Unless you’ve been living off the grid, by now you’ve most likely heard the term that has been catching fire around the world: “the cloud.” But what is it exactly and how are these “tech-savvy” people using it? As it turns out, you are probably using “the cloud” on a daily basis without ever taking notice. Popular platforms for cloud computing include Google Drive, Office 365/Microsoft 365, Apple iCloud, and Dropbox, to name a few. These applications store and access information through the Internet, in contrast to the traditional, physical, in-house servers that interact with a computer’s hard drive to manage data.
Aside from the shared commonality of managing data, “the cloud” and in-house servers have many differences in their approach and presence. With the rise of cloud computing, in-house servers are becoming less popular due to their many drawbacks:
- Space and Staffing Considerations. An in-house server requires physical office space as well as a dedicated IT support team to consistently maintain the server.
- Costly. Ongoing installation and upgrades of hardware, not to mention licensing fees for software, is expensive.
- Non-scalable. Increased needs of a growing firm require new hardware to be installed and configured.
- Potential Data Risk. In-house servers are susceptible to data loss and damage due to their static location. If your hardware breaks or crashes, you may be out of service for an extended period of time.
At CARET Legal, we pride ourselves on our cloud-based, 360-degree, integrated legal practice management platform for many reasons, a few being:
- No Office Space. No Internal IT Needs. You won’t need to store any physical storage hardware on premises or have your IT guru on call. CARET Legal’s platform can be accessed at any time of the day, in any location, on any device (no more Mac vs. PC battles!).
- Cost-effective. The “cloud” is a “pay-as-you-go” platform. As SaaS (subscription as a service) software, you have the option of paying for CARET Legal either on a monthly basis or saving by paying on an annual basis. Either way, you will always have the latest and greatest version. CARET Legal also takes roles and size of the firm into consideration with different pricing for solo accounts, attorney accounts, or support staff.
- Scalable. Hiring a new associate, or new practice group? Not a problem – with CARET Legal, you can scale up or down at a moment’s notice.
- Data Security. You won’t have to worry about viruses that come from downloading a new software onto your server. CARET Legal is deployed on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. Documents and data are protected by Identity and Access Management roles within an AWS Region and replicated across Availability Zones (located in different geographic locations within the US) for backup on a daily basis. This means that if one server goes down, the other connecting servers will maintain hosting. With CARET Legal, our external security companies continuously scan for potential vulnerabilities in our applications, systems, and networks and fix them upon notice.
The advantages are clear. With SaaS, cloud-based software, you will save money, have flexibility and peace of mind knowing that your data is safe. Isn’t it time to become one of the tech-savvy people using the cloud?
