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Sfile Announces Unprecedented Processing Speeds With HPC Predictor Engine Technology | Benzinga.com

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sfile Technology Corporation, a leading provider of Big Data Processing and Analytics with a SaaS-based delivery of eDiscovery, litigation support, and collaborative workspace solutions offered through a disruptive end-to-end pricing model, is proud to announce today the proven and unprecedented processing speeds of the Sfile HPC Predictor Engine. The Sfile HPC Predictor Engine is a supercharged massive parallel processing engine with an integrated, proprietary, patent pending technology which leverages the latest multi-core, multi-processor commodity servers.

With such innovation, the talented development team at Sfile is indeed transforming commodity servers into High Performance Computing Servers. The Sfile HPC Processor for ESI gives our partners the unique advantage of a risk-based pricing model to predict future outcomes based on real world experiences to disrupt the inefficient and risky practice of data being transferred from one system to another. With the advantage of the HPC Predictor Engine for parallel processing, Sfile achieves an average rate of processing electronically stored information at 154 gigabytes per hour on one industry standard server – where industry claims averages of 76 gigabytes per hour.

Along with our fast ESI processing speeds, the Sfile HPC Processor can convert native files to black and white TIFF images for document production, with an industry-standard load file, at an incredible rate of 6 minutes per gigabyte! This yields unheard-of performance results in both the processing and production stages, which allow us to offer huge efficiencies and cost savings into the marketplace while at the same time, creating a high degree of predictability to overall eDiscovery cost. “With this advantage and our ability to manage price risk, Sfile will be able to extend even greater value and cost savings to our partners and in turn, end users,” says Kevin O’Connell, President of Sfile Technology Corporation.

via Sfile Announces Unprecedented Processing Speeds With HPC Predictor Engine Technology | Benzinga.com.

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Getting Rid of Data: Why it s So Hard | Information Management

November 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many organizations think they are taking the right approach to information overload: buy ever-cheaper storage solutions, lower compliance risk by saving all data and focus more resources on solutions for turning all this data into actionable intelligence. Unfortunately, storing and managing data stores that only get bigger with time is very expensive, and instead of reducing risk, it dramatically increases costs and risks associated with e-discovery.

According to Gartner, IT shops already spend between 2 and 3 percent of revenues on data management, which can add up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars each year. And according to IDC, corporate data volumes grew by about 50 percent last year. The fact is, no matter how inexpensive storage devices become, the total cost of managing data will continue to grow. And while some data must be retained for its business, legal or compliance value, retaining data that has no such value increases the complexity and cost of every hold issued by the legal department in response to an e-discovery request.

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How can IT organizations defensibly dispose of data to control IT costs while satisfying the requirement for legal holds? The answer is a robust, cross-functional information governance program.

via Getting Rid of Data: Why it s So Hard.

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5 Questions Boards Should Ask About Data Privacy Risks – Forbes

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Any company that has customers needs to be on alert. The average cost of a privacy data breach has now reached $214 per record, according to the Ponemon Institute. And that is expected to rise. In addition, legal obligations and regulatory fines related to a breach are evolving, which creates a level of uncertainty about how to respond when a breach incident occurs. That uncertainty is potentially a very expensive risk.

A company’s board of directors is tasked to evaluate corporate risk – internal and external competitive, financial and customer. Each typically has a committee; each has a plan. A data breach of your customers’ (or even employees’) private information is one of the largest risks to an organization. Yet it is often overlooked. If you haven’t discussed this topic at a board meeting, add these questions to your next agenda.

Question 1:  How much private, information do we have and how sensitive is it?

Your customers and employees place a tremendous amount of trust in your organization to protect their information. However, this trust is being compromised on a daily basis. According to Identityhawk, the first six months of 2011 had 158 breaches totaling nearly 105 million individual’s records. These breaches were in all kinds of organizations including those with sensitive transaction data such as banks, hospitals and consumer electronics companies. When this compromised data includes health information or social security numbers, the impact of any breach can have serious legal implications, in addition to the reputational harm your organization will experience.

Question 2: What are the consequences if this sensitive information is compromised?

The recent breach of 77 million Sony Playstation customers has resulted in class action lawsuits because of negligence to protect users’ data. In addition, the FBI launched an inquiry and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating. To date, the company has spent more than $170 million on customer support and legal fees.

Smaller breaches can have an equally corrosive impact on an organization. In March, five patients filed a lawsuit against Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia seeking class action status from the Circuit Court in Kanawha County for all of 3,655 affected patients of a breach that occurred in September 2010.

The loss of customer goodwill is one of the highest costs of data breach. In fact, more than 63 percent of breach costs are a direct result of lost business. Customers do not want to do business with organizations that can’t protect their information. The bottom line is that a data breach can unravel your business and destroy the very fabric of a hard-built reputation. Data breaches are much cheaper to prevent than clean up. The cost to reduce the risk before a breach can be as low as 10 percent of the cost to remediate a medium-sized breach.

continued @ 5 Questions Boards Should Ask About Data Privacy Risks – Forbes.

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PODCAST: E-Discovery – Without the High Price Tag | Legal Talk Network

August 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Lawyers are constantly complaining about the high cost of e-discovery, so why IS the price so high? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises welcome Bill Gallivan, founding member and managing executive of Gallivan Gallivan & O’Melia (GGO), to discuss how to avoid the high cost of e-discovery. Bill talks about some trends that are driving costs down, GGO’s Digital WarRoom platform and the high demand  for accessible, affordable tools.

via E-Discovery – Without the High Price Tag | Legal Talk Network.

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‘E-Discovery Evolution’: Costs of electronic discovery are growing | Post Gazette

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

These days, attorneys say that e-discovery can eat up between 50 to 80 percent of a litigation budget, a staggering cost that threatens to overshadow the merits of litigation and compound the tensions between bar and bench.

And as the cost of e-discovery keeps growing, so, too, grows the number of problems created by these growing costs, and the possible solutions to these problems. There’s also no shortage of disagreements on those problems and solutions:

• Some say recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were a help, others say they don’t go far enough.

• Some say the courts need to catch up with the times and get more involved in e-discovery disputes from the get-go, while others say it will simply take time for case law to develop.

• Defense lawyers say plaintiffs use discovery as a bargaining chip to elicit settlements from large companies with lots of data. Plaintiffs lawyers say the justice system has long provided for open discovery.

What everyone seems to agree upon is that electronic discovery continues to be the tail that wags the dog in many cases, that these issues will only become more prevalent, that e-discovery is now a strategic aspect of litigation and that every litigator should have some degree of knowledge on the subject — or at least know who to turn to when they don’t know something.

Cozen O’Connor member David J. Walton, co-chairman of the firm’s e-discovery task force, said he doesn’t want to be known as an e-discovery lawyer, but rather a litigator who happens to know about e-discovery.

Clients roll their eyes when they hear the term, he said. Litigators have to sell clients that e-discovery is a strategic part of every case because they can’t blow their whole litigation budget on discovery.

“I’m afraid not to know it because it dominates every part of a case,” Mr. Walton said.

Part of the problem with e-discovery, many lawyers say, is the fear and anxiety it creates. Will a judge issue sanctions against the client or even the attorney? Will a client’s privileged information accidentally get turned over? Will clients be taxed costs if they lose the case?

via ‘E-Discovery Evolution’: Costs of electronic discovery are growing.

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Why E-Discovery Cooperation Is Best for Both Sides | Law.com

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Mention “cooperation between parties” to a group of litigators and you usually get facetious exhortations to hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” or “We Are the World.” Respond that you are not talking about utopian fantasies, but ways for both sides to get what they want (or, at least, paying props to Mssrs. Jagger and Richards, what they need), the group will usually respond that cooperation in litigation, like communism, always looks great in theory but never works in practice.

When dealing with e-discovery, however, cooperation can and does work. Once the parties understand what is at stake, skeptical posturing can give way to steps that actually benefit both sides.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

Interestingly, the economic philosopher who best understood the benefits of cooperation was not Karl Marx but Adam Smith, who explored in “The Wealth of Nations” his postulate that economic actors act in their enlightened self-interest and so the free marketplace was the best setting for them. The same holds true here; so what is key is that the parties understand what their enlightened self-interest is.

Absent exceptions, producing parties bear the costs of preservation, collection, processing, searching, reviewing, and producing e-discovery. As has caught the attention of one, two, or several million people over the last number of years, those costs can be considerable. Thus, it is in the enlightened self-interest of the producing party to minimize e-discovery costs. Minimizing such costs in improper ways, however, can lead to dire consequences. In the “poster child” spoliation case of Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, the failure to preserve, collect, and produce e-discovery properly led first to increased e-discovery costs as the producing party had to try to find later, at a much higher cost, what it did not preserve earlier at a lower cost, and then to dire sanctions for spoliation.

via Why E-Discovery Cooperation Is Best for Both Sides.

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Unstructured data compliance costs firms an average of $2.1 million annually | Infosecurity (USA)

July 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The average cost of compliance associated with storing unstructured data is $2.1 million per year, according to a report prepared by the Ponemon Institute for software firm Novell.

The average compliance cost of unstructured data varies with the size of the organization. Companies with fewer than 5,000 employees have an average compliance cost of $1.23 million, while companies with more than 75,000 employees have an average compliance cost of $2.71 million, indicating that smaller businesses pay six times more per employee than larger businesses, according to the report.

Heavily regulated industries, such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, communications, and healthcare, have higher average compliance cost, incurring an average of $2.5 million annually, according to a review of 94 large US firms.

Ponemon breaks down compliance costs into the following activities: access governance, configuration management, assessment and audit, policy management, e-discovery, monitoring and scanning, backup and disaster recovery, specialized equipment cost, and specialized software costs.

A number of these activities include implementation of information security policies and regulations. For example, “access governance” includes cost associated with identity, authentication, provisioning, and access rights, which all have an information security component.

“Assessment and audit” includes compliance cost associated with review, evaluation, and verification of data storage based on the organization’s data security requirements, including regulatory compliance audits. “Policy management” includes cost associated with development, implementation, and enforcement of a company’s data storage policies, including those specified by laws and regulations. E-discovery involves the cost associated with discovery of electronic documents for litigation, data breach investigation, and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rules.

The most expensive compliance cost associated with the storage of unstructured data are e-discovery, access governance, and internal auditing activities. Together, these activities cost businesses over $1.9 million on average annually.

via Infosecurity (USA) – Unstructured data compliance costs firms an average of $2.1 million annually.

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How to Develop Efficient E-Discovery Systems – Data Storage – News & Reviews – eWeek.com

March 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Among large corporations that are serial litigants, there is growing recognition of the proactive need to implement consistent and reproducible e-discovery systems in their organization before—not after—they face significant e-discovery obligations in litigation. While the commitment is significant in terms of the time and effort required to implement and maintain such e-discovery systems, the investment of resources quickly pays off in the form of litigation efficiencies and reduced attorneys’ fees and vendor costs down the road.

The adoption of such an internal e-discovery system need not be a great burden for other organizations whose litigation needs are less immediate. Even small to midsize businesses that infrequently face litigation and e-discovery demands can benefit from implementing a proactive, e-discovery plan appropriate to their needs. Even some forethought is better than none. At a minimum, an effective e-discovery system should:

1. Define the company’s method for initiating and communicating litigation holds,

2. Establish procedures for preserving potentially relevant electronically stored information (ESI), such as suspending automatic e-mail deletion when litigation becomes reasonably anticipated,

3. Describe systems and sources of data within the organization (in more detailed format, sometimes referred to as a “data map”), and

4. Identify responsibility within the organization (including the respective roles of the legal department and IT) for satisfying e-discovery responsibilities when they arise.

A company’s existing outside counsel and consultants will often assist in-house staff with some of this work at no cost (or reduced cost). There is much to be gained by partnering with outside e-discovery practitioners who can apply their experience and knowledge in assessing e-discovery needs and defining the appropriate systems and business approaches required to address those needs.

via How to Develop Efficient E-Discovery Systems – Data Storage – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.

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Box.net’s Cloud and Mobile Technology Underpins ‘Break-Out’ Year

January 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We’ve been talking about cloud deployment a lot this week so it’s appropriate that we finish up with an example of how rapid this market is developing. According to figures released by cloud content management vendor Box.net, the company now has 5 million users with enterprise revenues more than tripling over the course of the year.

Most of the new deployments, Box.net says, were in large enterprises, with 73% of Fortune 500 companies using its platform in some shape, means or form, a total of 60,000 businesses, and some significant wins including Skype and ABC News.

That’s what Box.net (news, site) says, but again, like last year, it hasn’t provided any details to back all these claims up. At the end of 2009, the SharePoint competitor announced they had 3.5 million customers and an increase in revenues of 535%.

Box.net and the Cloud

However, 2010 was the year in which Box.net really got out of their box.

2010 was a breakout year for Box, as larger enterprises recognized the cost, maintenance and productivity benefits of moving their content and collaboration to the cloud,” Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box said.

And this is what is really important in these figures. While it has been clearly a very successful year for Box.net, it has built that success on changing enterprise attitudes to the cloud, largely it would seem because many firms feel a lot better about cloud security than they did before, and they’ve also been looking at deployment times and cost savings too.

Only recently, for example, we saw in a MarketBridge survey that even across the SMB sector adoption of cloud-based information technologies is speeding up with 44% of SMBs claiming to have at least one business application located in a private or public cloud.

via Box.net’s Cloud and Mobile Technology Underpins ‘Break-Out’ Year.

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Bringing E-Discovery Back In-House, Without Upfront Investment: NaTIFF™ E-Discovery Server

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The NaTIFF™ E-Discovery Server is an in-house solution that provides a high level of data control to law firms, corporations and service providers without a high cost of implementation. All data is stored on servers provided by Global EDD Group and administered via secure point-to-point VPN connection with dedicated 24×7 support. Simply attach a data drive to the NaTIFF server and the Global EDD Group team will manage the e-discovery processing based on your direction and specification.

Key Advantages:

◊  Data stays in-house
◊  You retain control of the project
◊  Processing starts immediately, with no need to wait for FedEx or FTP
◊  Pay-per-Use service with no upfront cost, no minimum contract, and competitive pricing
◊  No need to hire additional manpower for processing and IT infrastructure management
◊  Dedicated team is available 24 x 7 to support all your activities

Key Functionality:

◊  Native File or TIFF Format Processing
◊  Metadata & Body Text Extraction
◊  MD-5 Hash Deduplication
◊  De-NIST File Filtering
◊  Date Filtering
◊  TIFF / PDF Image Generation
◊  Standard Load Files
◊  Image Endorsement
◊  Detailed Reporting
◊  Data Analytics (optional module)
◊  Document Review (optional module)
◊  Document Management (optional module)
◊  Enterprise Search (optional module)

Additional information regarding NaTIFF E-Discovery Servers is available by contacting Brad Mixner, President of Global EDD Group,  here or by clicking to GlobalEDD.com.

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