TechnoLawyer: Desktop PCs/Servers

Originally published on February 17, 2012 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Rumor has it that Apple has 1,000 engineers working on chip design, and a similarly large number working on Siri. On top of these impressive numbers, Apple announced it would ship new versions of both iOS and OS X every year beginning with Mountain Lion this summer, and that it would open iCloud to third-party developers. In the midst of all this news, TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante started hearing about embedded iPad systems, and engaged in a discussion about next-generation payment systems. So his mind began to wander about how large Apple could grow, and its impact on small law firms. The result is today's issue of SmallLaw about two lawyers named Jack and Diane. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week (email newsletter only) for a contrarian take on Apple's announcements.

A Litty Ditty About Lawyers Jack and Diane: Law Practice in an Apple-Dominated Future

Jack wakes up to his iPhone 6 playing Bowie's Changes. He glances at the display. February 16, 2015. Better than that Mellencamp song from yesterday that reminded him of work. Bowie's stuttering chorus makes him think for a moment. "Was it really just three years ago that Apple announced OS X Mountain Lion? Since Apple audaciously announced it would ship major new versions of OS X and iOS every year? Since Apple's stock price reached $500 (now $1,000) and we all realized the iPad was taking over the world?"

Jack grabs his iPhone, opens the Lavazza app, and chooses an arabica ristretto shot. By the time he reaches the kitchen, his perfectly brewed cup of espresso awaits him. No sugar needed. After knocking it back, he holds down his iPhone's home button to summon Siri. "What happened since last night?"

Speaking through his Apple TV rather than through his iPhone, Siri tells Jack he has one voicemail message from his wife who is traveling and 10 email messages, including a new issue of SmallLaw (some things never change). "Shall I play your voicemail message and read your email messages?" "Just the voicemail," says Jack. "Queue up the email to play in the car. Load some Bowie songs too — just songs that charted and nothing after his Let's Dance album."

En route to his law firm, Jack stops at Target to pick up some items his wife told him to buy. At the self-checkout, the now ubiquitous embedded iPad point of sale system asks him whether he wants to pay by credit card, debit card, or Apple's iPay. Jack taps iPay and opens his iPay app on his iPhone. He enters his password, sees the virtual receipt appear in iPay, grabs the shopping bag, and heads to work.

Jack arrives at the office park. He swipes his ID card to open the turnstile in the lobby. "I wish they'd get an iOS-compatible security system like everyone else," he grumbles. Now outside his office door, he opens his ADT app on his iPhone and enters his password. The door unlocks. "First one here as usual."

Lying down on his office's chaise lounge, Jack grabs his iPad 4. After a few taps, the same brief he was reviewing nine hours ago on his iPad 3 at home appears. He flips to the next page and sees a new paragraph that makes him sigh. He switches off the iPad, gets up, and sits at his desk. He opens Microsoft Word on his Mac and opens the same document. It's on the same page. "Gotta love iCloud." He begins editing the problematic paragraph.

Still unhappy, Jack undoes his changes, summons the Messages app first introduced three years ago on that fateful February day, and sends a text message to his client's general counsel, Diane, who responds a few seconds later and transforms the text chat into a Facetime conference. "You're up early," she says. "Well, your brief is due tomorrow. Can you open it now?"

Thanks to his firm's iCloud-aware document management system, Diane opens the same document on her iPad. Having put down her iPhone, Jack sees the ceiling of her living room for a split second until her iPad automatically takes over and he sees her face again.

"You have a way with words, but this judge is old school," he says. "I think we should tone down this paragraph you added last night." Diane makes a few changes that Jack sees on his own screen in realtime. He likes Diane's changes, and cracks a smile thinking again about that Bowie song. "Just three years since law practice changed."

Neil J. Squillante is the publisher of TechnoLawyer.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, this newsletter provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 30, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

With Hurricane Irene just recently having rumbled her way through my adopted home state of North Carolina — including making a mess of our beautiful Outer Banks and eastern regions — disaster preparedness (or business continuity to use a popular euphemism) is on my mind. Watching Irene's progression up the east coast and the trouble she wrought en route, I imagine it must be on some of your minds too.

When we talk about technology, we often engage in a facile and glib debate over operating systems, Angry Birds, and coolness. God knows, I'm a card-carrying member of that club — new and cool is my red meat as regular readers of my SmallLaw columns well know.

But in deference to all the law firms who are digging out from Irene, I want to use this issue of SmallLaw to address how to get your firm as ready as possible for the next Irene Mother Nature throws your way. Below you'll find my top five tips.

1. Go Paperless

The discussion over going paperless in a small law firm often centers on efficiency, collaboration, ethics and mobility, all of which are important facets of the decision.

However, it's not until you wake up one day, however, and your entire office suite is under six feet of water and your paper files have turned to pulp that paperless' importance as a disaster preparedness measure become clear.

Sure, you may only need offsite digital copies of everything once in a career — but the day you need it, you really need it. Offsite backup is a good start, but if only 25% of your key data is digital, you are still sunk when the high waters arrive.

2. Sever Your Servers With Hosted Communications

Floods and natural disasters are good reasons to consider embracing hosted communications — meaning both your email and your phone system. If your communication hubs run out of server boxes in your office and they're under water, they're useless. Sure, some backup strategies can help mitigate this porblem, but if I were running a small firm today, I'd get rid of all my servers — applications, email, documents, telephone — the whole shebang. With Hosted Exchange, Google Apps, and VoIP phone systems, it has never been easier.

3. Centralized Document and Practice Management

According to the ABA's 2011 Legal Technology Survey, the adoption rate of document and practice management software in small law offices remains dismal.

Anecdotally, in my work, I find that law firms regard this software as somewhere between an unnecessary expense and a "nice to have." Much like the decision to go paperless and host your communications, if you imagine having to run your firm the day after a disaster (with all of your employees working remotely from their homes), the decision to centralize document and practice management is not a luxury, but a necessity.

Frequency of need is not the same as degree. You only need an emergency room once in a while, too, but if you didn't have one nearby the day you needed it, you'd be in big trouble.

4. Laptops Over Desktops Plus Smartphones and iPads

I frequently talk with lawyers who debate whether to buy their staff laptop or desktop computers, citing that desktops are cheaper and more powerful. A disaster should convince you that mobility trumps the marginal cost savings and power of desktops.

Laptops have another advantage. When the power goes out, they continue running for a few hours. But even laptops have their limits. Smartphones (and 3G iPads) tend to have a much longer battery life, and can access the Internet via your carrier. Some smartphones can even serve as a mobile hotspot. Law firms have issued smartphones to their lawyers for many years. Some have begun to issue iPads as well.

5. Home Office Essentials

For your lawyers and staff to be productive working from home while your office is underwater, in addition to a laptop they will need an internet connection robust enough to run their VoIP phones, a headset with a microphone, a printer, and a scanner.

Whether you provide this equipment for your staff or require that they provide it for themselves is a matter of your compensation and training systems. Either way, if you want your staff to work rather than just watch Sports Center until your office reopens, they will need the tools to perform their work.

Conclusion

I hope you and your firm survived Hurricane Irene with nary a puddle. But I also hope this article prompts you to prepare for the unthinkable.

Written by Erik Mazzone of Law Practice Matters.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on July 19, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Many large firms use System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM), often in concert with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), to push software updates and patches out to their server and desktop computing environment. Many even use it to deploy new operating systems.

While SCCM, if properly configured with all the appropriate levers pulled and buttons pushed, is a powerful tool for managing and manipulating the desktop and server environment, it falls short as a proactive monitoring tool of these same environments.

Enter System Center Operations Manager (SCOM).

How Does SCOM Work?

Once the server, service accounts, and database are configured (much like SCCM), SCOM has a Discovery wizard that can use the Active Directory or IP address subnets/ranges to identify new "target" computers or devices. Devices and appliances are a bit different (see below), but for computers running a Windows OS, the SCOM server can then push out the SCOM agent to these discovered computers automatically.

And then the magic happens. Once the agent is installed, it begins to monitor a myriad of data points accessible on its host — from event logs, to application states, to CPU, memory, and disk usage. And really, that is just the beginning of what SCOM can monitor and report back to you.

Microsoft's Management Packs: From Basic to Best Practice

If the SCOM agent is up and running on a given target computer, and it is able to call home, then a basic heartbeat is established. But if the target computer is a Microsoft Windows-based computer, and the appropriate "Management Pack" (downloadable for free from Microsoft) is installed on the SCOM server, then the alerts can report a whole lot more than just an up or down OS state.

The Windows 7 client agent, for example, monitors everything from boot performance to memory exhaustion analysis to shell performance to hardware and software component failures.

On the server side, when using the SQL Management Pack for example, the monitor will not only tell you that a backup failed, or let you know about a long-running SQL Agent job, but it will also let you know if your databases aren't configured according to Microsoft's Best Practices (e.g., "The auto close flag for database Northwind is not set according to best practice.")

The Exchange Management pack reports delays in SMTP queuing, log file growth, mailbox availability, etc. You get the picture.

What About Non-Microsoft Servers, Appliances, and Network Devices?

If your non-Microsoft servers, appliances, and network devices can be configured with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), you can create your own device Management packs (if you are familiar with the data being served up by a given device), or download or purchase the non-Microsoft Management Packs pre-configured to give you access to all of the minutiae detail that the SNMP agent on a given device provides.

As with Microsoft SCOM agents, SNMP-managed devices operate via a software agent installed on each device, the sole purpose of which is to report on device-specific health data. And if it's a name-brand, enterprise class product (e.g., Cisco routers, EMC SANs), you can be sure that every major manufacturer provides SNMP ready to go on all of their shipped products.

When freebie Management Packs are not available (e.g., VMWare), you can buy them from companies that know how to "speak" your server/appliance/device's SNMP language. Some examples:

Veeam Software's nworks Management Pack for VMware

Jalasoft's Smart Management Pack for VMware VirtualCenter

Bridge Ways' System Center Ops Manager

Or you can browse for your product in the SCOM Management Pack Marketplace.

Conclusion

Whether you work for a massive, multi-site international law firm, or a midsize law firm with one, two, or three locations, SCOM is an invaluable tool for staying on top of the health of your firm's computing environment. With SCOM, you can manage your environment as proactively as possible. Don't wait for your users to tell you that you have a problem. Get SCOM up and running and you'll know before they do!

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Harry Steinmetz, My Law Firm's Switch To Macs

Bryan Sims, How I Use Paper And What I Keep On Paper In My Paperless Law Office

Caren Schwartz, Review: CrashPlan, Gillware For Cloud Backup; Replacing Quicken

Ronald Cappuccio, Review: PHONEslips 12 For Client Relationship Management

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on May 31, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

I wish it were otherwise, but malware isn't going away. If your midsize or large law firm doesn't have a comprehensive and layered defense in place to prevent infections, you run the risk of your firm's data being exposed, the personal (and too often financial) information of your employees being compromised, your billers losing valuable time from the infection itself or its remediation, and the malware "cleanup crew" in your IT Department developing nervous twitches.

This issue of BigLaw first lays out the basics for those of you in management (you can stop there), and then delves into some of the nitty gritty details for those of you in the IT Department.

The Basics: What You Need to Keep Your Firm Secure

A sound defensive strategy for your firm should include all six of the following protections at an absolute minimum.

1. Hardware firewall protecting your LAN.

2. Web-filtering server/proxy/appliance for all internal Web browsing. For example, Websense or Microsoft Forefront.

3. Anti-spam (and anti-malware) hosted email services (which can also queue your mail in the event you have an ISP or mail server outage). For example, Postini or Barracuda Networks.

4. Anti-malware client on all of your PCs. For example, Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), Symantec, Kaspersky, ESET, or Sunbelt.

5. A software firewall on all of your PCs. For example, Windows Firewall or ZoneAlarm.

6. User Access Control (or UAC) on Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs. Learn it. It's your friend. Don't disable it.

Servers: 64-Bit Can Prevent a Performance Hit

Admittedly, some folks turn off UAC and the Windows Firewall because they "get in the way." I would humbly suggest that you can't afford to permit that. But what can get even stickier is whether you take it any further than these core defenses. The following four options are often skipped because of the CPU and I/O overhead they can introduce in the server and client environment respectively.

1. Anti-malware on Exchange.

2. Anti-malware on SharePoint (because of the high volume of user-originated content).

3. Anti-malware on other Windows Servers in your environment — especially file and Web servers.

4. An endpoint Web filtering/protection product on all of your PCs for safe-browsing off-LAN. For example, ZoneAlarm, or Websense's Data Security products.

I am not here to preach. Okay, well, I guess I am. As such, I strongly recommend reconsidering your decision not to have antivirus solutions in place on your most vulnerable server environments.

Once you make the jump to Exchange 2010, your 64-bit hardware should have more than enough juice to fulfill its own mission as well as carry a slight added burden of providing anti-virus scanning. If you absolutely refuse to install antivirus on your mailbox server(s), you can always install it on your edge transport server(s). Read some of Microsoft's own thoughts on the matter.

Clients: Microsoft's "Free" FEP v. The Competition

No matter the complexity or simplicity of your solutions and policies, the most critical (and vulnerable) component of your layered defense is ultimately where the rubber actually meets the road (or more accurately: the user meets the Internet) — the anti-malware client installed on your user PCs.

Why is the word "free" in quotes above? Well, if you want antivirus on your home PC, or if you have a home-based business, then Microsoft Security Essentials (same product as FEP minus the ability to centrally administer it via System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is a truly free anti-malware product. If you fall into either of those two "home" classifications, go for it.

But importantly for this newsletter's audience, FEP is included under the Core CAL license (I assume that, as a medium to large firm, you have a volume licensing agreement including at least the Microsoft Core CAL license). If you are an Enterprise License customer, you are licensed for nearly the entire Forefront Architecture (Exchange, SharePoint, Lync Server, Unified Access Gateway, Exchange Online, etc.) minus only the Threat Management Gateway, which you must license separately.

But does FEP work as well as Symantec, Kaspersky, ESET, or any of the other products out there? From our firm's anecdotal experience, yes!

We have not discerned any observable drop in our protection since shifting to FEP from Sunbelt's Vipre. And even if we (hypothetically — which is not a foregone conclusion) lost a tick in performance, we would have made up for it in the improved manageability of having the updates all feed through our Windows Server Updates Services (WSUS) server and all administration and reporting effected through SCCM. (If you are already using SCCM then you could have FEP deployed today, by the way. The SCCM deployment packages for FEP are included on the install media you can download from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center.)

Anecdotally, we have encountered situations in which FEP found something that Vipre didn't, just as there were situations in which Vipre found something that Symantec didn't (back when we switched to Vipre) — and vice versa. But if you'd like more than anecdotal support for justifying the switch, I think you'll find that, performance-wise, while there are a handful of products out there with a better track record, FEP is better than most, and within easy striking distance of even the best.

All large firms today have volume license agreements in place with Microsoft. To do otherwise would be financially irresponsible when you consider the per-seat cost savings alone — never mind the additional training and support benefits that come with a volume licensing agreement.

So why not take advantage of what your firm already owns? Historically, the answer you might have given is "Because I can get a better product from …" (Symantec, Kaspersky, etc.). But Microsoft's new anti-malware product is, if not at the very top of the standings, at least a solid and legitimate player in the field. And the advantages of its tight integration with SCCM, WSUS, and your Windows-based PC's native Windows Update infrastructure, give it a true edge over the competition.

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on May 3, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

If you're still living in the world of VMWare ESX 3.x, it's time to pack up and move to version 4.1. The move to 4.0 was important as a stepping stone to a new architecture. Upgrading to vSphere 4.1 and ESX 4.1, however, brings some real, practical improvements to your large firm's IT environment, and is entirely worth the effort. In this issue of BigLaw I'll focus on the storage-related reasons for upgrading — but there are many other reasons to upgrade (improved manageability, enhanced availability functions, additional networking capabilities, etc.).

Don't work in your firm's IT department and never heard of VMWare's ESX? Chances are your firm uses software from VMWare — most likely its ESX server OS. It's virtualization software, which enables you to run multiple "virtual" servers on a single "real" (hardware) server.

This technology helps ensure the availability of servers (and their hosted applications), helps prolong the life of aging application servers (which can be easily "virtualized" with the VMWare Converter), and can make all servers more easily upgradeable (since they aren't tied to a particular set of proprietary hardware). ESX ultimately reduces the number of physical servers you need to buy, the electricity you consume, and the number of physical servers you have to keep in fighting condition.

Servers are much more expensive than desktop PCs and laptops but they depreciate just as quickly so ESX can save law firms lots of money. And it can even host virtual desktops for users throughout your firm — to save you even more money and make your computing environment centrally manageable.

What You Should Know Before Upgrading to ESX 4.X (vSphere)

1. Check the HCL First

If you have old host hardware in place, and plan to install the new kernel onto it, please check the HCL first. (I can confirm that my aging DL385s did not take kindly to 4.0 — even though they had served me for many years, through many versions of ESX — going back to the storied ESX 1.5.2 days.) Typically, the HCL for VMWare is ever-expanding and not contracting, but they did drop some older technologies with the advent of vSphere — so do check into this before you upgrade.

2. No more ESX Without the "i"

ESX is the thicker-kerneled, non-"Hypervisor" version of vSphere. VMWare has announced that after 4.1:

"Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture."

That's right. Hypervisor only from here on out. If you don't want to upgrade a second time again in short order, take the time to go to ESXi now. But don't be afraid. It's not a bad thing. And it's not as if they're making you boot the ESXi kernel from SAN or anything. You can keep your internal hard drives if you want. That said ...

3. Mind Your Scripts

If you created any fancy scripts that operates inside the ESX kernels of your individual hosts, please build out an ESXi host soon and determine if said scripts are still needed. If so, they will need to be accommodated differently. Also, if you have a nice book of recipes/favorite esxcfg-etc commands for performing basic operations inside the old ESX kernel, you'll need to acclimate to the new world.

Fortunately, in their efforts to make the kernel as small and unobtrusive as possible, VMWare has also provided some useful tools to assist in the management of your host environment. One such tool is the vSphere CLI 4.1 (updated version of the Command Line Interface that first came out back in 2009 — installable in Windows, Linux, and also included as part of the new vMA). Another is an updated vSphere Management Assistant (downloadable, pre-installed and pre-loaded virtual machine that integrates painlessly into your environment).

vSphere ESX 4.1 Storage Improvements

Okay, I'm done with the advisories so now it's on to the good stuff! And please note that I've included highlights only here, as there are too many improvements to list in this short column. For more details, you can read VMWare's (very accessible) overview of these enhancements.

1. Lower CPU Loads Using the New Software ISCSI Initiator

More of the hardware CPU that you're paying for will be used by the running of the virtual machines themselves, and less will be consumed to handle the underlying I/O. In addition, there are now new offerings for hardware offload of I/O including support of HCL-approved ISCSI-aware Broadcom 10 GB NICs!

Of course, you must have some seriously high I/O loads if you need dedicated 10 GB NICs to handle them! Please email me if you support an environment that just can't get it done with 1 GB ISCSI ports — I'm very curious to hear your story! I know what you're thinking: "But the 10 GB NICS are better!" True. And a Formula 1 race car has a higher top speed than your Audi, but when will you ever have a chance to drive over 200 MPH?

2. Pluggable Storage Architecture

vSphere introduced the PSA (Pluggable Storage Architecture). In short, what was once handled by VMWare via their own proprietary software (e.g., VMWare's Native Multipathing Plugin) can now be provided by your storage vendor. One game-elevating way that Dell has taken advantage of this new extensibility is through its HIT/VE — a downloadable virtual appliance that enables a robust integration between your Equallogic SAN arrays and your vSphere environment.

Hitkit integration into the VI Client enables "right-click" functionality for the following (and more): Resizing datastore volumes, creating smart copies, creating smart copy replicas, creating clones, creating and modifying replica schedules. Gone are the days of a separate UI for the VMWare-aware Auto Snapshot Manager functions of your Dell Equallogic hitkit.

3. MPIO Plugin

This is one of the chief ways that your storage vendor can take advantage of the new PSA. Download a plugin from your storage vendor (Dell, EMC, NetApp) to provide improved multipath functionality and performance for your virtual environment. Equallogic's MEM (Multipathing Extension Module), for example, can be installed manually, using the vSphere Management Assistant, or by importing the package into Update Manager's Patch Repository. Once installed, it uses what it knows about your Equallogic array(s) to provide finer control over such functions as Path Selection and even i/o throttling when resource levels have been set.

4. Storage I/O Control (SIOC)

You've been able to pull the levers on resources so that your business critical virtual machines get their share of I/O resources — on whatever host happens to be hosting that virtual machine at that time. But this capability is now extended to an awareness of all I/O connections throughout the vCenter environment, and will throttle and allocate i/o resources across all hosts.

5. Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning

Enough said.

Convinced Yet?

I hope so. And really, if you have the time, read the documentation available via the links from this article and you'll see that I wasn't kidding when I said I was only going to scratch the surface. Take your ESX environment to vSphere 4.1 as soon as you can. You'll be glad you did.

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Answers to Questions contains these articles:

Jerry Thompson, Review: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Edition

Thomas RuBane, Mac OS X Spaces Versus Multiple Monitors

Aaron Craft, Timeslips Address Violations

Kathy Mergulhao, Review: DocXtools For WordPerfect Conversion

Paul Purdue, How To Manage An Email Newsletter With PracticeMaster

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive Answers to Questions
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on April 19, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

The ten technologies discussed in this issue of BigLaw make great additions to a large firm's technology toolbox to help manage your environment. Most are free or cheap. And even those that require you to incur a moderate expense are so important and useful that you really shouldn't manage your law firm without them.

1. Lights Out Management

This technology is now free with most servers for basic functionality. Pay to upgrade to a more robust feature set. Lights Out is one of those technologies that is, if not life-saving, then nights and weekends saving at the very least. And from a business perspective (it's not all about you), it will get your troubled system back online faster because you won't have to drive to the office.

Highlights: Your NIC dies but you can still administer your server remotely. You can "load" virtual media for installs, updates, and diagnostics. You can power on or off the server. You can establish a remote console session — and even access the BIOS of a server from the comfort of your living room.

HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) Advanced

Dell Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)

IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter

2. Remotely Manageable Power Distribution Units (PDU)

Not free, but darn cheap. You needed power anyway, so why not buy the PDUs that are remotely administrable? Something's hinky with your Lights-Out Management interface? Your firewall, VPN device, or network switch is misbehaving? Log into the Web interface, power off the device in question, and then power it back on.

APC PDUs

3. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) From Your Smartphone

RDP from your Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone (free "lite" versions exist for at least Android and iPhone). Remotely manage a server, or even perform real, light work, from your phone. The nominally priced pay versions give you some features you'll want (such as improved mouse controls) if you find yourself doing more than password resets and server reboots. (Got an iPad? Even better.)

Android

BlackBerry

iPhone

iPad

4. Application Virtualization

You might not know that Microsoft includes this technology for free along with the rest of its MDOP Suite if you have current Software Assurance on your desktop OS. Free! Or at least included with the price of admission to your volume licensing. So why aren't you using it?

If you don't have Software Assurance (you like to buy your software shrink-wrapped, or perhaps just take the OEM OS that came with your PCs), or if you'd simply prefer to throw money around, you may want to invest in ThinApp, or one of the many other players out there.

Why virtualize applications? The most obvious use case is to solve the problems of application compatibility and application conflicts. It can be a bear to ensure that every application in use at your firm plays nicely with your other applications and is compatible and stable on your new OS.

Microsoft's App-V

VMWare ThinApp

5. Multipath I/O (MPIO)

The enabling technology for MPIO is free from your SAN vendors (e.g., Dell Equallogic hit kits), and also included functionality of VMWare.

So what is MPIO for? Single points of failure are bad. Like a fighter jet's fly-by-wire operation where systems are not only duplicated, but sometimes quadruplicated in case one or more of the control channels fails. That's what you want for your firm's data channels. Redundant paths for your server to ensure it can always keep in touch with its SAN-provided data. You want MPIO. Trust me on this one.

Dell EqualLogic Host Software

6. Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

Another freebie. Manage your Microsoft Updates proactively — from your desktop to your server operating systems to SQL to Exchange, and to infinity and beyond. See which clients are up-to-date and which are not. You can fully or partially automate it or go completely manual depending upon your comfort level and preference.

Windows Server Update Services

7. Microsoft Security Essentials

Free anti-virus, from Microsoft. Enough said. This utility is no Windows Defender. This product is effective and proving (finally) to be a legitimate anti-virus solution alternative from Microsoft. Also available as an enterprise-class, managed product under the name "Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection."

Microsoft Security Essentials

8. Two-Factor Authentication

Free. No need for a key fob. Set up a Certificate Authority (CA) server on your network. Issue digital certificates to your clients, vendors, and employees. And control access to your Web-facing resources with not just what they know (their passwords), but also what they have (their certs).

9. Secure File Transfer

There are free ways to go, like opensource SSH. But if you do that, you have to build an SSH server, support it, ensure that it has sufficient disk space and bandwidth, and supply your clients, co-counsel, etc. with an SSH client or a custom GUI for uploading and downloading files.

Possible? Sure. But just not worth it. But, you may say, FTP is also free — and easy, right? So why not just use that? In short, it's not secure. Passwords are passed in plain text. Don't kid yourself. Don't risk losing your files.

So what's the right answer? Try one of these solutions. They aren't free, but they get the job done and won't get you fired.

Biscom Delivery Server

LeapFILE

SendThisFile

YouSendIt

10. System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)

Not even a little bit free but worth every penny. Monitors everything. Or near enough. If what you're monitoring is a Microsoft product, then the Management Packs are free. For non-Microsoft applications and devices, you can either buy a ready-made Management Pack from a third party or build your own.

For example, if you really know what you're doing you could monitor VMWare with the product out of the box. But if you don't, or don't want to take the time, you can buy a third party SCOM add-on solution like those from:

Veeam

Jalasoft

Bridgeways

Cool Tools

Hopefully these tools resonate with you. Maybe you didn't know about them. Or maybe you only had a vague sense that you should look into them more closely. But if you haven't done so yet, take my advice and make the effort to integrate these technologies into your own toolkit.

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

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