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06 August 2009 / Greg Wildisen
Issue: 7381 / Categories: Features , Profession , Technology
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Clouds on the horizon

Greg Wildisen explains why law firms should embrace cloud technology

One of the phenomena of the technology market in recent years has been the growth of “cloud” computing into a multi-billion pound industry in little more than three years.

Cloud computing has a number of manifestations, but for the purposes of simplification, it is the use, via the internet, of software, processing power or storage provided remotely by another company.

In the consumer field, a clear example is Google Docs, a word processor which people can use to create and store documents online without needing to have the word processor software installed onto their own computers.
For many companies, there is a significant benefit to using this approach.

The main one is that by “renting” software via the cloud, companies have access to up-to-the-minute applications without the capital expenditure or maintenance costs. The cloud also delivers access to additional processing power without the need to buy more hardware, providing the capacity to cope with temporary spikes in demand without having to make

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys senior leadership appointments

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

NEWS
More than 100 teams from the legal and financial services sectors competed in five sports at the 51st Law Society RFC Festival of Sport earlier this month
Part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, rather than the sole cause, the Supreme Court has held in Augustine v Data Cars
Britain’s new acknowledgement that Israel’s occupation is unlawful, and accompanying settlement-goods ban and sanctions, is significant but overdue, argue Danny Friedman KC and Victor Kattan in NLJ this week
New planning fee rises, wider trade union access rights and a service-by-email trap feature in Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way
Existing defamation law can respond to AI ‘hallucinations’, but allocating responsibility will prove harder where outputs reach users without human intervention
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