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TECH SUPPORT Is the sketchy reputation of Internet-based products in the legal industry deserved? BY GERRY BLACKWELL cloud C loud computing in the legal industry, almost from the get-go, came under, well, a cloud. Is the sketchy reputa- tion deserved? Dean Leung, former national director of information technology at Davis LLP, says no. Besides, says Leung, you're prob- ably already using it. Cloud computing is the defining trend in information technology in the new millennium. The most familiar manifes- tations are software-as-a-service products — applications shared by monthly or yearly "subscribers" accessing them over the Internet — and online backup and file-sharing services. Advocates say cloud computing can cut costs, radically simplify computing operations, eliminate the need for busi- ness continuity planning and data backup, and even reduce carbon footprint. Leung would add that outsourcing infrastructure and horizontal applications such as e-mail can free law firm IT professionals to con- centrate on mission-critical, legal-specific applications such as knowledge manage- ment and litigation support. His firm recently completed negotia- tions to adopt a cloud-based law library application — he won't say which one yet — from a company that offers both on- premise and hosted versions of the same software. The cost of the cloud-based option, calculated over a five-year period, was significantly lower, says Leung. And that didn't take into account more-diffi- cult-to-calculate benefits such as reduced IT management costs. Despite the generally agreed upon benefits from cloud computing, and while other industries have embraced it, Canadian law firms have mostly hung back, citing concerns about confidentiali- ty, security, and jurisdictional issues. Firms certainly need to be aware of those issues, says Leung. What happens, for example, if the company that holds your data is in the U.S. and the U.S. government uses legisla- tion there to force the company to hand over your client-confidential data? "But the risks, while they're there, are small compared to the benefits," he argues. And it's possible to manage the risks — much as it is in the physical world. Are concerns about security of data on a third-party server, for example, really much different than concerns law firms have about the security of paper files ascendant The when outsourced custodial staff are com- ing in to clean offices at night? "You have to trust the organizations that you trust," says Leung. "Do you really know that the guy cleaning out your garbage isn't also going through your drawers? It's not that different in the virtual world." Leung, who is now with Holland & Knight LLP in the U.S. as director of network and operations, believes many Canadian law firms aren't thinking ratio- nally about cloud computing. For one thing, many already use it. The most ubiq- uitous example of a cloud-based solution is Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Enterprise Server. "It's not branded as such, but that is cloud computing too. All your messages go through the BlackBerry network operations centre." Another is Postini, the e-mail anti-spam service used by many law firms, now owned by Google. "If you use it, every piece of your Internet-based correspondence — or you could spin it this way — is being intercept- ed, analyzed, and forwarded by Google," Leung points out. Iron Mountain straddles the physical and virtual worlds, providing both secure data and paper document storage. Many www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com OC T O BER 2010 25 ENRICO VARASSO