This article will answer the question of what is a Data Room and explain why it is useful.
What does a good VDR have to offer?
This is an Internet site, usually created for a specific period and for a specific purpose, which provides authorized users with access to a secure database of documents, in accordance with their access rights. Actually, the virtual data room just solves the problem with time, cost, and ease of access to documents.
A good VDR requires state-of-the-art data protection, which deserves a separate paragraph. An unprotected virtual data room is simply not suitable for this purpose. Users should feel absolutely confident that they can store and share confidential personal and corporate documents in their data room without fear of a breach. So it’s not easy.
But there are plenty of other features that won’t harm the data room. It’s a long list: reliability (the last thing you want is crashes), usability (attractive interface, good UX, functionality for its own purposes), flexibility (giving users the ability to make the data room work according to their needs, work with different forms software and giving users the ability to scale) and mobile (you should be able to use it on the go, not just on your desktop).
Each virtual data center is located in an isolated network; its operation does not depend on the neighbors on the cloud. Managing a cloud site is like managing your own pool of physical servers, but it only takes a few minutes to scale resources.
In principle, a similar database can be created on a corporate intranet portal, but creating an intranet portal from scratch takes much longer and costs significantly more than opening a virtual data room.
How to choose a provider?
So, if you still need a virtual data room, it remains to determine how to choose a provider. At first glance, this is similar to choosing an ISP, and therefore you can approach the procedure with the following criteria:
- Having experience in implementing projects like yours. If you do not have such experience, the performer will learn from you. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with this, and, in principle, it can be used to negotiate a price reduction, but in this case, you need to be aware of all the risks.
- In general, it is worth getting an offer from several companies in the market that provide a similar range of services and make a choice according to their needs.
- Availability of round-the-clock technical support, speaking a language understood by your employees and potential buyers (in most cases, at least, the provider’s manager, speaking Russian and English).
- Ability to get both a ready-made “boxed” product and a flexible “designer” for your specific needs (depending on your specific needs).
- Simplicity, usability, and intuitive interface of the virtual data room interface. Reduces the time spent studying and the number of possible errors from incorrect actions.
- Availability and method of translation by the provider of information from paper to electronic (important with an initially large amount of paper documentation).
- Degree of information protection. In principle, the methods of information protection are about the same for all providers, so this point is more related to the degree of paranoia in the seller and potential buyers.
- Data placement. You need to decide where you prefer to store your sensitive data – on the provider’s equipment or on your servers.