Ubiquitous Wireless Network for Law Firms and Legal Offices

Transcription

1 Ubiquitous Wireless for Law Firms and Legal Offices white paper Ubiquitous Wireless Network for Law Firms and Legal Offices Empowering attorneys, legal agency workers and enforcement personnel with Simple, Secure and Resilient Network Access

2 Ubiquitous Wireless Network for Law Firms and Legal Offices Introduction In the past, attorneys and legal workers were often pictured with armloads of manila folders and books to keep up with the demands of legal proceedings. Today s legal professionals, however, are much more likely to be carrying a laptop, iphone or ipad. The IT infrastructure supporting law firms, judicial courthouses, and other enforcement government agencies have followed the same trends that have changed the face of enterprise networking. Common technology trends such as the proliferation of mobile devices including iphones, ipads and Android devices, software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud computing, and the general consumerization of IT has impacted the legal industry as well. Attorneys today use legal management software platforms to document and track case proceedings. Like other mobile knowledge workers, they carry a laptop, mobile phone, or a tablet with Wi-Fi network connectivity to answer s, manage their calendar, and collaborate. Some individuals even use social media for communication and branding to attract new clients. The influx of these new, often employee-owned devices is providing the same productivity benefits in the legal industry that they are in any other; unfortunately they also provide the same challenges. Complicating the situation further, most law firms and legal agency offices have multiple office locations in a variety of geographic locations. Regardless of where employees are connecting from or what they are connecting with, users expect ubiquitous, hassle-free network connectivity anywhere. According to a survey report published by Business insider in July 2012, the legal industry is also experiencing some unique trends. With more than 40,000 law graduates entering the workforce every year, the legal industry now has 4 generations of employees working side by side, with Gen-Y employees setting the IT direction. There are a plethora of new business services, including virtual law firms, virtual tele-assistants, boutique specialty law practices, and legal process outsourcing, all of which demand an IT infrastructure that is simple to deploy and manage, ubiquitous, and secure. Aerohive has the solution to meet the legal industry demands. As an acknowledged market visionary, Aerohive has pioneered the service-aware networking solution with cloud-enabled architecture. This combination is ideal to empower IT departments in the legal area to meet the growing demands of new technologies without comprising the freedom of the end-users. Aerohive has helped numerous legal firms to empower their workforce with built-in features that include: BYOD/VDI support with user-based access control 2 Copyright 2012, Aerohive Networks, Inc.

3 Ubiquitous Wireless for Law Firms and Legal Offices Ubiquitous access from a variety of locations Simple, secure guest access Easy-to-use management BYOD and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to access confidential legal data Legal workers can be enabled to access applications and personal data from anywhere securely using their personal bring-your-own laptops, ipads, or Android tablets via a Wi-Fi network with Aerohive. End-users can access their productivity applications like , collaborate with other users on the network via Skype, or utilize online conferencing tools and access proprietary applications using a virtual desktop, all from their personal consumer-grade wireless device. Aerohive s intelligent architecture prepares legal IT for the mobile device proliferation and has many features to ensure that devices are connected securely to the network and are only able to access the content that is appropriate to the user s role. The following features on all HiveOS devices ensure a successful implementation of a BYOD-ready network: Forced mobile device profile enrollment and quarantine Rogue detection and mitigation Network access control Built-in application firewalls Figure 1. Modern law firm with Aerohive Wi-fi to support BYOD & VDI All these features are built on top of Aerohive s cooperative control HiveOS operating system that is designed from the ground up to be highly resilient and with Copyright 2012, Aerohive Networks, Inc. 3

4 Ubiquitous Wireless Network for Law Firms and Legal Offices edge-based intelligence to ensure highly-redundant connectivity for all clients. Using these features together ensures BYO devices are connected to the right resources bases on all associated context identity, device type, location, etc., making BYOD a truly productive enhancement to users without compromising IT control. Ubiquitous access in corporate and remote legal offices Most law firms, judicial houses, and legal enforcement agencies have several offices spread within the metropolitan area. Users often struggle with access and security restrictions when they visit a remote office in which they are not based. Corporate resource access is often restricted to essential applications like , while limited access to e-discovery & CounselLink applications can curtail the employee s overall productivity. As legal organizations look extend corporate capabilities to teleworkers and branch offices, the added infrastructure and complexity can greatly increase costs and the burden on network administrators. This extra infrastructure usually requires support and maintenance in locations that lack IT staff and is difficult to deploy, configure, and secure consistently even by skilled IT teams. The Aerohive Branch on Demand solution makes it easy to deploy corporate capabilities to employees anywhere, while reducing operational costs. The key lies in a suite of features and functionality designed specifically for remote environments that simplify operations, enforce security policy, reduce costs, and operate virtually maintenance-free. Aerohive branch routers, the key to the Branch on Demand solution, support full Layer 3 IPsec VPN functionality, as well as mobile first networking with wired and wireless support for employee and guest access. The solution was designed from the ground up to provide headquarters-like connectivity from any size location, whether it is a full-service law firm branch, small field agency office, or a field telecommuter. 4 Copyright 2012, Aerohive Networks, Inc.

5 Ubiquitous Wireless for Law Firms and Legal Offices Figure 2: Remote access in legal branch offices Welcoming clients and visitors with guest access Much of the daily activity in law firms and legal offices is conducted in the presence of guests, who may be clients or other individuals involved in casework. With the advent of mobile phones and tablets, most visitors expect Wi-Fi connectivity, but the documents to which they should have access is not the same. Some guests are VIP clients who need extensive access in any office to access the data needed for the proceedings and share it securely. Some guest users require only basic access to Internet but still need it to be secure because the communication can be sensitive information. Providing differentiated access in an efficient way without increasing IT cost has been challenging for all the legal offices. Aerohive has the solution that meets this critical requirement. Aerohive s ID Manager simplifies guest management by combining industry-leading authentication features with the Aerohive Cloud Services Platform to eliminate the need for any additional hardware or software to deliver a scalable, simple-to-administer enterprise guest management solution that streamlines the on-boarding of visitors. Whether required at a single site or over a globally distributed, multi-lingual company, ID Manager s cloud-enabled flexibility and simplicity provides a complete solution for every site. ID Manager integrates critical network elements like authentication services, directory services and RadSec to create a secure, cloud-enabled guest management solution. This solution enables lobby ambassadors or employees to sponsor guest access from a simple UI that allows creation of an account with private credentials that can be sent via , SMS, or printed. It also supports self-registration via a secure kiosk mode, which eases the burden on front desk staff. Enhancing Legal IT network management With several locations, a multitude of employees and visitors, and strict requirements for security/privacy, the task of managing and monitoring all the devices and user privileges is a critical challenge for IT in a legal setting. Aerohive solutions have management & monitoring features for efficient device and user management. Aerohive s Client Health feature enables IT to determine the best possible transmission speed for the clients and allows the continuous tracking of Copyright 2012, Aerohive Networks, Inc. 5

6 Ubiquitous Wireless Network for Law Firms and Legal Offices client statistics to determine the overall health. Any issue with the client s health is displayed in a simple green, yellow or red icon, which empowers IT to see connectivity problems at-a-glance, and to drill down to resolve issues quickly. On top of the extensive context-based access that allows an administrator to set up policies based on the user profiles like an employed attorney needing full network access, a junior paralegal needing limited access, or a guest visitor on their own device that only wants to reach the Internet, Aerohive also supports integrated Service Level Assurance (SLA) and automatic remediation and mitigation for client performance. This feature allows an administrator to define required performance baselines for clients and allocate resources appropriately. When required, the system can automatically improve a connected client s health by boosting the airtime or load balance with another access point for better performance. Summary The landscape of IT supporting law firms and government legal agencies has changed irreversibly in the last few years owing to the technology trends. These organizations have embraced technology to usher improved productivity, mitigate security & compliance risks. and reduce the overall IT costs. Aerohive has pioneered a cloud-enabled access solution with the same tenets and has enabled several of the well-known law firms and agencies around the world to meet the IT challenges. As David O Berry, Director of IT for South Carolina Parole offices shared about Aerohive s Vision I appreciated the vision of how the Aerohive access points functioned, the intelligence they had, even when they were disconnected. Most other products I looked at got pretty dumb when they lost connectivity with the controller. 6 Copyright 2012, Aerohive Networks, Inc.

7 About Aerohive Aerohive Networks reduces the cost and complexity of today s networks with cloud-enabled, distributed Wi-Fi and routing solutions for enterprises and medium sized companies including branch offices and teleworkers. Aerohive s award-winning cooperative control Wi-Fi architecture, public or private cloud-enabled network management, routing and VPN solutions eliminate costly controllers and single points of failure. This gives its customers mission critical reliability with granular security and policy enforcement and the ability to start small and expand without limitations. Aerohive was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. The company s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northern Light Venture Capital and New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA). Contact us today to learn how your organization can benefit from Aerohive wireless LAN architecture. Aerohive Networks, Inc. 330 Gibraltar Drive Sunnyvale, CA toll free phone fax info@aerohive.com