Virtual Data Room - does it even exist?

🏷️ General
1

As far back in 2019 NC announced with big fanfare that VDR functionality was coming. However, there is no substantial techncal information to be found anywhere, and attempts to contact NC sales support for some guidance has only returned automated answers of absolutely no value.

Is the VDR functionality for real? Is it an app/extension/plugin? How is it installed/configured/setup?

If anyone can shed a light on this I am all ears, as I have been tasked with setting up a VDR for one of my clients.

Thanks!
Henrik Schultz
Senior IT Architect

2

Not sure if this fits completely, but what about Workspace - Apps - App Store - Nextcloud ?

3

Appreciate the suggestion, but a VDR is something very specific, with unique features for security, auditing, watermarking, document signing using certificates, and more. The Workspace app does not meet these requirements.
It may appear that NC can meet the above, if you combine a number of other apps, but I had hoped that a more complete had been implemented, particularly because NC GmBH themselves announced it.

4

I see, thanks for clarification - you have on mind this probably:
https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-announces-virtual-data-room-solution-for-ultimate-protection-of-data-during-sensitive-dealmaking/

There is page on project website about this:
https://nextcloud.com/virtual-data-room/

It is documented here:

(only small portion of text - rest available only for Enterprise subscription customers only - maybe ask Nextcloud representatives for access / copy of it?)

5

Seems what the marketing is saying is:

  • Invite a client to your Nextcloud through a guest account.
  • Interact through Talk and shared upload folders / docs.
  • Never leave your own Nextcloud server.

Make sense? :person_shrugging:

6

Yes, this is exactly as far as I’ve gotten also :slight_smile:

I then followed the links to “Get more information” or “See Enterprise pricing” but ultimately you always end up in a generic “Get a quote” form. 3 times I have entered my contact information and described my need in different ways, and 3 times I have gotten a generic “we dont care about customers with less than 100 people”. This is such a turn off.

At this point I turned to the forum, and at least there is someone who responds here, thank you! :slight_smile:

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7

@anon75456558 this does make sense, and how we are already using NC in other contexts. However this does not comprise a full-fledged VDR.

the chairman of the BoD wants real industry-standard VDR functionality, which is also like “how long time do clients spend on reading a document before they sign”, “who have read it and when”, “have they signed it”, etc.

When you are negotiating multi-million deals in the pharma industry, absolute secrecy, confidentiality and accountability are #1 requirements. And you don’t have to be a 100+ employee company to do so :slight_smile:

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8

While it would be possible to figure out some of the features mentioned in list in blog post and website (for example watermarked read-only viewing of documents, with “who and when accessed them” recorded in flow app), the complexity of installing and settings of all necesery apps (and tweaking for particular case) would be error prone for someone without previous experience with this and without guidance. It is really unfortunate, that Nextcloud company has not established processes to be effective enough to be able to server smaller companies too (i.e. their processes are so expensive for them, that for smaller companies they cannot gain enough money from these business cases to finance necessary amount of their work).

If this business case is to small for Nextcloud company, what about their partners?
https://nextcloud.com/partners/

The last chance would be to talk directly (don’t know, from whom you get previous three negative answers) someone from Acount Management and Sales Enginering teams - https://nextcloud.com/team/ for access at least to mentioned configuration guide (this wouldn’t make any expenses to them) to “Do it yourself”.

Nextcloud is relatively small company - even so it cannot serve other small companies. Are there on market other companies (smaller or bigger), who are able to server small companies in this regard?

Hope it helps

9

p-bo, I respectfully disagree. Why is any documentation behind a paywall in the first place? Seems to me Nextcloud are alienating potential customers by asking them to subscribe to a vague service of dubious value and quality, e.g. the VDR configuration page actually says, “this article is a work in progress”!

Nextcloud should be encouraging hundreds of small installations, with less than 100 users, to drive adoption. :man_facepalming:

10

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you @smchugh . It is AGPL with Nextcloud. I think it is simply wrong of Nextcloud GmbH to market features that are largely programmed by volunteers and available in every Nextcloud version in a way that practically forces customers to use Nextcloud Enterprise.

I do not want to be misunderstood. Nextcloud Enterprise is certainly a good solution for many companies. But I do think that free software should be free, and the associated documentation should be free as well.

I think that if Nextcloud GmbH can market free software from many volunteer programmers, then Nextcloud GmbH should also make the corresponding documentation available to the general public in return.

11

To be fair, that doesn’t mean they have to provide extensive documentation, or even support. :wink:

12

Yes. But parts of the software were programmed by free programmers. If the programmers release their software, perhaps Nextcloud GmbH should also release the documentation, which is probably far less extensive. Or does Nextcloud GmbH only do this to earn money? Is Nextcloud GmbH afraid that it will sign fewer contracts? For users who do not use Enterprise Support, these free components may be useless. I don’t know if i would program on these components as a freelance programmer.

13

If it even exists :wink:

As far as I understand it, VDR is a concept, which has to be implemented with a combination of existing Nextcloud features and additional apps. And as it happens to be with concepts like that, there often is no one-click-fits-them-all solution, because the details of the implementation are highly dependent on the individual requirements of the company that uses it.

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14

All the more reason to drive adoption via community devs with smaller installations and many different solutions. Does Huffman work at Nextcloud now?

15

Well why don’t you start building something, and share it with the community? I mean technically it’s all there.

However, I think with this topic also legal and industry-specific requirements come into play, which probably could fill a whole book by them self. That beeing said, I don’t think there are many cases. where a regular admin of a small SME can or should implement something like this, without external consulting.

But yes, they could probably do more to push the addoption of this specifc feature set, However there will probably never be a one-click app or extensive documentation that covers every aspect of it.

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16

I know this is quite stale now, but is there any further input on how to configure a VDR using the latest Nextcloud? Being a small organisation we are being directed to the partners, although need to self host and have latest NC set up on our own infrastructure (via AIO). Some references to a Nextcloud VDR App have been seen but there’s nothing in the app store. Any help on finding out if/how this is achievable would be very helpful.

17

I honestly wonder what you’re expecting. If I look up the definition of a VDR on Wikipedia, it says:

A virtual data room (sometimes called a VDR or Deal Room) is an online repository of information that is used for the storing and distribution of documents.

That’s exactly what Nextcloud already does out of the box, isn’t it?

The very next sentence then starts with “In many cases …”, which tells me that “Virtual Data Room” is first and foremost a buzzword that’s used in different contexts, and that the actual requirements for a VDR can vary significantly depending on the use case.

What is almost always required, though, is some kind of access control and permission system, and Nextcloud already provides some of this out of the box via its file-sharing capabilities, which can be extended with apps like File Access Control, or Guests.

A very common use case for a VDR, according to the same Wikipedia article, is this:

In many cases, a virtual data room is used to facilitate the due diligence process during an M&A transaction, loan syndication, or private equity and venture capital transactions.

You’re not seriously expecting consulting from this forum on how to set something like that up in a legally compliant way, are you? :wink:

In any case, if you want any meaningful advice on how to build a VDR with Nextcloud, the first step is to clearly define the intended use case. You’d typically start with a list of requirements, and based on that it should become clearer which Nextcloud features and apps are needed to meet those requirements.

This article should give you a few pointers: https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-announces-virtual-data-room-solution-for-ultimate-protection-of-data-during-sensitive-dealmaking/

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