Data room vs cloud storage: what is the difference?
Cloud storage stores and syncs your files; a virtual data room shares them under control - gating each viewer, tracking every page, watermarking copies and revoking access on demand.
Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive are excellent at what they are built for: keeping your files in one place and syncing them across devices. Sharing is a secondary feature - a link that, once out, is hard to track and easy to forward.
A virtual data room inverts that. Sharing is the whole point, so the controls a confidential exchange needs are built in: a viewer must pass a gate to open a document, every page view is logged to that viewer, copies can be watermarked, and access can be cut in one click even for people who already opened it. You get proof of who saw what, which a shared drive link cannot give you.
The rule of thumb: use cloud storage to hold your files, use a data room the moment you send sensitive ones to someone outside the business and need to keep control.
In 99 Data Rooms
How it works here.
99 Data Rooms is the data-room layer for exactly those moments: a tracked, revocable link per deck or room, page-by-page analytics, email and NDA gating, per-viewer watermarking and UK hosting, with a free tier so you can start without a card.
Common questions
Data room vs cloud storage, in short.
Can I just use a Dropbox or Google Drive link instead?
You can, but a shared-drive link gives you little control once sent: no per-viewer gating, limited tracking, no watermarking and no clean revocation. A data room is built for controlled, tracked sharing of sensitive documents.
Do I need to move my files off cloud storage?
No. Keep your master files where they are; upload the specific documents you need to share into the data room when you share them.
Related terms
What is a virtual data room?
A virtual data room (VDR) is a secure online space for sharing sensitive business documents with outside parties, where every viewer is controlled and every view is tracked.
DefinitionWhat is viewer analytics (document tracking)?
Viewer analytics is page-by-page tracking of a shared document: who opened it, when, how far they read and how long they spent, so you can see genuine engagement rather than guess at it.
DefinitionWhat is document watermarking?
Document watermarking stamps identifying information - such as the viewer's email and the date - onto a shared document, so a leaked copy can be traced back to who received it.
Try it on a real document. Turn a PDF into a tracked, revocable link in a couple of minutes. Three rooms stay free for as long as you want them, no card required.