Drive Safe: Cloud Data Storage Is Not Backup

As much as I advocate for the use of cloud software by law firms, sometimes there can develop an over reliance on such tools by lawyers. Take, for example, cloud document storage.  If you’re a law firm, and you’ve recently moved to a paperless office, adding your document files to a cloud drive system (like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox) may seem like the solution to all of your problems.  It’s certainly a huge step in the right direction; but, remember that a cloud drive does not a data backup make.

Storing your files online does not create a data backup.  If you think of a data backup as a redundancy = another place where your information is stored, solely using a cloud drive for document storage does not answer for that.  You still need to back up your cloud drive data somewhere else.  And, this isn’t about Google or Microsoft or Amazon’s server architecture going down in flames — if that happens, we’ve all got real problems — it’s more about creating an alternate pathway to your data.  What if you need a particular file when your document servers are offline for maintenance?  What if there’s an extended power outage, and you can’t get to your files on the web?

Ideally, you would add multiple backups for your data: a cloud backup pointed at your cloud storage system (look at Carbonite, BackBlaze, CrashPlan), as well as a harddrive you can access offline, and that you update regularly (ioSafe has great haddrives).

These days, backup is not just about getting back what you’ve lost, it’s also about having various channels to access your client data, as the situation dictates.

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Need help backing that cache up?  Call us!

The Wyoming State Bar offers free law practice management consulting services through Red Cave Law Firm Consulting.

To request a consult, visit the Wyoming State Bar’s law practice management page, and start running your law firm like a business.

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