Virtual Data Room (VDR)

Should You Still Be Using VDR?

In 2017, when the script of Game of Thrones was leaked, hackers demanded $6 million in ransom. The stakes have only increased since then - and not just for the entertainment industry. Growing decentralization of the workspace since the pandemic has led to an increasing need for secure ways to share documents.

Now, before the “paperless world” age, businesses had to go to great lengths to keep their confidential documents safe. After all, one document in the wrong hands could mean a blown opportunity, a lawsuit, loss of reputation, or worse. And that’s how data rooms - physically secure spaces with access limited only to the right people – came into play. But operating such spaces was costly, energy- and time-intensive, and less efficient.

Enter – Virtual Data Room or VDRs. These are the physical data rooms of today; essentially, private online spaces for users to work collaboratively in a controlled environment. And industries like healthcare, technology, and financial services have lapped it up in droves. As per recent research, the global virtual data room market was valued at $1.13 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $3.66 billion by 2028. That’s a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.9% from 2021 to 2028.

What is Virtual Data Room?

A virtual data room is a secure online space that acts as a repository of a company's confidential documents. Its sole purpose is to allow users to share critical business information with clients, investors, and co-workers.

VDRs have eliminated the inefficient and time-consuming workflow management associated with the physical data rooms. In a VDR, files can be stored securely on an online server or in the cloud. Businesses are discovering several benefits of leveraging virtual data room. Primary among them include enhanced safety, collaboration, multiple users simultaneously logging in, remote access support, document management, and secure data management.

VDRs have found great use in certain industries like real estate, financial services, healthcare, legal, and technology. However, there are some limitations. Let’s deep dive.

Limitations of Virtual Data Centers

• Poor user experience: Many VDRs can be difficult to navigate and use, resulting in a poor user experience for both internal and external users. This often leads to frustration, delays, and decreased productivity.
• Complexity: VDRs can be complex to set up and use, requiring technical expertise and training. This can be a significant barrier for businesses that do not have dedicated IT resources or staff with technical skills.
• Limited customization: Traditional VDRs can be rigid in terms of customizing access permissions and document management, making it difficult to tailor the platform to meet specific business needs. This can result in inefficient workflows and an increased risk of errors or data breaches.
• High costs: VDRs can be expensive, particularly for businesses that require large amounts of storage or frequent access to documents. In addition, many VDRs have hidden fees or opaque pricing structures, making it difficult to estimate costs accurately.
• Adoption: The digital natives are often quick to adopt new technology. However, there is a large portion of the market better served by alternatives that can be automated in the backend, achieving the same results without any need for training.
• Security concerns: While VDRs are designed to be secure, they can still present security concerns. And this is a very important aspect that should be clear.

1. For instance, most of them claim that the data is stored encrypted at rest on a secure server. But if the documents are being decrypted on the server before being delivered to the browser, that could mean thousands of temporary files lying on the server like sitting ducks! So, there is a critical need to ensure that temp files are cleaned up after every use and there is 24/7 security for the server hosting such files. Ideally, documents shouldn’t be allowed to leave the secure interface; instead, they must be protected locally and then distributed securely.
2. Document tracking, again, isn’t a reliable measure of security. If the user is using a VPN system, they can choose a dedicated IP address (or static IP) and multiple users can use the same VPN. On top of this, the IP addresses of home internet connections are changed daily, some users share the same IP address with others, and a switch from wifi to mobile also results in a change in the IP addresses. So, tracking IP addresses can’t be relied upon.
3. A lot of DRM (Document Rights Management) controls that are thought of as secure while viewing the documents within a browser aren’t that secure and can be easily bypassed. And sometimes, there are some limits on what data rooms can control – like screen grabbing and printing to PDF.

So, is there an alternative to the limitations of traditional VDRs? RDocs™, an innovative EDRM solution comes to mind. You can share confidential documents with your network in a secure manner, and control every aspect of who is reading what, where, when, how many times, for how long, and even revoke access temporarily or permanently after the send.

What Does RDocs™ Offer?

Built on decades of expertise in email security and compliance, RDocs™ is essentially a “data room without the room.” All the controls that empower you to protect, track, or kill access to documents in-the-ether, even after sending – are built within the document itself. So, you don’t need any companion software downloads or logins for your readers. Let’s see how.

Control document access - RDocs™ converts any presentation or document into an RPD™ (Rights Protected Document™) file which the reader sees as a normal .html file, openable in any browser and on any device. All the controls that you assign - tracking reader activity or restricting access to certain viewers - are assigned within the document itself. That means no storage of content anywhere.

There are three levels of security within RDocs™. Level 1 security lets the recipient just open and view documents. As a sender, you can opt to restrict viewing to certain geographies or other internet locations, such as only within your corporate network. You can apply additional protections such as watermarking, timestamping, proof of sending, restricting print, or simply killing the document.

Level 2 security provides you insights tagged to each reader. You can add additional controls like dynamic watermarking to discourage data leakers, pause or remove access to individual readers, and enable multi-factor authentication to access your document. You get insights in a web-based activity log, listing readers, and their authenticated email addresses. You will get to know how much time the readers spent reading your documents and which pages caught their interest the most.

Level 3 security is where you get the true superpowers of restricting access. It offers an extra layer of protection by enabling you to restrict viewing of the document to a pre-approved viewer or list of viewers. You can also make changes to the list of authorized readers after the send.

Manage content sharing – RDocs™ enables you to manage content shares down to the granular details. You can make a document self-destruct on a timer, on a specific date, after a number of views, or at the click of a button. All so you can “unsend” a misaddressed sensitive attachment.

RDocs™ further allows you to add dynamic watermarks that are associated with each viewer to discourage unauthorized sharing, or ultimately to track a leaker with actionable proof.

You can even restrict screen captures and printing. RDocs™ allows you to control every aspect of who is reading what, where, when, how many times, for how long, and even revoke access temporarily or permanently after the send.

Restrict views by location – This is another powerful element that RDocs™ provides in the decentralized economy of the post-pandemic world. Whether your content is specific to a particular geography, you need to share pricing lists by region, restrict access to a document within your corporate network, or more, RDocs™ allows you to limit access to an RPD™ by internet domain, geographic, or internet location.

All you need to do is just navigate to the interactive map or enter the approved IP range, CIDR list, or internet domain manually to control exactly who and where your documents can be accessed.

Control or kill content after sent - Whether you need to revoke access to a document for a specific reader, or you realize you sent the wrong file by mistake, or simply decide to kill a document altogether, RDocs™ enables you to “unsend” a sent document. You can keep track of who is reading what and where, how much time readers spend on the file, and what they think, and then decide whether to ban access for one, some, or all and even kill documents. You can also revoke access to recipients even after the RPD™ has been sent.

Interact in the document – RDocs™ enables real-time interactivity within the document itself in a secure environment ready for the increasingly collaborative, hybrid workspace. You can append contextual notes to your documents, display the readers’ list, route responses to your preferred inbox, and distribute and track your documents securely. To get an even more collaborative feel, you can also have reader polls.

How is RDocs™ Different from Traditional Virtual Data Room?

RDocs™ is a unique solution, offering several benefits as compared to traditional VDRs.

• Ease of use and adoption: RDocs™ is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly for senders and readers, meaning users can access the information they need quickly and easily without requiring technical skills. Additionally, the robust API and server automation options of RDocs™ allow it to be seamlessly integrated into the flow of work. For example, RDocs™ can be installed right at the server level. So, if certain custom conditions are met when sending an email, the attachments are automatically converted into an RPD™ en route without any user action whatsoever!
• Greater flexibility: RDocs™ offers greater flexibility in document management and access permissions, allowing savvy users to customize how data is shared and accessed. Traditional VDRs are often more rigid and limited in terms of customizing access permissions.
• Increased security: RDocs™ uses advanced security measures to protect confidential information, such as double-layered encryption, user authentication, and user activity tracking. The biggest advantage is the ability to “kill” the content even after the send! Additionally, RDocs™ by design is compliant with the most rigorous data privacy and security regulations, such as HIPAA and GDPR.
• Accessibility: For readers, accessing RDocs™ only requires an internet connection, making it easier to access information and collaborate on documents from anywhere in the world without the need to download special companion software or incur licensing costs.
• Collaboration: RDocs™ offers advanced collaboration features, such as real-time SideNotes, voting, conversation management options , and more. This makes it easier for teams to work together on documents and streamline workflows and makes RDocs™ the perfect solution for a wide variety of business cases.

Who Can Use RDocs™?

RDocs™ has several use cases in industries ranging from legal, finance, healthcare, EdTech, and governance to marketing.

• Funds transfer information, purchase orders, and invoices: Document originators can prevent unauthorized viewers and limit wire fraud or the potential of fake invoices by leveraging RDocs™ features like IP range restriction and domain restriction and reading notifications.
• Subscription content: Marketers can protect their content license revenue by preventing distribution to unauthorized viewers. For all the subscription content, such as research reports, ebooks, educational/training materials, or newsletters, the content can be set to expire on a timed schedule or a number of views. By leveraging the dynamic watermarking and ID leakers capabilities, marketers can gather email addresses of “secondhand” viewers for future marketing and re-targeting campaigns.
• Sales & Marketing: Marketers can track who is reading what assets like whitepapers or product brochures, when, how many times, and for how long. By capturing the popularity of content at the document level itself through features like voting and document time availability, they can create marketing lists efficiently with secondhand tracked readers. RDocs™ is a great asset for resources like sales battle cards, price tables, or product roadmaps, where collaboration and sharing are often tricky owing to their confidentiality. With easy sharing of content, sales or marketing leaders can insert controls to limit exposure of sensitive or strategic content to only intended recipients or those within their companies.
• Corporate board or shareholder minutes or resolutions: RDocs™ enable an easy compilation of votes affirming acceptance of minutes or resolutions, with a tally aggregated conveniently for the originator. They can also disable access to the file easily after the vote for privacy.
• Technical bulletins and documents: By tracking views within RDocs™, the originators can ensure that release notes are read, while technology or pharmaceutical companies can easily kill any outdated information in the technical documents. Manufacturers can easily share new designs or product data with a closed group.
• PII: Healthcare organizations that deal with PII can track or limit readers using RDocs™ to prevent data leaks and automatically kill content after a pre-defined timeframe.
• M&As, VCs, and fundraising: During the due diligence stage of M&As, the originators can share thousands of documents with different teams, such as potential buyers and sellers, and track views or set specific access permissions. Companies can also share confidential company information with prospective investors via when raising funds. Fundraisers can identify and track what documents were viewed and how much time was spent viewing each page/sheet, allowing them to analyze processes and individual investor activity. Private equity & venture capitalists (VCs) can share reams of data effortlessly and track how many deals are in the pipeline.

Time to Move Beyond VDR

To recap, virtual data room can be valuable tools for certain businesses and industries and absolute necessities for others. It can be an integral part of any business that needs to store, share, organize, and control sensitive documents, particularly in complex business transactions.

However, considering the limitations VDRs pose, now is the time to move beyond them to a DRM that is easy enough for people to use without asking the readers to download, log in, or have any special software. RDocs™ is a case in point – a data room without the room; solving the business need with minimal user training and seamless automation in the backend, which is pure bliss for IT admins. And there is a critical need for it. Content shared only within office meetings and board rooms is now accessible out in the ether – often lacking the same controls afforded in a controlled environment. RDocs™ eliminates the need to control the environment and puts those controls right into the documents themselves.

The new dawn of Digital Rights Management for documents - the next generation of Portable Document Format (PDF) will be Rights Protected Document™ (RPD™), and it is now. So, the makers of any planned Game of Thrones prequels can not only collaborate and share scripts securely but also ensure no one is able to leak them by identifying leakers. And this is in the future for RDocs™ – we hope!