Hybrid Cloud & Serverless

PHX Terminal’s infrastructure runs on a hybrid cloud model that combines public cloud services, private cloud infrastructure, and on-premises resources — complemented by serverless computing for elastic, event-driven workloads. This balance lets the platform capture the scalability and cost-efficiency of public cloud while keeping the most sensitive legal data under strict control.

The data residency tension

Microservices and event-driven design are chosen for agility, scalability, and resilience. But the legal domain operates under strict data residency and sovereignty requirements that dictate where data must physically reside and which laws apply. This creates a fundamental tension: how to leverage distributed, globally scalable architectures while keeping sensitive data within specific geographic or legal boundaries.

The hybrid cloud approach resolves this directly:

Workload / data type	Where it lives
Attorney-client privileged data, confidential client information	Private cloud or on-premises infrastructure
Operational data, anonymized analytics, less sensitive information	Public cloud for scalability and cost-efficiency

This lets firms meet stringent data residency requirements while still benefiting from cloud elasticity.

flowchart LR
  DATA["Platform data & workloads"]
  DATA --> CLASS{"Data classification<br/>from inception"}
  CLASS -->|"privileged & confidential"| PRIV["Private cloud / on-premises<br/>strict control · data residency"]
  CLASS -->|"operational & anonymized"| PUB["Public cloud<br/>scale & cost-efficiency"]
  PUB --> SL["Serverless<br/>event-driven microservices"]
  PRIV --> HYBRID["Hybrid cloud model"]
  PUB --> HYBRID
  SL --> HYBRID

Data classification routes each workload to the right tier — privileged data stays under strict control while operational data taps public-cloud and serverless economics.

Serverless computing

Serverless lets developers run application code without provisioning or managing servers. It offers:

Agility and dynamic scalability — infrastructure automatically scales to handle demand fluctuations.
Reduced operational cost through pay-as-you-go pricing — firms pay only for resources consumed.

Serverless effectively powers event-driven microservices, optimizing cost and scaling for fluctuating legal workloads such as spikes in document processing or legal research.

Data classification from inception

Not all data can be treated equally. The architecture must define data classification and flow from the outset: confidential and privileged information demands the highest control (potentially on-premises or in a highly restricted private cloud), while operational or anonymized data can leverage public cloud economics. This requires a sophisticated, legally informed data governance strategy and close collaboration between legal and technical teams to balance agility with compliance.