For legal professionals, cloud services represent an inexpensive, agile way to access data and work on the go. But for legal technology providers, moving their offerings to the cloud is no easy task, as while there are many cloud providers to partner with, picking the right one can involve its fair share of vetting.

For LexisNexis, this meant launching an Authorized Hosting Program to allow select cloud providers to host it's Time Matters case and document management software and its PCLaw billing and accounting software. Scott Wallingford, vice president and general manager of Law Firm Software Solutions at LexisNexis, noted that to become a program partner, cloud service providers have to go through a rigorous vetting process and meet a long list of criteria, in order to ensure they meet the security, compliance and operational demands of the company's law firm clients.

“They need to have data centers located in the continental U.S. And when you think about support staff, we are looking for minimal levels of full-time technical support staff so that when a customer has a challenge, it's handled quite quickly,” he said.

LexisNexis will then consider whether such providers have a help desk process and metrics to track their servers' performance, as well as mandate a “high level of security that is continuously invested in” and an infrastructure that can handle their client's needs. If the cloud provider meets LexisNexis' standards, they can then become an authorized provider of Time Matters and PCLaw.

“When we think about bringing on a cloud provider, we are looking at people that have lots and lots of well-established market-grade capabilities. This is not two guys in a garage with a couple of servers,” Wallingford said.

Uptime Practice, a private cloud hosting provider serving the law firm market, was announced as LexisNexis' first fully vetted and approved partner of the program. But it will be far from the only cloud provider the company uses.

“We will add more partners to this over time, but they will be meeting the same extensive thresholds that we expected and worked through with Uptime,” Wallingford said.

Asked why LexisNexis looked to host its Time Matters and PCLaw solutions on the cloud, Wallingford explained the move was driven by small and medium law firms' struggles “to keep up with the rapidly evolving IT standards, whether it's picking servers, managing networks, plugging in additional programs, updating software, etc.”

“Sometimes, at law firms, the lawyer is also the IT specialist, and they would much rather spend time with their clients practicing law than they would having to struggle with server settings,” he said.

In addition to being able to outsource IT management, Wallingford also noted that cloud deployments will give law firms better data recovery protection, a key factor this year given the spate of natural disasters experienced in the U.S. “When you think about our recent spate of hurricanes, they disrupted a lot of law firms and their access to data,” he said.

For legal professionals, cloud services represent an inexpensive, agile way to access data and work on the go. But for legal technology providers, moving their offerings to the cloud is no easy task, as while there are many cloud providers to partner with, picking the right one can involve its fair share of vetting.

For LexisNexis, this meant launching an Authorized Hosting Program to allow select cloud providers to host it's Time Matters case and document management software and its PCLaw billing and accounting software. Scott Wallingford, vice president and general manager of Law Firm Software Solutions at LexisNexis, noted that to become a program partner, cloud service providers have to go through a rigorous vetting process and meet a long list of criteria, in order to ensure they meet the security, compliance and operational demands of the company's law firm clients.

“They need to have data centers located in the continental U.S. And when you think about support staff, we are looking for minimal levels of full-time technical support staff so that when a customer has a challenge, it's handled quite quickly,” he said.

LexisNexis will then consider whether such providers have a help desk process and metrics to track their servers' performance, as well as mandate a “high level of security that is continuously invested in” and an infrastructure that can handle their client's needs. If the cloud provider meets LexisNexis' standards, they can then become an authorized provider of Time Matters and PCLaw.

“When we think about bringing on a cloud provider, we are looking at people that have lots and lots of well-established market-grade capabilities. This is not two guys in a garage with a couple of servers,” Wallingford said.

Uptime Practice, a private cloud hosting provider serving the law firm market, was announced as LexisNexis' first fully vetted and approved partner of the program. But it will be far from the only cloud provider the company uses.

“We will add more partners to this over time, but they will be meeting the same extensive thresholds that we expected and worked through with Uptime,” Wallingford said.

Asked why LexisNexis looked to host its Time Matters and PCLaw solutions on the cloud, Wallingford explained the move was driven by small and medium law firms' struggles “to keep up with the rapidly evolving IT standards, whether it's picking servers, managing networks, plugging in additional programs, updating software, etc.”

“Sometimes, at law firms, the lawyer is also the IT specialist, and they would much rather spend time with their clients practicing law than they would having to struggle with server settings,” he said.

In addition to being able to outsource IT management, Wallingford also noted that cloud deployments will give law firms better data recovery protection, a key factor this year given the spate of natural disasters experienced in the U.S. “When you think about our recent spate of hurricanes, they disrupted a lot of law firms and their access to data,” he said.