Why moving iManage to the cloud doesn’t automatically solve every security challenge

For many law firms, moving to iManage Cloud has been one of the biggest technology projects of the last few years.

The benefits are clear: firms have reduced their reliance on physical infrastructure, lowering costs and making collaboration easier and more flexible across teams, offices and jurisdictions.

Important to note: iManage is widely recognised as one of the most secure document and email management platforms available to legal and professional services firms. Trusted by more than one million professionals across 65+ countries, and if you want to get technical – the platform is built on Microsoft Azure and incorporates a native Zero Trust architecture, advanced threat detection, customer-managed encryption, detailed audit trails and granular access controls designed to protect sensitive information.

But there’s a common misconception that often follows a successful cloud migration: “because iManage is secure, we don’t need to do anything else”.

The reality is more complicated. While iManage provides a highly secure foundation, cloud platforms don’t automatically solve every challenge associated with protecting the information stored within them, and many of the risks firms faced before migration still exist today.

Why old security assumptions still exist

Information now moves further and faster than it did when document management systems were largely confined to office networks.

For many firms, moving to iManage Cloud delivered the outcomes they were looking for. However, once users are migrated and the platform is running smoothly, attention naturally shifts elsewhere.

The challenge is that the risks around information change as ways of working change, and firms need to understand whether the controls around information have also evolved.

That’s why for many firms, taking a fresh look at security is increasingly important – modern SaaS environments require a different approach than on-prem environments.

The risks that didn’t disappear

The question isn’t whether iManage Cloud itself is secure. It’s whether firms have sufficient visibility and control over their information.

1: Oversharing and poor permissions

Most firms have experienced some form of oversharing, whether they realise it or not. Access is granted for good reasons, but over time information can become available to a much wider audience than intended.

The challenge isn’t always the access itself. It’s having confidence that the right people, and only the right people, can see sensitive information. If firms aren’t sure, demonstrating control becomes much harder during client audits, regulatory reviews or investigations.

2: Uncontrolled data growth

Cloud platforms make storing information easier than ever, which means data volumes can grow quickly.

At first, that’s not necessarily a problem. Eventually though, firms can find themselves asking some fairly basic questions: Where is sensitive information? Who has access to it? What actually presents the greatest risk?

The more information there is, the harder it becomes to answer those questions confidently and identify what needs protecting most.

3: Inconsistent governance

Most firms have policies for how information should be managed. The challenge is that people don’t all work in exactly the same way. Different teams develop different habits, exceptions are introduced and processes evolve over time.

Over time, the gap between policy and reality can grow wider until the way information is actually managed is entirely different from the intended approach.

4: User behaviour

Not every security risk starts with technology. Lawyers work in a fast-paced environment, deadlines are tight and clients want answers quickly.

When processes create friction, people naturally look for another route. When secure ways of working feel difficult, risk often increases without anyone intending it to.

That’s why understanding user behaviour is often just as important as understanding the technology itself.

Security isn’t just a technology problem

It’s very easy to think of security as purely a technology problem. In reality, it also sits across people and processes.

A document management platform can control access, but someone still needs to decide who should have access. Governance policies can define good practice, but people need to understand and follow them. Security tools can identify risks, but firms need a way to respond to them.

That’s why cloud migration shouldn’t be considered the end of the conversation around security.

Does your security model reflect how people work today?

Many firms have modernised their document management platform. But not all have taken the opportunity to revisit the security model that sits around it.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is visibility. You can’t govern what you can’t see. You can’t review access you don’t understand. And you can’t confidently demonstrate compliance if you don’t know where your risks are.

Moving to iManage Cloud is undoubtedly a positive step. The question is whether the security and governance model around it has evolved at the same pace.