Benefits of DAM in the cloud

Customer experience has become the key business differentiator in an online world and content is key to that — especially rich media content. Photography, infographics, design, 3D models, video and audio are all part of delivering a rich customer experience at every stage of a relationship, from discovery to purchase and through to support.

Amidst this content revolution, the role of effective DAM cannot be overlooked. A cloud-based DAM solution emerges as the cornerstone of modern content management strategies, offering many advantages related to cost, speed, scale, accessibility and distribution to meet the evolving demands of today's digital ecosystem.

Benefits of DAM in the cloud

Speed and cost of implementation

A cloud solution is less costly than the traditional on-premises solution of installing copies of software on multiple platforms.

As well as eliminating the costs associated with installation and ongoing maintenance, the move to a subscription-based operating cost is often more appealing from a budget management perspective.

Speed of implementation is quicker than traditional methods, meaning faster ROI from the solution. Customers of Hyland Nuxeo have found that the time to implement a cloud-native DAM environment is as much as six times quicker than with a traditional DAM solution.

Collaboration

Because a cloud solution is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection and a browser, they inherently have an infrastructure that promotes collaboration more easily than the traditional solutions.

Cloud access means that multi-step VPN logins are no longer required.

A cloud DAM and user-based permissions mean you can make sure that the right people, both internal and external, have access to the assets they need at the time they need it.

For instance, with Nuxeo, it is possible to give access rights to one asset to a named individual, for a set period of time — say if you wanted to have someone in an external agency fix an issue on a given photo touch-up within a 48-hour window.

Location is no longer an issue with a cloud DAM solution.

As long as someone has an internet connection and has been given the right permissions, they and others on their team can upload, search, retrieve, work on or publish assets from wherever they are located, across both functional and geographical boundaries.

Scalability

One of the hardest parts of implementing a traditional DAM system is trying to estimate what storage you need. Do you size for what you need now or for future growth and how do you estimate that?

With cloud-based DAM, you don’t have to try and estimate for future growth. The solution will grow or scale with you. You can start off at the size you need for today, plus a little bit of a growth buffer and then scale as the number and type of assets increase.

Nuxeo customers have grown to manage millions of assets in their cloud environment. The system has been stress-tested to handle billions of objects, allowing customers to scale at an unprecedented rate.

Continuous development

With a cloud DAM solution, there’s no longer the risk of falling several versions behind or needing to interrupt regular production cycles to install upgrades.

Because the DAM environment is managed as a service common to all subscribers, any updates are pushed out automatically to all users during scheduled maintenance windows.

The same is true of any bug fixes or functionality improvements. These no longer have to wait for a scheduled software release to be packaged and shipped. The platform developers can incorporate and push out a new or upgraded feature as soon as it is ready.

Moving away from a periodic repetitive update schedule to one of continuous development means that the users of the cloud DAM will always have the same capability, with the latest available — and it’s all done automatically.

Analytics

As a cloud services provider is managing the overall service, they are collecting analytics on various aspects of the system. This is often extended into collecting analytics about the usage of the assets stored within the system and the various user interactions.

From a digital asset management perspective, this means that it’s possible to track not only image use and metadata but also how often it is being searched for, accessed and worked on — by who and from where. Relationships between assets, such as derivatives, usage in translations and more can also be tracked.

Managed services

Moving to a cloud environment for DAM is a key strategic decision that not only provides implementation cost savings and increased efficiencies, but also has a side benefit in terms of operational costs. Opting for cloud-based DAM relieves organizations of the burden of managing and maintaining the system themselves.

By outsourcing the management and maintenance to a third-party service provider, organizations can redirect their budget from routine upkeep tasks towards more strategic initiatives. This shift allows for greater flexibility and scalability in technology adoption, enabling businesses to concentrate on their core activities without the distraction of managing their DAM platform.

Strategic platform for digital supply chain

By centralizing digital assets in the cloud, organizations gain a comprehensive view of their content inventory, spanning from creation to distribution. This centralized repository facilitates seamless collaboration among internal teams, external partners and stakeholders at every stage of the supply chain.

A cloud-based DAM solution also integrates seamlessly with other key components of the digital supply chain, such as content creation tools, marketing automation platforms and e-commerce systems. This enables automated workflows, reducing manual intervention and accelerating the pace of content delivery.

Moreover, the ability of a cloud-based DAM solution to scale and adapt to evolving business needs allows organizations to meet peak demand during promotional campaigns. Organizations can efficiently manage their digital assets without the constraints of traditional on-premises infrastructure.

Global infrastructure for cross-border collaboration

Geographic barriers become obsolete as users adopting a cloud-based DAM can access the platform from anywhere with an internet connection. This accessibility fosters real-time collaboration and eliminates the delays and inefficiencies associated with traditional file sharing methods.

Besides that, robust security measures are in place to protect sensitive digital assets, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations across different jurisdictions. Advanced user permissions and encryption protocols safeguard against unauthorized access and data breaches, instilling belief in cross-border collaboration.

With the support multilingual capabilities, teams from different regions are empowered to collaborate effectively without language barriers. Whether it's coordinating marketing campaigns in multiple countries or managing global product launches, organizations can leverage the cloud to streamline collaboration and ensure consistency across diverse markets.

If there was a worry of being confused with disparate files repositories and outdated content, those doubts can be erased. The centralized management and version control capabilities of a cloud-based DAM solution enhances visibility and accountability, enabling stakeholders from different regions to collaborate seamlessly on shared projects.

There is no doubt that cloud computing is a contributing factor in driving growth for many enterprises.

At Hyland, we’ve seen that a well-executed cloud-driven digital asset management strategy can add to that growth and even drive measurable revenue increases.

The benefits of cloud adoption of DAM include:

• Removal of unnecessary IT maintenance costs

• Accelerated recognition of ROI through faster implementation

• Elimination of storage challenges via scalable solutions

• Delivery of analytics-driven insights into asset usage and delivery

• Facilitation of cross-functional and cross-geography collaboration

• Simplified management of security and compliance risks

We also know that the combination of a natively collaborative environment, scalability and the positioning of digital assets at the center of the digital supply chain facilitates the development of innovative digital experiences.

he cloud ensures that DAM providers can dedicate enough time and staff resources to concentrate on delivering a competitive, high-quality service. That way, they can continue to expand and innovate in the field.

> Explore: Digital asset management (DAM) software

Many of the DAM platforms available in today’s market claim to be able to run as a cloud application. However, a large proportion of them are based on technologies that were developed prior to cloud deployment being readily available.

To address this issue, the older technology platforms have attempted, to varying degrees of success, to port their existing solutions to the cloud, with subsequent limits on either scalability, flexibility, choice of cloud storage vendor or limited functionality.

More modern solutions, such as Hyland’s Nuxeo Platform for DAM, are built from the ground up to be deployed in the cloud. This gives them full flexibility in architecture, scalability and support for a full feature set from day one. Such cloud-native solutions are also significantly quicker to implement and need less customization.

Trusted by leading brands and consumer companies to manage critical content in the cloud, Nuxeo for DAM offers flexibility and scalability without sacrificing security.

Optimized to take full advantage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, scale, elasticity, services and innovation, Nuxeo offers object-level security designed to address all data locality and privacy requirements.

Nuxeo is certified PCI-compliant, for security and privacy you can trust with your sensitive data and content. With active monitoring and multiple threat detection levels, your information is safe with us.

Ensuring high performance and reliability under fast-changing loads, Nuxeo Platform has 99.9% uptime and is capable of handling your heaviest spikes. Instant, automatic upgrades are handled in the platform to ensure seamless performance and immediate access to our latest features and technology.

With modern tools like Elasticsearch and MongoDB, and no need for the burdens of physical hardware, Hyland’s Nuxeo Platform keeps modernization cost-effective at scale.

> Learn more: Hyland Nuxeo