As it has for large swaths of the economy, the novel coronavirus pandemic offered many U.S.-based law firms their first opportunity to truly put their business continuity plans to the test. Whether firm leadership relied on established, written-down plans or winged it with ad hoc fixes as problems arose, the sudden issuance of various varieties of stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders (and the still-ongoing reopenings) has driven home the need for planning to continue operations under a variety of less-than-ideal or expected conditions.

Topics: Disaster Recovery, Survey, Business Continuity, COVID-19

In an effort to keep you abreast of ongoing developments that could impact your firm's technology, we wanted to alert you to increasing likelihood of disruptions to major IT manufacturers' supply chains due to the Coronavirus outbreak in Asia.

Topics: Security, Technology Consulting, IT Tips, Alerts, Disaster Recovery

Are you attending the International Legal Technology Association Conference and Expo this year?

 

If so, be sure to stop by our panel discussion on Cloud Disaster Recovery. Join our CEO Michael Kemps, CTO Mike Paul and Senior Systems Engineer Sonny Sheth as they review the key facets of cloud disaster recovery and best practices on implementation.

 

Topics: Cloud, Data Backups, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery

Many law firms and businesses put off creating and using a standardized workstation image. Instead, they use whatever operating system comes pre-configured on the computers they purchase. Sometimes they will install a clean operating system and configure each machine from scratch for each newly purchased computer. This is a mistake which can be both expensive and dangerous. Thankfully, your computer environment can be made more secure, and your IT costs can be reduced, by implementing a standard workstation image.

Topics: Technology Consulting, Data Backups, IT Tips, Disaster Recovery, 2FA, Imaging

Is hybrid storage right for your law firm or business? Are you familiar with it?

Topics: Data Backups, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery, Hybrid Storage, On-Premises Storage

According to the American Bar Association 2016 Legal Technology Survey Report, only 38 percent of lawyers are using cloud computing for tasks relating to their practice. Overall, 53 percent report that they do not use cloud computing at all while about 10 percent say they don’t know if they do or not.

 

In reality, these attorneys may not be aware that they’re probably already using the cloud but just don’t know it.

 

So what is the cloud, and why should you care?

Topics: Technology Consulting, Cloud, Data Backups, IT Tips, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery

When you consider the best place(s) to store your data – in the cloud, on-premises in your office or some hybrid of the two – what questions do you ask?

Topics: Cloud, Data Backups, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery, Network, Access Control, cybersecurity, Cybercrime

Where should your law firm's data be stored?

 

Topics: Technology Consulting, Cloud, Data Backups, IT Tips, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery, Webinars, cybersecurity, Cybercrime

When faced with hurricanes, earthquakes, geomagnetic storms and floods, law firms' data is safer in the cloud than anywhere else. Traditional data centers are built strong to protect against natural disasters, but when it comes time for your data to evacuate, it needs to have somewhere to go. The cloud offers that protection with multiple levels of redundancy across the world, so your data will survive even if one location is hit or damaged. Here are four scenarios the cloud protects your law firm from:

Topics: Cloud, Data Backups, Data Recovery, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery, cybersecurity, Partners, Microsoft

UPDATE 1 MAR 2016: Our partners at Mimecast announced today at the RSA Conference that they are launching the first-ever threat protection against whaling. Learn more here.

 

Whaling Attack? No, it’s not the latest survivalist reality television show. It’s a potential hacking threat posing a real problem for today’s technologically driven law firms and companies. [Update 29 FEB 2016: Here are a few good, if sad, examples of whaling.]

As in reality, whales are bigger than phish. Phishing is usually conducted using shotgun-style emails sent to the masses looking for people to divulge sensitive information, like Social Security Numbers or other personally identifiable information (PII). A whaling attack, however, targets the C-suite, partners, upper management, celebrities and other individuals of high worth or influence.

Topics: Security, Malware, Technology Consulting, IT Tips, Disaster Recovery, Email Management, Network, SentinelOne, whaling, cybersecurity, phishing

When it comes to information security there is no silver bullet to stop attackers from infiltrating your firm. The “defense-in-depth” approach to information security is simple: add many layers of protection between yourself and the outside world. Hardening your computer is exactly what it sounds like, adding security measures to increase the difficulty of an attacker compromising your system. Below you will find a checklist of system hardening best practices, each of these are easy to implement and are critical in protecting your computer.

Topics: Security, Malware, Technology Consulting, Data Recovery, IT Tips, Disaster Recovery, Information Governance, Email Management, Access Control, SentinelOne

Topics: Security, Malware, Technology Consulting, Cloud, IT Tips, ECM, Disaster Recovery, DMS, Network

Storage choices are expanding almost as fast as is our ability to fill them up. Due to the mission-critical nature of what law firms store, they require reliability, fault tolerance and scalability. However, the price tag to add a few more terabytes of storage to a system can be daunting to some.  

 

Adding additional SAN nodes is the first and, for me, most obvious answer. 

 

Installing new SAN nodes can be added to a storage cluster with no downtime, giving law firms a seamless expansion in storage capacity. This was, after all, one of the reasons you bought SAN storage in the first place, right?

 

There are other options, though.

Topics: Training, Technology Consulting, Data Backups, Data Recovery, IT Tips, Cloud Storage, Disaster Recovery

As the end of the year rapidly approaches, we think back to the much-touted but over-hyped threat of the millennial bug destroying massive amounts of data and information. While we laugh at our overreaction 15 years ago, when it comes to information security, there is no true overreaction. Cyberattacks, earthquakes, fires, explosions, power outages and so many more events can immediately render your data unavailable — sometimes for good.

To mitigate that risk, we partner with Acronis to provide backup, disaster recovery and secure access solutions to our legal technology clients.

Topics: Malware, Managed Services, Data Backups, Cloud Storage, Partner Series, Disaster Recovery