Business Continuity: Backing Up iManage Content to SharePoint with Self-Service Recovery

Business Continuity: Backing Up iManage Content to SharePoint with Self-Service Recovery

imDocShare Sync

Document Management System outages are rare, but when they happen, users lose access to the content they need that day. imDocShare Sync continuously mirrors core repository content into SharePoint, so firms have a living, working backup that attorneys can access themselves the moment primary system goes down, without waiting on a support tickets.

Challenge

The Challenge

Document Management System outages do not announce themselves. Whether the cause is a vendor incident, a network failure, or scheduled maintenance that runs long, attorneys are left unable to open the matters they were working on minutes earlier. For larger firms and the legal IT providers that support them, this is a recurring conversation.


Today, that gap is often filled by standalone legal client-portal platforms, which firms adopt partly for their continuity story even when a portal isn't otherwise needed. Firms without SPM or a dedicated continuity tool are left with no good answer when a partner asks, "What happens if DMS goes down during a closing?"

Solution

How imDocShare Sync Solves It

Step 01

Continuous mirroring

imDocShare Sync keeps a live, up-to-date copy of iManage workspaces and folders in SharePoint, so the backup is never more than a sync cycle behind.

Step 02

Self-service access

Attorneys can open, read, and continue working on mirrored content directly in SharePoint during an outage, without filing a ticket or waiting on IT.

Step 03

Automatic reconciliation

When the core system comes back online, changes made in SharePoint during the outage sync back, so nothing has to be manually re-entered.

Step 04

Familiar interface

Because the fallback lives in SharePoint, attorneys are working in an environment they already know, rather than learning a separate continuity tool.

Step 05

Full audit trail

Every sync cycle and every change made is logged, giving IT and compliance a clear record of what happened and when.

Always-On Continuous Content Mirroring
Self-Service Attorney Access During Outages
1 in 3 Firms That Ask About Backup/Continuity
Real-World Example

Continuity at Scale Across Hundreds of Firms

600 represented firms

One reputed legal IT services provider managing 600+ represented firms reports that roughly one in three of those firms specifically asks about a business continuity or backup option for their document management system.

The firm fields business-continuity questions constantly; sometimes directly from a firm's partners, sometimes from the firm's own IT team planning for the worst case. Using imDocShare Sync, the provider can offer every represented firm a standing SharePoint mirror of their iManage content, so an outage becomes a brief inconvenience rather than a fire drill, and the provider has one consistent answer to give every firm that asks.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the SharePoint copy a one-time backup or does it stay current?

It stays current. imDocShare Sync mirrors content on an ongoing basis, so the SharePoint copy reflects recent activity rather than a stale snapshot.

Can attorneys make edits in SharePoint during an outage?

Yes. Edits made in SharePoint while DMS is unavailable sync back automatically once the DMS is restored.

Does this replace a dedicated disaster recovery plan?

No. It complements one. imDocShare Sync addresses day-to-day access continuity; firms with stricter recovery-time requirements should still maintain a formal DR plan alongside it.

Do we need Security Policy Manager (SPM) to use this?

No. The continuity mirror works with or without SPM, though firms using SPM will see Ethical Wall permissions honored in the mirrored content as well.

How is this different from a generic SharePoint backup tool?

Generic backup tools restore files after the fact. imDocShare Sync keeps a continuously working copy attorneys can use immediately, without a restore step.

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See how imDocShare Sync keeps your firm working through an iManage outage.