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Defining the Cloud for eDiscovery

Defining the Cloud for eDiscovery

There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to “the cloud” in the eDiscovery space. What is it? What are the benefits? And the question asked most often: Is it secure?

In the broadest sense, anything hosted on infrastructure outside of your office can be considered cloud-based even if you’re accessing a predefined data center. But not all “clouds” are the same. Each requires a different level of internal IT support for deployment and management, and both initial and lifetime costs can be substantially different.

In order to effectively create a powerful, efficient eDiscovery process without overburdening your budget or human resources, you need to know what you’re looking at.

Cloud Types

For eDiscovery, the cloud can essentially mean one of two things:

Private Cloud

Dedicated cloud resources for a single client or organization (such as AWS)

  • Cost: $$
  • Security: High
  • Management Burden: Moderate

Public Cloud

Shared resources for many clients or organizations to achieve greater economies of scale

  • Cost: $
  • Security: Medium
  • Management Burden: Low

Benefits of the Cloud for eDiscovery

A private cloud is the most efficient and most flexible option for most law firms, service providers and all but maybe the biggest corporations – and one which won’t ask you to sacrifice the security required for critical eDiscovery data protection. Here’s why.

Anytime, Anywhere Access

Quite simply, cloud deployment of an eDiscovery solution allows for easy and efficient access to your data at any time, anywhere. As long as you can get online, you can access, monitor and manage any part of the process.

Robust Security

The process of creating security protocols and getting IT infrastructure appropriately certified can cost tens of thousands of dollars and countless man hours, and, at the end of the day, still might not meet requirements. Private clouds, like those managed by Amazon Web Services (AWS), have extensive security models and ISO certifications already in place, as well as solutions to support critical continuous monitoring.

Scalability & Price

With a flexible eDiscovery solution deployed in a virtual private cloud, you don’t have to worry about a large case exploding inside your network or, conversely, building infrastructure for a single project only to have it sit idle. Scale up, scale down; you only pay for what you use. And management can be accomplished by a few key team members through a dashboard – no need for a department of 20 individuals just to manage your software.

Ready to see what cloud eDiscovery software can do for your organization? Click here to see ONE Discovery in action. 

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