In today’s economy, more and more business are attracted to the cloud. It often reduces reliance on IT resources while offering increased scalability, 24/7 availability of information, and lower costs. Let’s use the legal industry as an example. Although information technology is not part of the core business, document management and operations would greatly benefit from being transferred online. Sharing documents through email is unsecure and difficult with large file sizes. Housing documents in the cloud would allow lawyers and paralegals to access the information at anytime, from anywhere. All documents for a case can be stored and organized in one place, making it easy for authorized associates to find, download, and add files. In addition to streamlining current business processes, law offices can create various applications to generate new clients or manage the inquiries of current ones. For added simplicity, firms can use ready-made lead generation and CRM applications (available by Caspio at http://www.caspio.com/apps).

It is important to keep in mind that not all clouds are created equal. Reliability is a must for business applications. Security should also be carefully considered, especially when confidential information is being stored or shared internally. Lastly, it is important to make sure that documents can be painlessly retrieved from the cloud if necessary. Caspio offers SSL and Record Level Security, authorized user accounts, authentication, and password protection for all housed information. Service Level Agreements and in-house installation are also available.