DaaS: An Ideal Legal Tech Solution

From law firms to legal service providers, the legal industry faces unusual challenges:

• Unpredictable workloads that require high levels of flexibility
• Heightened information security and compliance demands
• The need to handle large files, compounded when using remote contractors or services

The legal tech field has emerged to help solve these challenges and the power of the cloud has become a cornerstone of today’s most popular and successful solutions. The cloud offers flexibility, usability and reach that wasn’t possible – or was considerably slower – in the analogue days.

Virtual desktops work as a hub within legal tech, easily connecting a variety of could solutions while creating the scalable, secure environment that legal organizations need. Desktop as a service (DaaS) in particular is primed to make a splash in the legal industry as an easy-to-implement, easy-to-manage solution that lets legal organizations of all sizes reap the benefits of virtual desktops.

Extend Desktop Accessibility

The legal industry has a wide footprint, from people who spend all 40+ hours of their work week in the office, to lawyers on the go, to contractors and outsourcers working from home around the country (or world). This makes getting everyone access to the files and applications they need a challenge.

Virtual desktops eliminate this issue by delivering customized, app-loaded desktops from the cloud to any device, anywhere. All you need is an internet connect and employees can access their company-issued desktop from any device, including BYOD models.

Stronger Security than Traditional Desktops

When dealing with sensitive legal documents, security is always top of mind. This is a cause of concern for many legal organizations whenever contractors or BYOD models are involved. DaaS eases those concerns by making security more stringent and easy to manage than with traditional desktops.

With virtual desktops, employees work within an isolated desktop environment that runs like an application. In this manner, documents, data and information is never stored on the endpoint device – meaning if a device is lost or stolen, your documents and data are safe.

It’s also easier to implement and update security and user controls with virtual desktops. Each desktop is provisioned using a Golden Image, which is set up according to use case needs. This allows you to set specific permission and controls – such as prohibiting screen captures and printing – based on the user persona that will be using that desktop. Partners can have fairly unrestricted desktops while contractors can be very limited in the actions they can take. If controls need to be updated, the change is made to the golden image and pushed to all desktops using that image upon the next login session. IT teams no long have to lose time and security while individually updating each device.

Flexibility to Accommodate Fluctuating Workloads

While retailers can largely predict their busy seasons, in legal it can be hard to tell when a big case or contract will come in next. This means legal organizations need to find a way to scale quickly when needed while minimizing overall and long-standing costs.

Since virtual desktops can run on any machine, new desktops can be provisioned in short order then spun back down when the need ends. For legal organizations that take advantage of DaaS, this means no longer paying for hardware that sits unused, or worse, providing contractors with company-owned desktops they might be using to work for a competitor. Now, you can rely on BYOD while feeling confident the desktop is secure and rescind virtual desktop access when the project is done. Since DaaS is a service, you only pay for the desktops you’re using.

Meet Client Compliance Demands

With the increasing cost and frequency of data breaches, companies are demanding higher compliance standards from the service providers they work with. Legal organizations are feeling this push as many prospective clients are now asking how their information will be handled and if the legal organization works with compliant solutions to protect data.

While not all DaaS solutions are compliant (in fact, many aren’t) there are some providers that have had their virtual desktops independently audited and verified as meeting common compliance standards (like PCI for payment card data and HIPAA for personal health information). Implementing a virtual desktop program that is verified as compliant can help legal organizations meet the demands of their clients and win new business. It can even become a competitive advantage since everyone from partners to contractors are working within a compliant desktop environment, increasing data security.

Easy Software & Solution Compatibility

Legal organizations work with a wide range of applications, from modern cloud-based apps like Office 365 to legacy applications necessary to their business. This diverse range can be difficult to support on traditional desktops as an update to an app or operating system can quickly change hardware and OS requirements and throw your entire ecosystem off.

DaaS isolates the virtual desktop from the endpoint device, meaning the hardware won’t stop an app from running. Coupled with virtual application streaming, you can get just about any application needed, including apps that typically cannot run on the same device or OS.

Minimal In-House Support

Legal organizations are not known for their large internal IT teams. Unlike in-house virtual desktop implementations, DaaS outsources the heavy lifting to a company that has the time and expertise to ensure your virtual desktops are always running at top performance.

Virtual desktops drastically reduce the amount of time IT needs to spend on hardware maintenance, desktop troubleshooting and constant upgrades, allowing them to focus on more important tasks.

The Bottom Line

Easier management + secure access to the documents and applications needed + faster productivity from quick ramp ups and easy accessibility = more billable hours!

Virtual desktops allow legal organizations to overcome many of the unique challenges the industry faces. The industry has already begun adopting cloud solutions and virtualization, and desktop as a service is a natural connection point for this transition. Legal organizations that really want to increase productivity, reduce overhead and more easily conquer the challenges holding their competitors back will embrace DaaS as the glue that makes these other solutions faster, more productive, more secure and more successful.

Check out our key takeaways from LegalTech 2017.