If law firms had external directors, they would tell lawyers to stick to core competencies, provide legal services and outsource all non-legal service offerings and tasks. Working on non-lawyer tasks takes time away from revenue-generating work. Everyone knows that. But did you know lawyers have been outsourcing information technology tasks since IT became part of English language?

Law firms have hired outside consultants and vendors to install and maintain on-premise networks, perform help desk functions and provide managed print services since the 1980s. Firms are now looking to Web-based application and storage service providers to secure and provide data everywhere. But are they ready to lease their entire desktop infrastructure to a cloud provider?

Desktop as a service (DaaS) is a turnkey software platform that offloads traditional IT tasks and responsibilities setting up a desktop operating system with applications and access to storage. DaaS combines the features of Web-based applications and a single, integrated online data store. Think practice management software meets Microsoft Corp.'s Office and Net Documents online storage—all on your desktop.