You’ve narrowed down your choices on the best eDiscovery product for your company or firm, but where should it be implemented? On the cloud, private cloud, or off-cloud?
First things first. Are all of these choices available for your select eDiscovery product? Many vendors offer cloud or private cloud but not off-cloud options. What are the pros and cons of each option? Are you missing out by not having the off-cloud option? Let’s review the benefits of each to make this decision process a bit more simple.
Cloud
A cloud offering gives you the opportunity to utilize the software from the front-end with the vendor providing the hosting and administration necessary. Most vendors will also offer data handling and project management services. Your team will have Case Management access to the product that allows for handling the majority of the project management on their own, including use of Predictive Coding, batch management, production management, and more. The more your team evolves their skills, the less likely they will require the vendor for day-to-day support. Like other vendors, OpenTextTM offers Case Manager certification for AxcelerateTM just for this purpose.
If you use this vendor regularly for your projects, then you can devise a project template that bakes in the structure you prefer. For example, the OpenText Axcelerate Cloud team can craft a template that includes preferred coding arrangements, review workflows, coding rules, production workflows, privilege term highlighting, security settings, and customized metadata fields, just to name a few options.
If you are looking for a primary eDiscovery solution that can provide hosting of the software and support for the back end, the cloud offering may be an appealing option. No hassling with exception handling, parser setup, file decryption, data corruption and the like. And you will always be using the most current version of the software.
Private Cloud
A private cloud offering gives you full access to the software, including administrative control, but in a privately hosted environment. Apart from the size, this cloud will be fairly cookie-cutter to allow for easy upgrade installation, patching, and maintenance. Some vendors offer customizations. For example, OpenText’s Cloud Solutions for Axcelerate allows installation of connectors to other applications, creation of workflows for automation, access to LaunchPadTM for security and data management, bring your own key, and single-sign-on options. This team will also support migration work across other platforms.
With Administrative access, your team can fully craft their own day-to-day process. This may include creation of project templates, custom security groups, exception handling processes and more. But the maintenance of the environment and upgrade of the software is all taken care of by the vendor.
If you are looking for a primary eDiscovery solution that allows full access to the use of the software but provides the hosting, maintenance and upkeep of the software and its environment, this might be the best solution. This will allow for freedom and creativity to use the product but eliminate the need to build and maintain an infrastructure for it.
Off-Cloud/Public Cloud
An off-cloud offering allows you to purchase licenses for the software and install it wherever you want. This includes installation on your own public cloud solution. This gives full control of the software and its environment to you and your teams. Change management, customizations, level of security and access control, orchestration, etc. is managed by your team or contracted with the vendor to manage within your environment.
This offering may be appealing for companies that need to a) consolidate their software into their own space in a public cloud; b) apply very specific and customized security; c) control the frequency of upgrades; d) comply with internal policies regarding management of data; e) build complex customizations for automation, or f) to keep the software within the same environment with related applications (e.g., Legal Hold, Collections) or applications it needs to access via connectors for security purposes.
Your vendor will offer services that include software implementation, training, upgrade, and patch installation, and connector installation. OpenText’s Axcelerate consultants offers end-to-end support that covers additional services, such as SOP creation, topical workshops, operational services, automation creation, orchestration, project management, ad hoc consults, collection services, managed review, and much more.
Know your alternatives
To sum up, a cloud offering is geared towards use cases that require only front-end software access without the need to staff back end, administrative, or infrastructure support. Private cloud is ideal for those wanting full software access without the need to maintain the infrastructure or regularly update the software. Off-cloud is a great alternative for those who require full control of the software and its environment, whether it is kept on their own servers or within a public cloud environment like GCP, AWS, or Azure.
Whether you select a cloud, private cloud, or off-cloud solution, your OpenText team is available to support your needs within Axcelerate. If you are setup in a private cloud or off-cloud environment and would like project management support, these services can easily be leveraged by the OpenText Cloud team. Likewise, if you are in a private cloud and have a need for customizations offered to off-cloud customers, this can also be scoped for your needs. Hybrid and portable solutions are also available.
To further augment whatever flavor of implementation you are using, OpenText LegalTech also offers the following services:
- Digital forensic collection and investigative services
- Managed document review
- Recon investigative services for unstructured data interrogation
- Rapid Analytic Investigative Review (“RAIR”) services
