By: Kevin L. Nichols
Each year, a “red nosed reindeer” is charged with the daunting task of maneuvering his brethren through “the cloud” to delivery toys to all of the “unnaughty” girls and boys. He’s fearless and courageous. Why are we so afraid of doing the same?
People forget that email used to reside on our computer’s harddrives only. Moreover, our precious pictures and family videos were housed on our home computers, laptops, or even CDs/DVDs (oh my, talk about a flash back). Now-a-days, it would be absurd to not use Gmail, Yahoo, or even Hotmail as our email client, or Flicker, Picasa, or even our local pharmacy for our photos, or YouTube or Vimeo to store our videos. Why is it that we nearly have a conniption when an eDiscovery provider tells us that our data is going to be stored in “the cloud?”
Fear is the answer. Many will say that it is because of lack of security, that you cannot control who is accessing your data, or what happens to your data if there is a catastrophe? Aren’t your family pictures of your wife just after giving birth to your naked newborn just as important? To bring it closer to home, you do not know who is reading your personal or work related Gmail account right now, however, this does not stop you from utilizing your account?
The time has come for us to accept that software as a service (SaaS) has become a way of life. We embrace it many other aspects of our lives, such as cloud based email, photo sharing storage, and video, but are hesitant and reluctant when it comes to eDiscovery services. If our good friend Rudolph can find his way through “the cloud” to make sure that Santa delivers our sons and daughters their presents this Christmas, can’t we maneuver through “the cloud” to host some data?
Kevin L. Nichols is the Principal of KLN Consulting Group located in San Francisco, which specializes in Litigation, Diversity and Business Development/Social Media consulting. For more information, please visit http://www.klnconsultinggroup.com.
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