Is Lawyer Involvement in Cloud Computing Going to Start a Snowball Effect?
Posted by Bo Cramer on Wed, Aug 18, 2010 @ 01:24 PM
Up until now a lot of the buzz around the cloud has focused on security and trusting someone else with your data, but that's all it's been: buzz. Buzz, debate, speculation, naysaying, and well... you get the point. However, a big change is starting to gain momentum: more and more lawyers and legal departments are taking interest in the cloud. I know what you're thinking, "Woohoo. Why is this a big deal?" This is a big deal because, once lawyers get involved with any new technology, the ball starts rolling.
This concept was brought to my attention by John Soat's recent post, Cloud Computing: It's Time to Send in the Lawyers. I've heard my fair share of "security this", and "privacy that" by just about everyone who hasn't passed the bar. But John's post illustrated to me that legal departments are starting to have the real talks about cloud computing. John points to one example in which the legal team of a Midwestern company all of a sudden takes an interest in the cloud once the legal team approved of a cloud solution. And really, since legal is usually the source of delay and endless red tape, once they approve of new company policy, who else will object? Lawyers are historically obstinate towards technological change since they prefer the old ways they are used to. Not to mention their job requires a lot of dissenting with practices that have the slightest possibility of risk. If privacy, security, performance and continuity are all handled and OK'ed by the lawyers, all that's left for for your company to do is implement a solution and reap the benefits.
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