Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

E-Discovery in Cloud Computing – Are We Ready? No.

June 28, 2011

When we talk to lawyers or their clients about their readiness for e-discovery in the cloud, we get (most of the time) a deer in the headlights reaction. Most of our clients are small to mid-sized, so it may be there is more readiness amongst large corporations and law firms.

I was interested to see a tweet from our friend Rob Robinson this morning, citing an unscientific survey done by Clearwell Systems in conjunction with Enterprise Strategy Group on this subject. Our own conclusions are equally unscientific, but they parallel what Clearlwell and ESG found. Some of the highlights:

  • Only 25% thought themselves ready for e-discovery in the cloud
  • 30% reported cloud applications in-scope for e-disovery in 2010
  • 60% anticipated the discovery of cloud-based applications in 2011
  • 27% considered social media in-scope for e-discovery in 2010
  • 59% considered social media in-scope for 2011

You can read more about the survey here.

It has been our observation that while businesses rush to put data in the cloud, they give very little thought to getting it back out. At a minimum, you would think that they would carefully consider the terms and conditions of their contracts with cloud providers. Our experience has been that they know the term of the contract and the price, but little else – and they almost never consider the need to get the data back. Cloud providers tend not to make it easy to get your own data – and sometimes there is a price tag attached.

It is very easy to click "I agree" online – and very dangerous.

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