Scaling Sterling & Finch’s Legal Infrastructure through Azure Managed Services

Case Study Overview

Sterling & Finch, a respected multi-practice law firm with 125 employees, faced a critical juncture in its digital evolution. The firm relied on a legacy infrastructure that struggled to meet the demands of modern legal practice, characterized by high-volume data ingestion and the need for seamless remote access. The primary objective was twofold: execute a comprehensive migration of massive volumes of sensitive case data and transition their proprietary Legal Case Management (LCM) system to the cloud.

Allnext Technologies (Allnext) was engaged as the strategic partner to lead this transformation. Leveraging our position as a leader in enterprise IT solutions, we designed a transition roadmap focused on the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. This initiative was not merely a technical migration but a strategic alignment of IT capabilities with the firm’s long-term business goals. By implementing Azure Managed Services, Allnext provided Sterling & Finch with a robust, scalable, and highly secure environment that ensures business continuity while allowing their legal professionals to focus on high-value casework rather than technical limitations.

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Business Challenge

For years, Sterling & Finch operated on a decentralized server model. As the firm grew to 125 employees across three regional offices, this model reached its breaking point. Several core challenges threatened the firm’s operational efficiency and reputation.

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Infrastructure Fragility and Performance Latency

The on-premises servers were aging, leading to frequent downtime and sluggish performance within the Legal Case Management system. During peak hours, attorneys experienced significant delays in document retrieval, which impacted billable efficiency and client responsiveness. The lack of a centralized data repository meant that version control for legal documents was inconsistent, posing a risk to the integrity of legal filings.

Data Security and Regulatory Compliance

In the legal industry, data sovereignty and client confidentiality are paramount. The existing infrastructure lacked the sophisticated encryption and multi-factor authentication protocols required to combat modern cybersecurity threats. Furthermore, the manual backup processes were unreliable, leaving the firm vulnerable to catastrophic data loss in the event of hardware failure or a cyberattack. Sterling & Finch required a solution that complied with stringent industry regulations while providing enterprise-grade security.

Scalability and Remote Access

The shift toward hybrid work highlighted the inadequacies of the firm’s Virtual Private Network (VPN). Remote access was unstable, preventing partners and associates from working effectively outside the physical office. Moreover, the rigid nature of their hardware-based environment meant that adding new users or increasing storage capacity required significant capital expenditure and lengthy procurement cycles. The firm needed an agile infrastructure that could scale elastically based on case demand.

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Solution

Allnext Technologies architected a comprehensive Microsoft Azure Managed Services solution tailored to the specific nuances of legal workflows. Our approach was divided into three strategic phases: Assessment and Planning, Execution and Migration, and Continuous Management.

Strategic Assessment and Data Mapping

We began by conducting a thorough audit of Sterling & Finch’s data landscape. This involved identifying critical dependencies within the Legal Case Management system and classifying over 22 terabytes of case data. Our team designed a landing zone in Azure that prioritized security, utilizing Azure Policy and Role-Based Access Control to ensure that only authorized personnel could access sensitive litigation files.

Database Migration and Integration

Allnext utilized Azure Site Recovery and Azure Database Migration Service to transition the firm’s workloads with near-zero downtime. The migration of the Legal Case Management system was treated as the highest priority. We re-platformed the application to run on Azure Virtual Machines, optimized with premium SSD storage to eliminate the latency issues previously experienced.

To address the data challenges, we migrated the firm’s unstructured data to Azure Blob Storage, implementing an automated tiering strategy. This ensures that active case files are readily available on high-performance storage, while archived cases are moved to lower-cost cool storage, optimizing the firm’s cloud spend.

Azure Managed Services

Beyond the migration, Allnext implemented a suite of managed services to provide 24/7 oversight. We deployed Azure Monitor and Microsoft Sentinel to provide real-time visibility into the health and security of the environment.

To solve the remote access challenge, we implemented Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). This provided employees with a consistent, high-performance desktop experience from any location or device, secured by Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and conditional access policies. This transition turned the firm’s IT environment from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

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Conclusion

The partnership between Sterling & Finch and Allnext Technologies has redefined the firm’s operational capabilities. By moving to Microsoft Azure, the firm has successfully mitigated the risks associated with legacy hardware while gaining the agility required to thrive in a digital-first legal landscape.

The Legal Case Management system now operates with a 99.99% uptime, ensuring that attorneys have constant access to the tools they need. Data security is no longer a reactive concern but a proactive strength, backed by automated backups and enterprise-grade encryption. The firm is now positioned for future growth, with the ability to onboard new staff and integrate new technologies at a fraction of the previous cost and time. Allnext continues to serve as a trusted advisor, managing the Azure environment to ensure it evolves alongside the firm’s needs.

Through this digital transformation, Allnext has reinforced its commitment to delivering sophisticated, reliable, and enterprise-ready IT solutions that empower organizations to lead in their respective industries.

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