In 2010 we have seen many exciting changes to the e-discovery landscape. Metadata and social media have now become standards to be included in discovery requests. Litigation continued to rise in a lagging economy and the sanctions relating to e-discovery violations grew as courts increased awareness. The use of e-discovery tools have been extended for both regulatory compliance and internal investigation functions as well.
In response, corporations have begun to look into new ways to approach the e-discovery problem. First, they have reached out to create internal or external clouds for e-discovery. They have also incorporated archiving into their e-discovery process, a move which intimates the continuing trend of moving discovery in-house.
In 2011 we see similar trends coming to the fore. The incorporation of more data sources (including structured databases), coupled with more advanced analytics and outsourcing to the cloud for space and processing power will ensure that the year ahead will be a dynamic one. For a full 2011 projection check out ZL Technologies' 12 Important E-Discovery Trends for 2011 and Beyond published by eweek.com.
