Data rooms are places used by companies to secure, store, share, and track confidential business documents. There are two types of data rooms, physical data rooms and virtual data rooms. The former is a physical solution for storing important business information. A virtual data room is an online solution for storing and distributing critical business documents. Below, we will explore the differences between the two types of data rooms.
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Accessibility
A physical data room has many limitations in terms of who can access them and when they can be accessed. For instance, only a limited number of people can be in the data room at a particular time. If the maximum number of occupants is exceeded, the other will have to wait until the occupants vacate the data room. That is why one is required to schedule an appointment before visiting a traditional data room.
On the contrary, a virtual data room can be accessed by many people at the same time. It has global accessibility. As long as a person’s device has been registered, he or she can access the data room remotely at their own pace without booking an appointment.
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Security
To prevent leakage of information, the management of a physical data room may prohibit users from entering the data room with their mobile phones. The users may also be escorted during their time in the data room and will have to sign a register before accessing the room. To ensure security, virtual data rooms are equipped with various tools and features. Example of security features to look for when shopping for a data room include:
- Use of strong encryption methods
- Digital watermarking
- ISO compliance
- Comprehensive view restrictions
- Audit logs
- Monitoring of user’s IP addresses, devices, and locations
- SSO (single sign-on) integration
- Use of two-factor authentication
Visit Here for more information on virtual data room security tools and features.
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Reliability
Because of security and oversight requirements, physical data rooms can be accessible only at certain times of the day. If a team has to travel from another town or country, this can be very inconvenient for them. Furthermore, searching through data in a physical room is time-consuming, especially if the documentation is in print form. In contrast, a virtual data room offers faster and easier access to data, making it more reliable. Visitors can do everything remotely, and transactions can be completed faster and at any time since all data is accessible via the internet.
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Operational cost
Virtual data rooms are more economical to maintain compared to physical data rooms. This is because, first, there are no costs incurred in maintaining various security levels to facilitate access to a physical facility. Secondly, since everything is digitized and accessible online, there are minimal to zero printing costs, plus easier disaster recovery from accidents such as fires or other natural disasters. Finally, visitors representing different transacting parties do not have to incur travel and accommodation costs to access the data they need for decision making.
