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Law Firms Are Struggling With Rapid Data Growth

Many law firms are facing rapidly growing data storage needs. Data storage needs for many mid-sized law firms have grown to one, two, or even five terabytes of data. Data storage for law firms include  data pertaining to litigation, documents, email, application related data, and databases.

As a consequence of this data growth, many IT teams are struggling with the burden of managing backups, off-site replication, and all the associated systems.  Therefore, IT folks at many law firms are asking themselves: “How can I get out of the file server business?” It’s a system that requires a lot of work, a lot duplicate data, a lot of migration and a lot of headaches for many law firms.

While data growth is a concern, law firms are also evaluating their business continuity strategies in the event of a major disaster (either natural disaster or human error). IT teams are determining the maximum amount of time an outage can be tolerated with no access to the company data or email? What is the desired recovery time?

In a previous post I outlined potential problem areas with traditional data recovery methods which could take anywhere between several hours to several days. It is unacceptable for law firms to be “offline” for hours or even days. The cost of lost time and productivity quickly grows to several thousands of dollars.

Let’s explore briefly some available options to address rapid data growth: Read the rest of this entry »

During this video blog I provide you with a brief description of cloud storage gateways. Additionally, I review three general types of cloud storage gateways and what questions you need to ask when choosing a cloud storage gateway. I briefly address the main concerns which businesses and organizations have about storing their data in the cloud.

During the video blog I talk about cloud storage gateways and cloud storage providers, at one point I use these terms interchangeably. Therefore, let me clarify:

1. A cloud storage gateway is a software package, virtual appliance, or NAS server (with a cloud component embedded) which sits at your business locations. It is not the public cloud itself.
2. A cloud storage provider is typically the public data center such as Amazon S3 or Microsoft.

Hope you enjoy the video blog and please feel free to contact me if I can assist your business in developing a cloud storage strategy.

How To Choose A Cloud Storage Gateway

Some folks may think that a disaster resulting in massive data loss is mostly caused by natural disasters or wide spread power outages – that can certainly be the case as we are painfully aware here in the North East. However, it could also be caused by an internal infrastructure problem such as a software upgrade error or perhaps a major error caused by a user. In fact, software glitches or human errors are more common than a natural disaster with respect to a major data loss event.  If a major data loss occurs, your business should be able to survive such a disaster and be prepared for it.

Potential Problems With Conventional File Storage and Disaster Recovery Plans

Many businesses I work with have the following file storage scenario: A number of users or clients are attached to host computers. The users’ data sits on a primary storage device and is backed up to a backup server and copied to disk or copied to tape which is then taken to a second site to prepare for a disaster recovery. Depending on your needs and budget, this backup might happen continuously or on a daily basis. In other words, a copy of your data is at a different location.

In the event of a major infrastructure failure at your primary location, all users would loose access to their data. Read the rest of this entry »

In this post, I would like to review two basic types of virtual private networks (VPNs) which businesses utilize for wide area network connectivity. It is not unusual to encounter some confusion among IT managers and business owners with regards to which VPN to choose for your business telecommunications requirement. Therefore, Id like to review the basic difference between VPN technologies and how IPSec fits into the discussion.

Lets begin with a brief definition of IPSec: IPSec is a term used to describe a set of standards for implementing and managing encryption in an IP network (e.g. Internet, MPLS). What this means is that we can provide secure communications between computers, firewalls and gateway. When we implement IPSec we create a VPN or Virtual Private Network.

Premise Based VPNs:

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are private networks which only look like they are private networks, hence the term virtual. Read the rest of this entry »

Considerations when implementing a business continuity plan

We just experienced a historical October snow storm in the North East which collapsed the regional electric grid for days. Many businesses were “offline” for days. The question arises, how long can your business afford to be “offline” before significant dollar amounts are lost? How many orders are you not receiving? How many billings are you not
activating? What happens to your business when you are down for several hours, a whole day, or several days? Secondly, how much would it cost to have a contingency plan in place?

If your business has no business continuity plan in place, the following overview of available business continuity products, services, and solutions should provide you with a good starting point.

What specifically is required to keep the business running in case of a disaster? Read the rest of this entry »

Should your business use MPLS or the Internet for your VoIP (Voice over IP) needs?

Almost all service providers (Earthlink Business, Paetec Communications, AT&T, Verizon, Level3, etc) have implemented MPLS technologies into their core networks. Today, MPLS networks are firmly in place and carriers are aggressively marketing the benefits of MPLS by claiming significant improvements in performance, security, and availability when compared with using the public Internet. Specifically, carriers point to the superior quality when phone calls are being made over an MPLS network vs phone calls over the public Internet. In this post, I would like to examine the call quality for VoIP over MPLS compared with VoIP over the public Internet.

Does MPLS offer improved performance over the public Internet for VoIP? Read the rest of this entry »

Why should I pay for conference call services when there are free services available?

If you have shopped for a conference call provider then you will have come across both free and paid service offerings. The question you might ask yourself is, “Why pay for conference calling when the free service seems just fine?”  What’s better than free, right?

The answer is really determined by the level of customer service, functionality, scalability, and reliability you require for your conference calling needs.

Functionality

Most of the free conference call  providers do not offer toll free dial-in numbers for call participants. Instead, you receive a local dial-in number which means the caller will be charged for the call. If the call participants happen to be local to those dial-in numbers then the call could still be free if the business has an unlimited free local calling plan or a flat rate long distance plan. However, most of the time the conference call Read the rest of this entry »

Should I use a T1 or a cable connection for our business Internet needs?

There has always been some confusion with regard to choosing between a cable Internet connection and a T1 Internet connection. Both Internet delivery methods have their place among businesses and it is my goal to provide some clarity as to which type of connection would be most suitable for your business.

When businesses evaluate Internet connectivity options it is not unusual for customers to mentally categorize Internet services in the following order (slowest to fastest) – “Dial-Up, DSL, cable, T1 line, T3 line”.  Clients also report to me that when they use their home cable connection and download a large file it is faster than their Internet connection at work; while their work place is actually using a T1 line. Is cable faster or is a T1 faster? Should speed and bandwidth be the primary considerations when choosing a business Internet connection?

Let’s begin with some basic speed comparisons: Read the rest of this entry »

Cutting travel costs with virtual training seminars and webcasting

Steve M. works for an IT company and he trains his customers on new technology and software products. He used to travel on average 90 days a year. His days and weeks were filled with rides to the airport, air travel delays, standing in line for car rentals, checking into hotels, and then finally meeting his training attendees to begin the training sessions. Then the next day it was off to another city going through the same routine. Once he returned to the office he could expect dozens of follow up emails and phone calls from his training attendees.

Well, I’d like to propose another option in lieu of onsite training sessions. Read the rest of this entry »

What is the best way to make a conference call?

If you are setting up a conference bridge for a relatively small number of participants (2-5 callers), then most phone systems will work quite well; your phone system and the number of incoming business lines should be able to handle the conference call just fine.

However, if you have a large number of call participants, 5-20 callers, or even much more, then a conference call service provider will prove to be a more suitable solution. Many smaller PBX systems have a limited capacity as to how many conference call participants may be added to a conference bridge; and furthermore there is little caller control within the PBX system. For example, in most cases the moderator must call each caller and connect them to the conference bridge, not to mention that the conference call would be using up your available business lines  – callers could potentially get busy signals if your incoming business lines are unavailable due to a high number conference call participants.

In many cases, a conference call provider is a better option because Read the rest of this entry »