CBA Record July-August 2017

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LPMT BITS & BYTES
BY CATHERINE SANDERS-REACH
What Flavor of Cloud Storage Should I Use?
Even if you don’t know what cloud
storage is, you may already be using
it. Dropbox, iCloud, and Google
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, , 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 ),
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
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,
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 )
or Carbonite for Office ( )
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,
Catherine Sanders Reach is the
Director, LawPracticeManage-
ment & Technology at the CBA.
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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.
52 JULY/AUGUST 2017