ProLaw is used by many small and mid-sized firms in the USA owing to its huge advantages over its peers. ProLaw efficiently manages all the tasks related to accounting, billing, calendar, emails, cases, and document management, so it is considered a dependable software by attorneys across the USA. ProLaw can be hosted on the in-house servers, but there are many advantages of hosting the software on the cloud. ProLaw cloud hosting should be considered even by the small firms to avail themselves of the cloud advantages. In this article, we will be discussing what things you must consider if you are thinking of moving your ProLaw to the cloud.
Hosted vs web based
There are different ways to move your ProLaw to the cloud, which must be discussed before we get into the “how-to” part. There is often a misunderstanding that if the law firms want ProLaw hosting to cloud, they have to move to web-based alternatives leaving behind their favorite practice management software, which is absolutely not true. To enjoy the benefits of the cloud, law firm owners can very well move to the cloud enjoying mobility, ease of access, reliable security, and eliminating the servers. There are several ways to move ProLaw to the cloud, and we will discuss all of them in brief below.
Do it yourself
Yes, you can yourself move your ProLaw to the cloud. That will definitely require you to have some technical knowledge, but that is undoubtedly possible. The steps are mentioned below.
- You must rent rack space at a data center where you will be charged for rack space, power and bandwidth.
- All the server equipment must be purchased in bulk so that you have plenty of space for growth.
- You must hire an IT professional or a company to set up your server, set up your email, install the software, set backups, secure your network, and other things. After this, move your ProLaw to the new server.
- The local IT company you have hired will be responsible for maintaining servers by checking errors, taking backups, updating software, and keeping the system up and running always.
- Replacing the servers every 3 to 5 years is the key. All the above steps must be performed all over again after the mentioned time period.
ProLaw’s own cloud
ProLaw sometime back announced that they were launching their own cloud for ProLaw cloud hosting, and it was really a big thing that you do not have to depend on other cloud services for hosting ProLaw in their clouds as you would have a dedicated one from the company itself. It is surely something to consider, but after the announcement, many companies subscribed to ProLaw’s cloud and reported a major flaw.
Centurylink, the company that has partnered with ProLaw for cloud hosting, will only host your ProLaw software. The rest of the software like Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, other case and document management software, and accounting software that your firm uses will not be supported on this cloud. So, if you are thinking of only hosting your ProLaw on the cloud and can manage other software being kept in-house, this solution is undoubtedly worth considering, and the ProLaw cloud will be useful to you.
Private cloud
The best overall solution to move ProLaw to the cloud for most of the firms using ProLaw is the Private cloud. One of the major benefits of hosting any software in a private cloud is that you do not have to worry about the expenses of hiring a dedicated IT professional for managing your in-house servers. This is definitely costly and time-taking which affects the overall performance of your work. Private cloud is more efficient, less time-consuming, and has many benefits over traditional in-house server setup, which is why the private cloud is gaining more popularity. The ideal ProLaw private cloud also includes ProLaw support and updates, which is extremely useful.
