s important you leverage your existing investments.

If you have recently made an investment in an on-premise server, or industry-specific hardware, it makes sense to incorporate it into your new IT strategy. At the same time, not all legal software is made for the cloud, and it’s likely that some elements of your infrastructure will need to stay on-premise. Like many firms, you may even want to consider a hybrid cloud/on-premise solution.

If you’re thinking about a move to the cloud, it’s therefore important to first think about your current infrastructure and isolate any particular elements you would like to retain.

2. How will you encourage your people to adopt cloud-based ways of working?

The success of any technology change relies on your people: how quickly they adapt to the new system, and how willing they are to use the cloud-based workspaces and collaboration tools. For this reason, it’s important to think carefully about your change management processes:

• how will you train staff on the new systems?
• what support will you offer them to ensure they are able to get the most out of the technology?
• will you provide online resources for people to troubleshoot and find the information they need? If so, where will these resources reside and who will create them?
• will you conduct a phased transition – to help your people adapt slowly and reduce the risk of system downtime – or will you transfer your entire infrastructure to the cloud overnight?

3. How accurate is your licensing?

Before you move your software to the cloud, you need to do a thorough audit of your current licensing to ensure it accurately reflects the number of users you have in your organisation; and the software they are actually using. You don’t want to pay for new, cloud-based licenses that you won’t be using. 

4. How much data do you want to transition to the cloud?

When you move to cloud-based data storage, you pay based on the amount of data that you transition across and require storage for.

For this reason, it’s smart to consolidate your data before embarking on a cloud transition. Back-up any case or matter data that will not require future access, and ensure it is kept securely in an on-premise location. This way, you’re only paying to move across recent and relevant data that your people will actually access.

5. Will you require any managed services?

More and more, law firms are engaging specialist IT firms such as The Missing Link to provide outsourced services in an attempt to reduce costs, generate efficiencies and increase system availability. At The Missing Link, we offer a range of managed services, including:

1. Support and maintenance – if there is an issue, it can be resolved quickly and effectively, even if after hours.

2. Security – firms can enjoy a high level of security and protection by outsourcing their security rather than relying on internal resources.

3. Patch management – providing ad-hoc patches can be extremely time consuming and endless. Many firms are now choosing to outsource this responsibility.

4. Managed cloud – rather than worrying about the speed or security of your infrastructure, you can move your services to the cloud and have a provider take care of your entire infrastructure on your behalf.

5. Internet and connectivity – by outsourcing their internet connectivity, firms receive safeguarded, robust connections that are specifically customised to suit their needs.

6. Backup and disaster recovery – protecting your business is also future-proofing it.

Find out more

To learn more about cloud readiness for law firms, contact The Missing Link on 1300 865 865 or contactus@themissinglink.com.au.