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Linux Meets the Legal Community

by Liz Coolbaugh, November 12th, 1998

This time, we aren't talking licensing or lawsuits. I met on October 20th, with Bruce Kiefer, from the offices of Holland and Hart, known as the "Rocky Mountain Region's International Law Firm." Founded in 1947 by Steve Hart and Joe Holland, Holland and Hart has over 200 attorneys located across the Rocky Mountain region. Bruce Kiefer is a Systems Administrator, working in their Technology Services division.

Bruce and I met originally when he contacted Eklektix, Inc. in the summer of 1998 looking for Linux Systems Administration training classes. We developed a customized training class for Bruce and three of his fellow systems administrators. Later, knowing that we also produce the Linux Weekly News, he contacted me and suggested a possible interview to discuss what they are doing with Linux now. I was interested and happy to set up the meeting, but I was unprepared for all that I would hear. Linux has truly entered these law offices with a vengeance! It has done so not by replacing existing platforms, but by providing solutions for new needs and doing it better and more cost effectively than other possibilities.

Bruce and his group have been "playing" with Linux for a long-time. They are not a group of kernel-hackers, but instead a group of professional systems administrators, always interested in new options with potential value. For example, Holland and Hart, like many commercial operations, has a very high equipment turn-over. They generally replace about 25% of their equipment every year. As a result, especially in recent years, some of the old hardware was really quite useable. They looked to see if Linux could salvage and make use of this hardware. That project did not particularly take off, but it built a base of familiarity with Linux internally.

Meanwhile, since the Linux boxes weren't working as well as originally hoped, they built their first Web-based project, an internal HTML database containing over 600,000 Wordperfect documents translation to HTML, using Netscape's server and Cold Fusion. This went well. Then, they moved on to upgrading their networking infrastructure from IPX to IP.

Around March of 1998, they started playing with Caldera OpenLinux. They were interested (and still are) Caldera's Netware integration and planned NDS products. But the project that really brought them back to Linux was the move from IPX to IP. They really needed a new model for a host propagation service, preferably one that was DNS-based.

They looked at Netware's DNS/DHCP product, but it required encapsulating the IP packets within Netware/IP. They found this "unappealing and administratively difficult", especially for the remote offices they support. They also examined NT's DNS, but found it not to be a true Bind implementation so that option was discarded.

Next, they looked at a product from MetaInfo, a standards-based company that ports to NT. They have sendmail, DNS, and a nice replication scheme. However, the licensing is expensive, based on a seat by seat cost. They knew Unix systems would support such standards without the extra costs, but they didn't have a Unix platform that they were comfortable supporting.

Linux, it dawned on them, was an alternative. They tried the recently-released RedHat 5.0, but again ran into problems. That's when they contacted Eklektix, Inc. for training. The training brought all their staff to an equal level of knowledge and comfort with Linux installations and administration. "We still refer to the training book a lot," commented Bruce.

In addition to the training, they had "churned" through enough hardware that their available platforms were now Dell systems with Pentiums. Red Hat 5.1 had been released. The installations started moving a lot more smoothly. They put up a couple of boxes in the July/August time frame and were pretty happy with them.

The Cobalt Qube

Simultaneous to the above-mentioned training course and initial DNS implementations on Linux, another issue surfaced. Bandwidth problems were clogging the network links between the central office in Denver and its satellite hubs, located across Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Montana.

The Holland and Hart network is implemented in a hub/spoke architecture, with each of the regional offices directly connected to the central office in downtown Denver. Some of the network connections to the regional offices are fairly small. For example, the Aspen, Colorado and Jackson Hole, Wyoming offices are connected via 56K, since the costs for T1 connections to these areas are exorbitant, up to $5000 per month. They have only a few users in these areas, so there is no justification for an increase in bandwidth.

Yet, they had new web servers in place, serving both internal and external applications. People needed to be able to access these servers, but the bandwidth was not keeping pace with their needs. They considering propagating servers to those sites but there are no technical employees in the regional offices to support such servers. The bulk of the data was also prohibitive for copying and mirroring. Finally, remote management tools for NT were not acceptable either, so this option was discarded.

Sometime in the summer of 1998, Bruce ran across a mention of the Cobalt Qube. Their caching webserver sounded like an excellent solution to the problem. It would replicate web content automatically but only the portion that was needed. They acquired one on a trial basis and hammered it hard. Their tests included using four separate NT servers running 100 simultaneous http connections to the Qube. Brought up about ten minutes apart from each other, the servers were allowed to hammer the Qube for over an hour, simulating more traffic than Holland and Hart generally sees in a day. The Qube was rock solid. "We learned it wasn't just cute, it was a really well-built product," said Bruce.

They were very impressed. Bruce wondered whether or not the Qube could also be used to support DNS as well. So he contacted Cobalt Micro. The response, "Sure! It's just Linux!" This was the first time he realized that the Qube was running the Linux operating system. So Bruce asked if they could support DHCP as well. Within 24 hours, he had the DHCP package in hand.

They began to see the Qube as a full service platform rather than a simple web caching server. They ordered 10 additional boxes, one for each regional offices. In fact, during the interview, six of these small blue boxes were scattered around the office. The first Qube was scheduled to be deployed two days after our interview. From email conversations with Bruce afterwards, it went totally smoothly, with no problems.

So their first Linux implementation is in the process of deployment and working out great. The cost savings over similar setups using other operating systems has been phenomenal. In addition, being a law office, they see a legal advantage to the use of Linux. As one of the lawyers in the office told Bruce, software licenses look different to each person that reads them. That makes it difficult to guarantee that you are in compliance. With the free software solutions they used, the potential legal hassles diminished.

Bruce's boss, Larry Barela, Manager of Technology Services, was also impressed. He now wants to build turnkey solutions for other law offices. Once Cold Fusion is available for Linux, new web applications can be implemented on Linux as well.

The Netwinder

Along with the blue boxes stacked in Bruce's office were several larger, but flatter boxes. These were Corel Netwinders. Holland and Hart is looking at using Netwinders to build "Web terminals" in their library carrels. These carrels are used to conduct legal research. The services that provide facilities for such research are very expensive. Previously, they were only available using proprietary gateways or shared modem pools. Now a lot of them are moving to the web. Legal research facilities charge a lot. Eliminating the support of shared modem pools will help reduce their costs.

The Netwinders are perfect for this particular application. They generate very little heat and take up little space. "We can practically staple them under the desk." Bruce mentioned that the Netwinder was not a "clever" as the Cobalt Qube. However, they plan to change the window manager to KDE, slap on Netscape and deploy four to five new "Web Terminals" in the springtime. With Web interfaces, Linux works great because everything you need is there and maintenance is low.

The Database Server

At the Atlanta Linux Showcase in October of 1998, Allen Miner predicted that 1999 would be the year of Linux ERP (Enterprise Resource Programs). Since to my view, ERP is a fancy buzzword for the applications that will deploy the recently announced database systems from Oracle, Informix, Sybase (as well as many others), the outlook at Holland and Hart supports Allen. There are year 2000 problems with the time and billing system used at these law offices, something of absolutely critical concern. Bruce and his group have been looking at a three tiered solution, a Java front-end, a web server and a back-end database.

Bruce explained that with most databases, you also need the development tools provided by the vendor in order to develop your application. The tools are proprietary and lock you in to a specific vendor. However, the Web erases that layer. The database becomes a backend to the Web and no development tools are required. This backend can be chosen and even replaced without modifying the upper layers of the solution.

"Linux is a great platform for what we call a JADB, Just Another DataBase," Bruce commented. It is extremely good at just moving records and maintaining integrity. They first looked at the Empress Borland Data (EBD) and commented that it is an impressive engine. However, the announcement of Linux support from Oracle changed their focus. They have more Oracle knowledge in house. They also looked at free software solutions, such as mysql, but, being a law office, they need accountability for something as critical as their time and billing system. "No matter how good the application looks, the lawyers will ask what it is running on," Bruce explained. They need a commercial product. Right now, they are in a holding pattern to see how the various databases on Linux pan out. "We want to see the 'dot' release. It needs to be very stable and we need a demonstration of commitment on the part of the vendor."

For the top level of their application, they outsourced the development to a local company. The fourth prototype of the Java implementation is now being tested and is very smooth. So they should be ready to put it all together next year when they can finally choose their backend database and platform. They expect to see Linux running a commercial database; the only question is which commercial database vendor will emerge with the best commitment and support for the platform.

In Summary

Not all of Holland and Hart's upcoming projects will be running Linux. For example, they currently have an NT firewall that needs to be replaced. "NT is not appropriate for a 'border' implementation, one that must interoperate with other platforms," Bruce explained. However, Linux was not the most appropriate choice either. Instead, they are examining a variety of commercial options, from Checkpoint (the same firewall they are running on NT) on NetBSD, to Solaris, to another alternative firewall by Nokia.

Bruce finished by stating, "We're pretty excited about all of the upcoming projects. We've reached a point where we can pick the right operating system for the right job. NT and Netware will stay, but Linux can cross many lines." We think it is pretty exciting as well. Three months ago, we came to give a class to people with varying levels of familiarity with Linux, but no expertise. I returned to find Linux being actively deployed to serve their regional offices, scheduled for installation to support their research library and potentially a platform for that most critical service for a law office, their time and billing system.

Linux has been measured fairly against other available solutions and found to be the best for many of their needs. The performance, low cost, reliability and ease of administration of the Linux-based solutions stands out clearly. In this instance, Linux has met the Legal Community and both sides are pretty happy as a result.