As hurricane season approaches in Florida, entrepreneurs throughout the state are taking an array of precautions to ensure that their businesses are fully equipped to weather any storms that come their way. Regardless of whether your firm is located in the Sunshine State (a title that can seem ill-fitting at this time of the year) or in another area that is prone to certain kinds of inclement weather, it is crucial to take precautions to ensure that your data is secure at any given time. For this reason, we join the hordes of specialists who strongly recommend harnessing the various benefits of cloud-based legal software for your firm.

Learning the hard way

The benefits of cloud-based practice management software are considerable year-round, the extent to which cloud-based legal software can enhance any law practice is exacerbated by emergency circumstances such as inclement weather. The helpfulness of the cloud is highlighted, paradoxically, by its absence: server-based business often learn all too late the limitations of their data storage, particularly when it comes to withstanding storms and similar weather occurrences. In fact, 2012’s Hurricane Sandy devastated various aspects of New York businesses, not the least of which was the integrity and security of their servers. In fact, Datagram, a prominent NYC data center, was hit hard by the storm, and its crashing servers took major platforms like the Huffington Post, and Gawker offline for considerable periods of time.

For law firms and other businesses that rely primarily or exclusively on servers to store their data, severe storms could be devastating for longer than just a few hours. Unlike software that lives on the cloud, servers store your data in their specific physical locations. This means that, in the case of flooding or similar destruction in a hurricane, your clients’ sensitive and valuable information could quite literally be gone with the wind.

Take your firm to Cloud 9

Among the other invaluable benefits of harnessing cloud-based legal software prior to and during a storm is the ability to quickly input and back up new and existing data into your firm’s archives. Cloud-based legal software saves new information entries almost immediately, meaning that you don’t have to undergo the long or complex synchronization process required by on-site servers in order to back up your data. Furthermore, and perhaps most significantly for your firm’s productivity, cloud-based servers effectively eliminate the need for you and your staff to rely on your physical office in order to get work done. Because the cloud can be accessed from anywhere at any time, you’ll be able to access all of your firm’s data despite any potential need to be away from the office in the wake of the storm. Because any changes to this data are reflected in your cloud-based legal software immediately, your colleagues will remain in the loop every step of the way. This means that, although your physical office may incur some damage depending on the severity of the natural disaster, your firm’s productivity and profitability need not follow suit.

Cloud-based legal software and your firm

The benefits of cloud-based practice management software abound year-round, but inclement weather is the ultimate occurrence to put them to the test. By switching to the cloud, legal entrepreneurs solidify the security of their data and uphold their firm’s productivity despite any eminent natural tribulation.