practicehacker

It’s about damned time! Gartner recently published this report to make the case that a number of “mega” factors are converging and will make it possible for ordinary people to have their own “cloud” of information in a few years. The factors include:

Consumerization – the simplification and streamlining of services that once took place on site at great cost via professionals and hardware.  The last decade has seen a radical shift away from resource-heavy enterprises towards more agile ones. Thanks to factors like those listed below, that trend will become a Tsunami:

•  Older users of technology are savvier than ever, while younger ones are practically experts
• A vastly different set of expectations is growing in both groups – turn on, tune in, do more
• The internet and social media have empowered users to make fast, often instant, decisions
  
• The rise of powerful, affordable, always-on mobile devices has increased the velocity of data
• Due to the ubiquity of easy to understand technology, users are now the foremost innovators
• Thanks to Moore’s Law and falling prices virtually all users have access to similar technology

Virtualization – IT departments in companies that still need Big Iron can now get more use out of fewer machines by using both actual and “virtual” machines – essentially programs running on the same server that act as if they represent a separate server. As a result, what used to demand 5 servers can now be accomplished by a single machine that vitualizes the other 4.

Appification – really, it’s a word: and it means that the way applications are designed, delivered, and consumed has a dramatic impact on all the size of the market, what users expect and will tolerate, what they will pay, and how much an innovation is worth (i.e. more, less, or the same as before).

The Self-Service Cloud – the “self-service cloud” is really just crowd-sourcing writ large (anybody remember crowd-sourcing, the darling of 2004? Anybody? It means that you can get as much or as little help as you need with your systems, on demand, and often for a lot less than in the past, no contract needed.

Mobility is King – You still can’t lawyer on a smart-phone no matter what TechnoLawyer or Law Technology News says. However, mobile devices combined with remote resources access through (you guessed it) the Cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and promoters of this equation hope that the obvious tradeoffs will be outweighed by the convenience factor.

From this Wired Article about the ascendency of the “Personal Cloud”

As most readers know, I write a column for NYC-based TechnoLawyer called SmallLaw (formerly known as, no joke, “Crazy Mazy”). Anyhow, as TechnoLawyer’s intrepid Chicago reporter I’ve written about the ABA TechShow since 2008; and before that for this blog.

Here are the 12 videos we shot at this year’s TechShow. Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more legal tech news and check out my TechnoLawyer pieces as well.

• ABA TechShow 2011 on YouTube
• TechnoLawyer Covers TechShow 2011
• TechnoLawyer Covers IgniteLaw 2011

Everyone knows they should patch their PC via Windows Update, right? Well if not everyone, then at least everyone who reads this blog. But what most don’t realize is that Windows Update includes only Microsoft updates, which leaves the rest of their system vulnerable. And of course Microsoft has been the Internet’s virtual whipping boy for years, often deservedly. But much of that bad press actually has more to do with the company’s size than the quality of its products, which are better engineered and more secure than most anything else. But I digress.

The point is that whether you run IE, Firefox, or Chrome, cyber-criminals know that PC security has improved so they’ve shifted strategies to exploit your weakest point: holes in your browser. So what about it? Is your browser security up to date?

“Sure my browser is secure. I use [fill in your browser's name here].” Well, just because you run IE9, Chrome 11, or Firefox 4, it turns out that doesn’t mean that purveyors of malware can’t access y our system via the armada of add-ins and plug-ins on your system. You know you’ve got ‘em.  Are they current?  Fortunately there’s a free tool to help you out called Browsercheck by Qualys.  Browsercheck is available at browsercheck.qualys.com.  You just need to install their plug-in to scan your browser.  Those of you unfamiliar with Qualys, they are a security company well known to larger businesses.  They have enterprise class tools to scan networks of computers for known security vulnerabilities.  Fortunately for us, they have provided this free tool to assist in keeping your browser patched and secure – give it a try.

Web-based eDiscovery vendor CaseCentral announced that a leading market research firm has named it as a Top Player in its “eDiscovery Solutions – Market Quadrant 2010” market brief.

“CaseCentral’s top position in the Market Quadrant reinforces what our clients already know – CaseCentral provides a comprehensive set of repeatable, defensible and measurable eDiscovery capabilities that uniquely drive down risk and cost,” said Steve d’Alencon, Chief Marketing Officer, CaseCentral. “Our placement in the Top Players quadrant further recognizes our efforts and commitment to provide clients with a secure, private cloud-based application where clients control the eDiscovery process, data and access, without incurring the costs, risks and time delays inherent in on-premise software deployment and use.” Radicati Market QuadrantsSM rank vendors based on a four quadrant system, which includes “Mature Players,” “Specialists,” “Trail Blazers,” and “Top Players” quadrants.

Leading players in each market segment are ranked based on the features and functionality of their solution and their market share in that segment. Radicati Market QuadrantsSM provides a comparative viewpoint of the market, and an analysis of each vendor included in the study, including both strengths and weaknesses. CaseCentral’s secure, cloud-based eDiscovery platform provides the centralized environment needed to give corporations and law firms control over their eDiscovery projects while enabling seamless collaboration with users outside the firewall. Additionally, cloud-based applications minimize the requests for internal IT departments to purchase expensive infrastructure and modify corporate network and security standards for third party access, which can increase security risks.