Digital assets refer to any item of content created and stored electronically and owned by a company or its customers, so for modern newspapers, this can include written articles, images, videos, audio files, webpages, documents, and adverts, often extending to a huge and varied asset base.
A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is an indispensable tool for helping production managers and their teams manage and access large quantities of content without files going missing, unacceptable delays, or duplicated effort, and any system worth investing in should be cloud-based.
In this article, we’ll look at the main benefits of a cloud digital asset management software system and why these systems are superior to those locally installed.
The Cloud
Cloud computing has evolved massively over the years, and there are so many flavours to choose from that making an informed decision can be horrendously complicated. In its simplest form, Cloud Computing can be thought of as simply ‘renting a computer, storage and software from the internet’ rather than physically buying and owning it. At one end is ‘SaaS’ (Software as a Service), where the user has no visibility of the underlying solution and is purely interested in ‘what it does’ and ‘how it performs’. On the other hand, users instantiate solutions on ‘virtual’ platforms somewhere in the ether that offer far greater accessibility, reliability, resilience, and security than can often be managed from an on-prem server room.
The downside to Cloud is a huge reliant on ‘comms’ since you’re now beholden to an internet connection!
How Does A DAM System Work?
Cloud-based Digital asset management systems provide a centralised accessible storage bank and interface in which users can store, categorise, organise, retrieve, share, and audit digital assets among stakeholders. These are often ‘private’ rather than ‘public’ cloud offerings restricting user access to parties provisioned with secure access. As media publications become increasingly digitalised, the need for an efficient and effective cloud-based DAM system grows, enabling seamless access and better collaboration among often distributed teams, editors, content creators, advertising brokers, and other stakeholders.
Accessibility
Cloud-based DAM solutions offers unparalleled accessibility which, with the emergence of hybrid working and the post-pandemic need to be free from the office make it a game changer. Whether you’re in the office, working from home, with clients or working from the beach the only difference should be performance relating to your internet connection!
Collaboration And Version Control
Collaborating with stakeholders outside of your office environment can be challenging with a locally installed, on-premises digital asset management platform. Cloud-based DAMs make this easier by enabling multiple users to access and contribute simultaneously while providing roll-based access controls. Inbuilt version controls also provide an audited, viewable and reversible creative process while ensuring that everyone is always working on the latest version of an asset. This greatly reduces the risk of reviewing outdated content, changes being overridden or duplicate versions of the asset existing.
Scalability
As your asset portfolio grows, so will the variety and extent of your digital asset base, which could strain your in-house storage infrastructure. Cloud-based DAMs resolve this issue by being scalable to your needs, allowing you to easily increase your storage capacity when needed without investing in new computer hardware. When using a subscription-based DAM, you’ll only pay for the storage you use, making it more cost-effective than purchasing storage devices that may not be needed initially.
Security, Disaster Recovery, And Availability
The security of your digital assets is paramount to the credibility and professional reputation of your publication, and cloud-based DAM platforms take a lot of this burden off your shoulders through their inbuilt, robust security measures, with full encryption and customisable user access controls. This saves you money and time on in-house IT and data security resourcing, and in the event of a data breach or accidental loss, your assets are safely backed up and stored in the cloud, making them always available when needed.
Third-Party Integrations
Cloud-based DAM platforms can often be integrated with a wide range of business tools and publication platforms, including content management systems, CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and more, streamlining your workflows and improving efficiency.
Maintained, Flexible, And Customisable
One of the main benefits of investing in a cloud-based system is that the software is continually maintained by the service provider or vendor, so you don’t have to worry about updates, patches, or resolving technical issues in-house. Cloud-based DAMs are also flexible and highly customisable, allowing you to tailor the system to the specific needs of your team and your customers.
Find Out More
Papermule provides tailored digital-asset management software solutions for customers in the UK publishing industry. To find out more about how we can help streamline and improve your digital asset management processes, please click here to book a free consultation.
Image source: Canva
