eDiscovery in 2010: Trends and Influences

If there’s a word that sums up eDiscovery over the past year, it’s dynamic. (Yes, there may be other words that some on the receiving end of sanctions may choose instead, but this is a family-friendly blog.)

The point is, that eDiscovery is constantly moving and changing – the very definition of is it frenetically shifting to capture new technologies, tools and, of course, court rulings. Put all of that together, and it spells one word: dynamic.

However, when reflecting on eDiscovery’s change and development in 2010, we’re not limited to one word — and neither are the folks at CMSwire. They’ve put together a list of the three key elements that defined eDiscovery over the past 12 months:

• Cloud Computing: More companies “took to the cloud” to solve some of their eDiscovery problem. Factors such as increased control, more affordable options, and added flexibility all helped make the cloud a happy, fluffy place for companies to fulfil their eDiscovery obligation – at least in part.

• Enterprise Search: More companies sought eDiscovery platforms featuring enterprise search, so they could dramatically cut down on search time while boosting the quality of results. The need for speed was further amplified by numerous 2010 court sanctions, which demanded litigants to provide eDiscovery in timeframes that they were unable (or, in the court’s angry view, unprepared) to meet.

• Social Media: Companies struggled with the data management challenges posed by social media. While they’ve accepted (some very reluctantly) that tools such as Facebook, Twitter and others are now a mainstay in their corporate communication profile, they don’t have the systems in place to capture, organize, preserve and delete data as required by regulation and the courts.

So what about the future? Stay tuned – we’ll be blogging on what the next 12 months may hold for eDiscovery…