5 Reasons Everyone Is Abandoning Cloud Storage For DAM System
With the rise of digitalization, businesses have learned that many back office and outbound activities can be driven by digital assets and have consequently become dependent on these for day-to-day operations and marketing. Initially, cloud storage solutions like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Drive were the three main clouds among digital file storage and sharing. But there has been a great movement towards the Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems such as Blueberry DAM too. This article covers 5 compelling reasons why businesses are moving away from traditional cloud storage to DAM solutions.
1. Improved Organization and Metadata Management
Cloud Storage Problems
For simple file storage and fulfillment, a service like Google Drive (15GB of free storage) or Dropbox (50GB for $10 per month) can work wonders. Yet as the number and material value of digital assets increase, the drawbacks of these platforms begin to show. Recalling where you left that exact file can be a challenge, especially when coupled with extensive collections of images, videos, documents, and other multimedia. Classic cloud storage suffers from poor tools for organizations and is poorly equipped for managing metadata, a functionality essential for a good digital asset management solution.
The Advantages of DAM
Sophisticated Metadata Management: DAM enables users to attach deep data to digital assets such as tags, descriptions, keywords, and custom fields. Not only does this metadata help organize files for ease of access when searching for the correct asset. This can include the marketing team tagging the images with campaign names, product types, and usage rights, making the search process easier.
Digital Asset (DAM systems offer a single, centralized repository for all of an organization's digital assets, thereby relieving the need for storing assets in multiple locations. This centralization makes the most up-to-date versions of assets available to everyone on the team, preventing the need to accidentally work with expired or invalid files.
Taxonomy and Hierarchical structure - DAM platforms allow capturing an array of metadata to establish and create an organized taxonomy, much like an offline and well-organized file classification system. This architecture allows you to quickly and easily switch from folders to subfolders to configure certain files and successfully manage all your assets.
2. Collaboration and workflow automation
The Problem with Cloud Storage
Working together is one of the most important facets of digital asset management, which concerns marketing, design, and content creation teams. Although there are basic sharing and collaboration capabilities built into several of the cloud storage solutions, they do not do a great job in workflow management and efficient collaboration between team members.
DAM system enhances collaboration.
The Advantages of DAM
Collaboration within your team: By sharing, reviewing, and approving assets, with DAM you can also efficiently collaborate with your team. It allows multiple users to work collectively on a single project which makes it easier to collaborate and give feedback. Update in real-time to keep everyone using the correct up-to-date files.
Workflow Automation: DAM systems boast workflow automation as one of their top features. It enables you to automate asset approval, review, and distribution processes across your organization from a DAM platform. Automated workflows help ensure that assets progress smoothly through review and approval stages so that they are not just stuck with back-and-forth - no passphrase required.
Project Management - DAM systems also feature project management tools that allow teams to assign and track tasks.
Tracking your Projects - Ensuring that you stay on Track as well as all your team members are aware of your responsibilities.
3. Stronger Version Control and Audit Trail
The problem with cloud storage
This is not optimal as dealing with multiple versions in traditional cloud storage is notoriously difficult. In addition, users can copy a file, so now you have multiple versions of the same file that can be easily confused with each other, leading to the potential risk of using the wrong or incorrect file. There is also a lack of powerful version control features, which makes it hard to track the change and history of a file.
The Advantages of DAM
Version Control: Digital assets are version-controlled by DAM systems, meaning they can automatically capture changes and retain a history of all versions. The file repository will use a version control system that allows employees to always have access to the latest files and go back to previous versions if needed. I.e. a designer can see all versions of the design easily and can compare changes made to the design over the period;
Audit Trails: Offer audit trails that follow who is using a file and when. Transparency like this leads to accountability and non-rag-change-revealing. Having an audit trail is especially useful in meeting both internal policy and regulatory mandates.
Check-In/Check-Out: Many DAM systems provide check-in/check-out, allowing one user to work on a file while removing it from the file for others. This results in lower risks around conflicting changes and means edits are made in a controlled way.
4. Advanced security and restrictable URL access
Some of the Challenges when using Cloud Storage
Businesses containing highly sensitive digital assets need to be vigilant about security. Although cloud storage services come with some basic security, they may not offer the level of control and protection needed for sensitive data. This has risks like unauthorized access, data breaches, and other compliance issues that come with traditional cloud storage.
The Advantages of DAM
Enhanced Security: DAM systems are equipped with robust security measures like encryption, secure access control, regular security patches, etc. These security measures help secure digital assets from unauthorized access and cyber threats. For example, Securing Data - Data is protected at rest and in transit e.g., encryption.
Blueberru DAM system equipped with robust security for assets.
Granular permissions and access control: DAM platforms handle granular permissions and access control, where administrators can specify the files that one can view, edit, and share. This control is implemented to protect sensitive data and restricts employees to only the files they are allowed access to. For example, a marketing manager can limit access to sensitive campaign assets to select members of his team.
DAM supports compliance management for businesses concerning the legality and regulation of digital assets. It also tracks the usage of an asset and manages licenses and license agreements related to using assets Compliance management tools are particularly useful for industries with high compliance requirements, like healthcare and finance.
5. Scalability and Integration
The Problem of Cloud Storage
Businesses are growing, and with the growth comes more digital assets, while traditional cloud storage solutions are having a difficult time keeping up. Upon reading the blog, it makes sense that managing libraries of large files and integrating storage solutions with other business tools would become complex and inefficient.
The Advantages of DAM
Scalable storage solutions: DAM systems scale with the business. Whether you have hundreds or millions of digital assets, DAM technology can scale with your volume and growth without any performance degradation. Scalability guarantees that businesses can continue to easily deal with their assets while they grow.
Easily Integratable: DAM systems are built to efficiently work with a variety of business tools and platforms including content management systems (CMS), marketing automation tools, and design applications. This integration results in a single workflow, facilitating automated content creation and distribution. For example, a DAM system may connect to a CMS to automatically publish approved assets to the company website.
Workflows can be customized: DAM platforms allow the creation of workflows that can be customized based on specific business requirements. This versatility guarantees that the DAM system is helping the existing work and advancing productivity across the board
Summary
Traditional cloud storage solutions are unable to adequately support the digital assets that more and more businesses are using to drive their day-to-day operational and marketing activities. Enter Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems which offer a solid solution for robust organization, collaboration, version control, security, and scale.
DAM technology instead of traditional cloud storage to streamline and manage their digital asset processes better, more efficiently, and more effectively as a result. DAM systems specifically offer all the tools and features you may require to manage assets better and deliver higher operational convenience should you have a sizeable collection of multimedia content.
Please visitBlueberry DAM free trial for more information.