You know that mysterious closet in your office? The one that sits untouched with blinking lights? It’s the closet that holds the entire computer network infrastructure for your law firm, and it’s time someone pays attention to that space filled with incredibly vulnerable technology.

On-premise network environments, where the business owns and houses all of the necessary networking equipment on-site, are the most common firm network infrastructure setups. But there’s a problem with this setup, and it occurs all too often: out of sight, out of mind.

Your team is busy handling the day-to-day challenges of running a successful practice; there’s no time to think about IT, especially not when your equipment is tucked away in a server room or closet. But neglecting your firm’s on-prem network infrastructure is a major security risk.

Here are six must-haves to protect your law firm’s on-prem network infrastructure:

Your firm’s employees are good people. You hired them, you vetted them, and you know them well. But good people sometimes make inadvertent mistakes. Though they rarely have malicious intent, employees are some of the most vulnerable intangible assets when it comes to cyber security.

Most often, employees can’t be blamed for their IT mistakes. Just as you educate employees about the way you run your firm, you must also educate them about cyber security. Despite a reliance on technology in business and in our daily lives, few people have ever truly been taught how to recognize IT security threats—and that can lead to costly mistakes.

In law firms, everyone from partners to administrative assistants should be trained in IT security best practices in order to prevent cyber-attacks, data loss, and other costly networking mistakes. 

The legal profession was one of the early adopters of office automation technology; however, many law firms now find themselves managing an IT infrastructure that dwarves the total compute power NASA had to send a man to the moon. With an average life span of five years, this infrastructure needs constant care and feeding. This is why many law firms are turning to the cloud for relief. By off-loading the burden of purchasing, implementing, maintaining, and replacing these systems every five years or so, law firms can now get back to doing what they got into the business for in the first place—practicing law. So how do lawyers save time and money with the cloud?