Data Room Virtual

Understanding Data Room Virtual Solutions and Use Cases

A data room virtual solution (also referred to as a digital or virtual data room) is a secure, online storage platform for critical or sensitive data that can be accessed remotely through a login portal. This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution is distinct from historical data rooms, which were, quite literally, rooms where physical documents were stored.

Digital Transformation Catalyzed Data Room Virtual Adoption

Physical data rooms presented certain challenges to enterprises and government organizations. Three major issues included:

1. Administrative burdens around maintaining physical records.
2. Hardware and software upkeep costs.
3. Inability for remote stakeholders to access records online.

The advent of digital data, combined with the ease of cloud storage and file sharing, accelerated the development of SaaS data room virtual solutions. These cloud-based platforms provided enterprises and organizations with a way to securely store and share sensitive information, such as due-diligence files (for mergers and acquisitions), financial reports, customer records, or product designs.

Benefits of Data Room Virtual Solutions

Data room virtual solutions (or VDRs) often include cutting-edge security tools, access controls, and collaboration features to protect data from unauthorized access while preserving ease-of-use for users. They can be accessed from any internet-connected device, and storage can often scale to accommodate expanding needs.

Data Room Virtual Use Cases

Data rooms are particularly useful for businesses or organizations that need to share large files or collaborate on projects in real-time. They may even benefit from having multiple “rooms” within the solution, a staging area where teams can collaborate and review documents, as well as a final destination or immutable archive for files, which disallows data export or additional file changes.

Data Room Virtual – Example Use Case

An R&D contractor working on a project for a government transit authority is preparing a new product launch. The data room virtual solution can be created to store and collaborate with product stakeholders on solution briefs, material lists, product assembly designs, and manufacturing agreements.

• Internal team members and government stakeholders, as well as external contractors and subject matter experts, can access the latest versions of these files and review previous versions with unlimited file versioning.
• Users can exchange messages and comments to easily provide feedback throughout the development phases in a visible and accessible manner.
• Security protocols, such as role-based access controls, remote device management, multi-factor authentication, and SSO login, ensure only authorized users gain access to the data.
• Audit logs, security alerts, and SIEM integration help capture activity within the environment to support breach detection and resolution.
• Admins can enable granular folder, sub-folder, and file permissions to determine who exactly (users or groups) can view, modify, share, or delete data.

Identifying the Best Data Room Virtual Solution for Your Project

Data room virtual solutions offer a high level of security alongside accessible remote access and a cloud-like user interface. These are essential elements to protect critical information while supporting file sharing and collaboration.

The first step in evaluating data room virtual solutions is deciding which functionalities are most important for your enterprise or organization’s use case.

Here are seven questions to help you get started:

1. How many people (users) will need full access to the solution?
2. What is the timeframe for deployment and how long will the VDR need to exist?
3. What is the preferred deployment for the VDR? (self-hosted vs vendor-hosted? On-prem vs cloud?)
4. How much data will need to be stored in the environment?
5. How will users typically be accessing the data? (e.g., via mobile device, on-site machine, remote desktop, etc.)
6. What types of access measures are needed to adequately protect data?
7. Does the VDR need to include data governance or regulatory compliance support to meet the use case requirements?