A client approached the PLUS team with a problem they had been unable to solve using another service provider. After several setbacks, the client turned to PLUS for assistance when they became aware of our highly scalable cloud-based solution. We were able to efficiently stage and ingest more than 2 TBs of data within an expeditious timeframe that helped recapture previously lost time. During the next few months, the original 2 TB data scope morphed into 20 TBs of data, all processed, filtered and promoted to review by PLUS within a few weeks. This performance would’ve been a difficult undertaking for many eDiscovery service providers that leveraged less scalable on-premise server solutions.
Prior to the advent of this project, PLUS envisioned migrating from our on-premise data center to a cloud-based platform, such as Microsoft Azure or AWS. We believed the efficiencies, scalability and security provided with the cloud would best suit our clients’ needs while improving our service levels and lowering our costs. Very few service providers had the capacity to operate in both environments simultaneously. However, PLUS was one of the first to leave the on-premise environment behind for the wave of the future by transitioning over 50 TBs and all subsequent client projects to the cloud.
Our vision and understanding of how technology was evolving and how we needed to be positioned, made our decision simple: take the leap with the best technology available and commit to providing our clients with the highest and most personalized level of professional services. What was considered a novel approach just four years ago has since been widely adopted. We at PLUS are proud to have led the initial charge into the future.
Our innovative and custom work-flow model layered in with our cloud-based capacity and enhanced resources enabled PLUS to efficiently process the initial 2 TBs of data in just a few days. Had our client come to PLUS from the outset, they would have avoided the extra cost, time and effort initially incurred. Regardless of the initial misstep, we were able to process and cull large amounts of data efficiently and reduce the overall volume by 60%, which saved our client millions of dollars in hosting and review costs.
We learned a couple of key lessons from this project.
First, that our experience and expertise help our clients to identify the best and most efficient solution to manage their projects. Leveraging a partner like PLUS early on that has the people and capacity to support complex discovery workflows can help avoid missteps, delays and extra costs.
Second, we were reminded of the importance of continuously looking to improve on process, execution and performance. Had we stayed on-premise and merely added hardware, the 20 TBs of data would have taken an unacceptable amount of time and the initial discovery deadline would’ve been missed. This lesson has been woven into the fabric of our culture as we continue to provide the best service to our clients, while maintaining our appetite for what comes nxt – PLUSnxt.
