CBA Record

LPMT BITS & BYTES BY CATHERINE SANDERS-REACH What Flavor of Cloud Storage Should I Use? E ven if you don’t know what cloud storage is, you may already be using it. Dropbox, iCloud, and Google

A longer version of this article originally ap-

peared in the ABA GP|Solo Magazine May/June

2017 and can be found on the LPMT blog at lpmt.

chicagobar.org

as long as there is access to a browser or an app, the firm is not bound to a specific operating system. Pricing Cloud file storage services are typically priced per user, per month, with a specific amount of storage available based on a plan. If paid by the year, the products are usually discounted by up to 20 percent. If a user exceeds the allotted amount of storage space, an additional fees must be paid. In bundled user pricing (five users, ten users, etc.), additional users usually can be added for a small charge. Is Online Storage Backup? In short, no. While online storage can serve to create redundancy of your local files, online backup business services offer backup for files on multiple devices plus servers, create hard drive images, and store the backup both in the cloud and on external media. Files, servers, software, and images can be restored incrementally, or from “bare metal” (to an empty drive). Backup service providers will send restore discs overnight so the data can be restored quickly. For a quick comparison, look at the features of Mozy Pro (mozy.com) or Carbonite for Office (carbonite.com) offerings, and you will see they are typi- cally far more comprehensive than online document storage services. Collaboration A major benefit of online document storage services is the ease and security of sharing files and collaborating with clients. Firms can share a file or folder by providing a link instead of (insecurely) e-mailing documents. Most of the busi- ness plans allow users to share a link or a password-protected link to a document or folder, with collaborators being given rights ranging from view-only, to comments-only,

are easily evidenced. The services reduce the need to buy external drives and serve as de facto backup. Instead of storing data locally to your computer, you store it on third-party servers accessible through a web browser such as Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Through mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, lawyers can access the firm’s files, and in many cases with the right apps attorneys can make comments and edits on the go. Many firms often do not have complex and expensive setups that include file serv- ers and virtual private networks (VPNs), and thus working on firm files once meant putting them on a laptop or removable media to make them portable. Firms that had previously used systems such as LogMeIn and GotoMyPC found that, for accessing documents, the cloud storage services were faster and more convenient. Additionally, most of the cloud storage ser- vices have “viewers,” so if a user needs only to read a document, then no additional software is required on the device. Most cloud storage services maintain document versions, allowing a lawyer to access previ- ous versions of the document and revert. Sharing documents via cloud storage is also easier, especially for larger documents or entire folders of documents, reducing the need for e-mailing multiple files or using file transfer protocol (FTP). Another significant benefit of most online cloud storage services is that they are operating system and device agnostic. Most of the major business-class cloud storage services—including Microsoft’s— will work on any device, be it a Mac, PC, Android phone, iPhone, or iPad. Some services may have more add-ons and inte- grations with Microsoft Office software applications, and iCloud does not work on Android devices, but for the most part,

Drive became household names by letting users store electronic documents, pictures, albums, and other digital data on their “cloud” for free. So, what is “the cloud”? According to the Pennsylvania Bar Asso- ciation Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, the cloud is just “a fancy way of saying stuff’s not on your computer” (Formal Opinion 2011- 200, tinyurl.com/d4dmgsx, quoting the definition from the article “Byte Rights” in Maximum PC, September 2010). Opinion 2011-200 also correctly sug- gests that an attorney using webmail such as Gmail is using “cloud computing.” In the ABA LTRC 2016 Survey Report: Law Office Technology (tinyurl.com/hevcsct), only 38 percent of attorneys responding asserted that they used cloud computing or SaaS (software as a service) for law-related tasks (10 percent don’t know). Of those who use the cloud, the top three products used were Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud. What should be considered before using cloud storage? Who are the big play- ers in the business market? What security issues need to be addressed? Read on! Benefits of Cloud Storage What is the appeal? The benefits of cloud storage for the solo and small firm practice Catherine Sanders Reach is the Director, LawPracticeManage- ment & Technology at the CBA. Visit www.chicagobar.org/lpmt for articles, how-to videos, upcoming training and CLE, services, and more.

52 JULY/AUGUST 2017