NOTE: You can always check and change your case plan at any time. Learn how to do so here.
Why are cases not automatically downgraded in GoldFynch?
The challenge revolves around efficiently allocating resources. The GoldFynch application, like modern eDiscovery software, is built on cloud computing and storage. Despite the cloud's promise of infinite scaling, real-time scaling rarely occurs. The complexity increases when multiple cloud systems (processing, storage, databases) are involved due to their differing scaling rates. Optimally requisitioning resources in both directions, like case expansion (upgrades) and case contraction (downgrades), is frankly quite complex from a software design point of view.
Ideally, automating both operations is desirable. However, complexities led us to limit it to one direction. Early on, we realized the criticality of case upgrades for reviews. It's common for customers to upgrade cases at the start of review as data uploads, prompting us to automate upgrades. This benefits customers through prorated pricing.
For example, if you have a 3GB case plan and upload a 50GB zip file (common for prorated pricing), the system anticipates the large file and procures additional resources. Typically, the 50GB file expands to around 75 GB. Infrastructure expansion occurs in the background, ensuring swift processing post-upload.
Now, suppose you realize that you uploaded the wrong file. Deleting it reduces case volume. If automatic downgrades existed, the case would downgrade. Yet, if you started to immediately upload the correct 50GB file, it would trigger a clash in the background – the system seeks more resources for the large file while offloading resources for the downgrade.
This presents a complex software problem. So, we offer a manual downgrade option. While the system offloads resources in the background, you can manually click downgrade and the billing system instantly adjusts to the lower case volume rate. Automatic downgrades, if implemented, would still need a trigger such as case volume utilization. The system would offload all additional resources for the lower case plan and only then downgrade. The manual downgrade option benefits the user with a quicker response on the billing end of things.
This approach maintains operational stability, navigates complexities, and provides flexibility in a cloud-based context, and is ultimately more cost efficient to the customer, since they can downgrade the case almost immediately after deleting files, without having to wait for the system to catch up.
NOTE: You can always check whether a lower case plan is available on your specific case by looking at the Overview page of the case and clicking the "Change" button. More detailed information on changing your case plan can be found here.
