Is A Virtual Data Room Better Than A Data Center?
As a businessman, you now have more options to choose from when it comes to looking for storage and data sharing solutions. Two common platforms to consider are; physical data centers and a virtual data room. But how do these two solutions differ? Is a virtual data room better than a data center?
A virtual data room can simply be defined as an online repository of information and is used to secure, store and distribute sensitive information and documents to authorized users. Trusted data rooms such as the Firmex’s Data Room can be used to support even the most complex tasks such as litigation compliance and due diligence.
A data center on the other hand is a physical facility that can be used by a company or business to store important data and critical applications. The data center design is mainly established on storage resources and a network of computing that facilitates the sharing of applications and data. The main components of a data center are switches, firewalls for security, servers, routers, and application delivery controllers.
There are several types of data centers and these include; enterprise data centers, managed services data centers that are managed by a third party and colocation data centers that are usually located off the company’s premises.
Virtual networks or Cloud data centers are hosted by service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) IBM Cloud and other public cloud providers. In this era where businesses operate across countries and continents, it is very important for your business to have data centers that can communicate across multiple sites both in the cloud or on-site. This is why many companies and businesses are making the switch to virtual data rooms.
Let’s look at 2 reasons why virtual data rooms are better than physical data centers.
1. Cost-Effectiveness and Convenience
When using a physical data center, you will need to keep a room on your premises or hire space in a controlled or secured environment. You must keep logs of everyone who accesses the data center and who sees the specific versions of every document. Since the data center is a physical location, the required parties must avail themselves physically to view the information. For example, during an audit, the auditors must make arrangements to be present at the data center to view the information. While this ensures that sensitive information is not leaked, it is not cost-effective or convenient for all the parties involved.
This is why you need to invest in a virtual data room. Since all the sensitive data is managed digitally, you will not need to secure a physical location. This means that all the people who need access to the information no longer need to be transported or hosted in hotels; they simply access the information virtually.
To ensure that all the information is kept safe, access to data can be revoked when it’s no longer needed. For example, when the audit is completed, all the auditor’s rights can be revoked so that they don’t access any more information.
2. Control
Thanks to the specialized features in the data room, the risk of human error is greatly reduced. Customizable permission settings such as dynamic watermarks and document expiration allow proper control over who has access to specific documents within the data center. Activity reports enable the administrator to track the activities of users and stakeholders. For example, during M & A transactions, the administrator can determine the level of interest by looking at the activities on their documents.
