Legal Commentary

We write a lot about computer virtualization in Law Technology News, because it is an effective way to not only save money, but also to go "green" and reduce energy consumption. Benefits include fully exploiting computer resources, easing administration, improving fault tolerance, and saving costs for electricity, cooling, and floor space.

But the positives are not without risks. John Roman Jr., director of legal technology at Nixon Peabody, details seven pitfalls, including "putting all of your computing eggs in one basket. If your physical server goes down, so do the virtual servers installed on the physical server." That can result in a "single point of failure" that can cause major issues with your computing availability, he explains. Another risk: "VM sprawl," says Roman. Because it's easy to create virtual machines, "if the original VM is ill-configured from a security standpoint, so too will all replicated units."

Correction: In yesterday's breaking news about the acquistion of Daticon EED by Document Technologies, I incorrectly stated that the company's headquarters would be in Kirkland, Wash. DTI's HQ will remain in Atlanta, the Kirkland office now serves as a regional technology center.