The cloud has provided increased flexibility, agility, and scalability from its inception, leading to fervent integration by enterprises across industries, with many regarding cloud solutions as the core of their IT structure and prospective software development. Gartner detailed this inexorable adoption in a report stating that end-user spending had reached $490.3 billion in 2022, projecting this to reach a total of $591.8 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 20.7%.
Despite this, legal departments and firms have largely underutilized the cloud in comparison to other sectors, with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies largely disregarding the sector. This inertia within the industry has limited the opportunity for streamlining legal operations as the profession continues to rely on dated systems that have contributed to a myriad of issues, including an unmanageable IT backlog. Pax8, a cloud marketplace for MSPs and their SMB clients, highlights this issue, reporting that 40% of malpractice claims against litigation attorneys are due to missed deadlines resulting from incorrect, manually updated calendars.
“Legal organizations are understandably conservative and think deeply about the implications of any new technology they are considering,” said Nick Heddy, Chief Commerce Officer of Pax8, which has more than 25,000 MSP partners and more than 80 vendors in its marketplace. “Through efficient cloud integration, legal teams can dramatically reduce operational inefficiencies and costs, as well as access fully vetted, secure, and proven automation solutions.”
LawToolBox, which partnered with Microsoft, sought to scale, but required a strategic partnership and deliberate collaboration in driving their innovative solution’s growth, adoption, and usage, Heddy explained.
“Choosing to work with Pax8, LawToolBox is able to access the Pax8 marketplace, a direct method to reach partners by allowing them to buy, sell, and manage the solution for all clients from one portal,” he said.
Successful cloud usage has expedited further integration throughout the industry, as detailed in the 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, which recorded an increase of 32% in cloud use among individual lawyers.
Despite this, overall cloud usage among law firms still lags behind other progressive sectors, with one of the key fears being cybersecurity. However, attempting to avoid the perceived risks from cloud adoption has led to mismatched integration alongside a lack of knowledge, which has spurred on escalating cyberattacks.
Often being targeted as a weak point for customer information, many law firms rely on small IT teams to maintain a secure network infrastructure. As firms grow, these teams can become over-encumbered by the size of the network or fail to incorporate precautionary cybersecurity measures that can combat the latest innovation in cybercrime.
Leading-edge solutions can provide this security to protect vulnerabilities against DDoS attacks, ransomware, and other emerging threats with an array of tools, including:
- Data Encryption: Privatize and secure confidential customer information with regulatory requirements to view
- Dynamic Threat Intelligence: Constant monitoring of evolving threats and regulating measured responses accordingly
- Incidence Response: Include regular data backups to reduce risks for firms
- Security Configuration Settings: Minimizes data exposure and systematic vulnerability that can arise due to ineffective security configurations
“This is the perfect time for law firms to embrace digital transformation and to take full advantage of automation for operational optimization,” Heddy said. “Pax8’s MSP partners can expedite their adoption of essential cloud services to keep pace with demands from clients. With constant innovation within the market, finding the right provider and solutions is integral to obtaining scalability, security, and maximizing ROI.”
Edited by
Erik Linask
