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Clouds on the horizon

06 August 2009 / Greg Wildisen
Issue: 7381 / Categories: Features , Profession , Technology
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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 a

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NEWS
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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