How Virtual Data Rooms Help the Environment

Any type of data room is any type of secure location where various types of important, and most often private, documents are kept. A traditional room is a physical location where hard copies of documents relevant to a corporation are kept. These rooms are usually monitored continuously to ensure the safety and securement of each document kept inside so only authorized individuals are granted access to the information that they hold. These rooms are a necessity for many types of corporations — and even law offices — that require the ability to safely share documents with multiple parties without having to be in the same place at the same time. Think of it as a physical version of a shared hard drive that might be kept in a virtual space now.

Since the pace of the world is only quickening exponentially with each passing year, or even month, the need for a more digital alternative to these rooms is also growing. In the past, when the information in these rooms would need to be accessed, an individual would most often need to be flown out to the location, be transported to the room by car, and then driven back to the airport so he could fly back as well. The necessity of this type of transportation simply so the individual could view a document for a brief period of time has become detrimental to the environment as it wastes several resources that could otherwise be saved, not to mention the emissions that are sent out into the atmosphere with each and every trip that is taken. With the technology available to us today, this type of data room has become dated and unnecessary. In a world where files can be shared faster than the blink of an eye, shouldn’t the same be considered for these types of file sharing networks?

Some might fear that a virtual room could be easily breached and the data inside easily compromised, however the same could be said for a physical room even if it is monitored around the clock. If an individual wants to remove the information from the room for any reason, they will almost certainly find a way. A lot of people might also think that a virtual room is even more secure as the ability to take it on and offline at any given time is quite often a possibility as well. It also makes it much easier to keep track of who is looking at any given document. This ability to track the use of each document adds a level of security and analysis that simply isn’t available in a physical room.

The biggest benefit that a virtual room can offer is the unmatched level of efficiency that it brings to any type of business. A lot of companies rely on the these data sharing methods to drive and complete transactions with outside parties and individuals. Often parties might be less likely to partake in a given transaction if excessive travel is involved. So not only is the environment benefiting from lowered levels of emissions from air and ground travel, but a corporation is also benefiting from the added level of competitive value each transaction they have can hold.

The environment is limited in its ability to offer much physical space to these data rooms as well. Documents, when stored in large quantities, take up a lot of space. If a physical room runs out of space, documents might need to be disposed of or an expansion of the room might need to take place. Either way, the environment will feel the impact of that. Even if a company chooses to recycle a document, which a lot of times will not be the case for security reasons, that waste is still impactful to the environment around it. With a virtual room, this is not an issue as a document can simply be securely deleted whenever the need arises. It also leaves the physical space a traditional room would require available for something else. If a virtual room can be used in lieu of a physical room, think of what else could occupy that space: a park might utilize that space instead; a company could use that space to expand its offices instead of needed to expand both its data room and its offices. In any case, the environment will be spared a great hardship.

The benefits of virtual data rooms greatly outweigh the drawbacks. These rooms can often be made more secure than physical rooms, they are often more efficient in both utilizing time and resources when it comes to completing the bidding process, and they spare the environment from having its limited space wasted and its natural atmosphere and air polluted by excessive travel and transportation emissions.