What is Laserfiche Cloud?
As NASCIO announced, cloud services remain a top priority of state CIOs (Chief Information Officers). Your Laserfiche and cloud journey has two primary options – Laserfiche Cloud or Laserfiche in Managed Cloud. Yes, we offer a white-glove, managed cloud environment built especially for public sector agencies with the top-rated security hosted in Microsoft Azure Government Cloud.
Today, we want to talk about Laserfiche Cloud. While Laserfiche continues to invest in the Laserfiche Cloud option, it takes some strategy and planning to decide if it‘s the best option for your organization. So, let‘s talk about the top 10 myths about Laserfiche Cloud.
Myth #1
Laserfiche Cloud is CJIS Ready
FALSE - Unfortunately, Laserfiche Cloud is not CJIS Ready, which requires hosting on a government platform. Laserfiche Cloud (currently) is in Amazon Web Services (AWS) commercial sector, which means it's multi‐tenant and shared with multiple organizations.
This limitation is one of many reasons we spent the past few years building our Managed Cloud Services. As the top Laserfiche solution provider, our government clients need this next-level security. In addition, Microsoft Azure Government Cloud is FedRAMP level high and qualified to host CJIS data (common for law enforcement agencies).
Myth #2
Laserfiche Cloud allows for multiple repositories
FALSE – Unfortunately, Laserfiche Cloud is limited to one repository. In some organizations, one Laserfiche repository is all you need. In other cases, agencies utilizing one Laserfiche system across the organization benefit from multiple repositories.
For example, a local police department and city clerk’s office use Laserfiche. They often need to share records, but the PD wants to store its accident reports in an additional local repository with limited permissions. For this scenario, the department needs a separate Laserfiche Cloud. Although a Laserfiche self-hosted (on-premise) subscription platform allows a sandbox and multiple repositories or Laserfiche servers, the security, backups, and server maintenance responsibilities can burden the IT department. With our Managed Cloud offering, we take the infrastructure, maintenance, backups, and upgrades – all the headaches away, and can host multiple repos.
Myth #3
Laserfiche Cloud allows for third-party integrations
TRUE – Yes, Laserfiche Cloud has a RESTful API to send, receive, and post requests into Laserfiche Cloud; it also has the Laserfiche Software Developers Kit (SDK) that allows for custom coding in C#, VB.NET, and a Laserfiche Bot. Suppose you are considering robotic process automation or remote agents. In that case, Laserfiche Cloud enables you to access an application, retrieve specific data, and push data to the Laserfiche repository, back and forth, as needed for the data required for your particular process.
Laserfiche Connector is a tool that allows you to screen scrape off different applications and trigger workflows for two-way data sync.
The Laserfiche Development Center is another resource for you to access the Laserfiche API, test the Auth 2.0 authorization server, and collaborate with other developers. One of our favorite resources is the Guide for Getting Started! Many of our customers want to maintain the openness that Laserfiche is famous for while working with other systems but have Laserfiche be their system of record.
Myth #4
Laserfiche Cloud keeps existing business processes when you move or upgrade
TRUE – You keep business processes with a caveat. Laserfiche Forms and Workflows need to be rebuilt in Laserfiche Cloud; there is no straight import. When building a workflow, there is an active, conditional starting event, which Laserfiche Cloud limits to 25 possibilities. This limitation creates a need for a "dispatcher" workflow.
Look at the bright side; it‘s a great time to look at updating or revamping your forms process! We are here to help rebuild forms and workflows if Laserfiche Cloud is a good fit for you.
So, what if you have many active forms and workflows, and the project list keeps growing? That’s when Managed Cloud is a better fit for you. But first, let’s understand how a dispatcher workflow works.
Think of an enterprise environment – what is the first thing that happens? You need a dispatcher to route information from one department to the next. With Laserfiche Cloud, you want to think of workflow similarly. So even though there are 25 active conditional decisions that it is constrained to, you can use what is referred to as a dispatcher workflow. Within that dispatcher workflow, you have dependent choices. Anytime a workflow starts, it can say, “Is this an AP workflow?” and launch the AP workflow. Or if it is an HR (Human Resources) onboarding, a meeting minutes filing workflow, and so on, the same process.
Myth #5
Laserfiche Cloud business process modeler takes an enterprise approach
TRUE – Not only does Laserfiche Cloud business process modeler have input and output parameters specifically within that business process, but it also has business process maintenance. So, within 30, 60, & 90 days, instances are removed to keep the process clean.
Let’s not forget about the Laserfiche Dashboard that gives you a bird’s-eye view of the information, whether it be your active tasks within your business processes or your completed tasks. It does let you “star” essential documents. It will also show you any recent documents you have touched on within the past few days. So, it has a very widget-like feel that allows you to customize your interface to make the most sense.
Reports are easy to access from the dashboard. For example – workload reports, where your processes are, will all be in one place, making the experience a very comfortable and easy user experience to navigate.
Myth #6
Laserfiche Cloud is not secure
FALSE - That is not the case. Laserfiche Cloud not only encrypts data at rest, in the repository but also in transit, over HTTPS and SFTP, with Direct Share. Laserfiche Cloud goes one step further, automates and encrypts all backups, built‐in intrusion detection, and automated security and patch updates. So, it wants to be that IT admin for you.
Myth #7
Laserfiche Cloud only creates nightly backups
FALSE - Thank goodness the answer to that is wrong! In the real world, we update information throughout the day. Backups happen throughout the day and are configurable to retain for at least seven days.
Laserfiche Cloud uses availability zones – multiple data centers housed in separate facilities. If one data center goes down, another data center is ready and waiting in a different zone. These backups are specifically to recover from a system-wide failure – this is not specific to one customer’s data. All this information is essential to your cloud disaster recovery plan.
Myth #8
Laserfiche Cloud repository is only accessible from your web browser
FALSE - The repository is available using the Laserfiche Client (desktop version) or Web Access via your preferred internet browser. Let’s face it – some of us still love the desktop version of Laserfiche for its mimicry of Windows File Manager and File Explorer. Just because you heard “cloud” or “web client” does not mean you have to give up the Laserfiche Client. There are benefits to using the web client, especially for your IT team to update and for you to enjoy the new features.
Myth #9
Laserfiche Cloud limits functionality if I exceed my storage limit
FALSE – Laserfiche Cloud does not have a hard cutoff or error message within the software if you exceed storage limits. Instead, upon renewal, your account manager will discuss storage upgrades or leverage archival solutions to reduce space.
Myth #10
Laserfiche Cloud features are only for Laserfiche Cloud accounts
FALSE – Laserfiche continues developing new hybrid features, and more roll out yearly. One recent hybrid feature release is Direct Share, a way to share files securely outside your repository with people who do not have a Laserfiche user license. More hybrid features are coming!
