Significant advancements are being made in automation, artificial intelligence and data analytics, facilitated by the adoption of cloud infrastructure. However, the pressure to out-pace the competition in taking new products and services to market or achieving greater operational efficiencies can increase risks to data security.
Jon Seddon, Head of Product, at Outsourcery explained, “While on the face of it the legal industry is highly traditional, there is in-fact an incredibly powerful and fast-paced revolution underway. Being first to market with new innovations is having a significant impact on the bottom line of legal firms – particularly in consumer-facing businesses – and this puts enormous pressure on IT leaders to deliver pioneering systems.”
According to The Law Society Report, high-volume, low margin consumer law firms face particular challenges and are seeing the most disruption from new market entrants. This dynamism is almost wholly due to advances in technology that improve service delivery while reducing costs, with investors likely to be looking for rapid returns on investment. Some legal firms’ initial move into the cloud was in areas that typically had fewer security requirements, such as webhosting, but fast-forward 18 months and the demand for highly secure, scalable cloud resources for new applications has increased exponentially.
Seddon continued, “Without the cloud, a large amount of the dynamism we are seeing in the legal sector would not be possible – so everything hinges on getting the infrastructure right. Choosing a partner that has a focus on secure cloud storage, while also fully accredited with ISO27001 is essential. Getting it right today will save the need for further changes down the line.”