Extract from Doug Austin’s article “This May be the Biggest Looming Issue in eDiscovery That Few People Are Talking About”
When I think of the evolution of discoverable sources of ESI in eDiscovery today, one rule of thumb for what I consider to be likely sources is by considering my own business practices and those of my colleagues. For example, it has become common for many people to communicate with colleagues via text messages and collaboration apps, so I consider those as routinely discoverable sources in most cases today. Another way in which sources of ESI have begun to evolve is the increased hyperlinking to cloud-based files in lieu of attaching files within emails and other communications. And this is becoming a big “can of worms” to address in eDiscovery workflows.
Move Toward Cloud-Based Office Suite Technologies
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations were moving to the cloud for more of their business apps, including the Office suite of technologies, and that has only accelerated since the pandemic with so many workforces working remotely.
According to Statista, Microsoft O365 is now used by over a million companies worldwide, with over 650,000 companies using it in the United States alone. And it’s not even the most popular office suite software used in the cloud: Google’s G Suite controls around 55.2%of the global market (56.97% in the US) and M365 holds around 38% (42.63% in the US).
