Imagine that you are at a critical phase of due diligence where the bidders will be sending you their bid offer. All of this process is being run on a confidential virtual data room. Suddenly no one can access none of the files. Is that possible? Can it be that the servers of your virtual data room provider failed without warning leaving you stuck at a crucial stage of the transaction?
A leading virtual data room provider will always evaluate scenarios and have plans to ensure that they are always prepared. Below are 5 aspects that a provider will consider is this particular scenario:
Virtual Data Room providers should have resilience built into their system. Good virtual data room providers have structures with built in resiliency. What that means is that probability of failures are taken into account and a backup system is put into place to ensure that if one fails then the other one takes over. The probability of both systems failing simultaneously is highly unlikely.
An accessible IT team is a must. In the unlikely event that a server goes down the IT team needs to be available to bring back the system right away. This requires access to a team of qualified professionals who know the code inside out. Identifying the source of the error and rectifying it while the backup system is operational is a must. World class virtual data room providers have these contingencies built in place.
A second location exists as a contingency for disasters. A leading virtual data room provider will go the extra yard to ensure that in the case of a disaster like an earthquake or a terrorist strike, a fail-over infrastructure is ready to be deployed. This site is usually hundreds of kilometers apart from the original site and comes on live to take over the virtual data rooms that are active at that moment in time.
Partial failures also happen. In the case of partial failures some of the functionalities of the virtual data rooms, such as search, might get disabled. In such a scenario it is key to communicate openly with clients. The IT team will be able to identify the source and fix the issue in no time but being transparent is key so that clients know that their best interests are the virtual data room providers priority.
Constant learning. Post-mortem sit downs to evaluate what happened, why it happened and what can be done to ensure that it does not happen again is a sign of a culture that bases itself on constant improvement. A virtual data room provider with such a process will always be ahead of the curve.
Probability is the study of managing risk. A leading virtual data room provider like EthosData works with world class professionals to ensure that all the risks associated to disrupting a live multi-million dollar transaction is mitigated through the use of backup servers, disaster recovery sites, a professional IT team, transparent communication with clients and the right attitude to constantly learn.
