Exploring the World of Digital Asset Management

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is one of the most important components of a company’s success and development. If you take the name of DAM as it is, you might understand it as the management of “digital assets” which can be very valuable to a company. But with this shallow understanding of DAM, you might end up being confused with other terms that have more to do with digital assets, such as Records Management Systems and Document Management Systems. If this is the case, a simple exercise of research and clarification on what Digital Asset Management really is can help in clearing the clouds of misconception.

For the purpose of this discussion, we will just concentrate on Digital Asset Management.

How does DAM store files?

There are two basic ways that DAM can store files – Media Cataloguing and Asset Repository.

Media cataloguing is the practice of creating information about specific files and storing them in a large database. It actually does not affect digital assets and does not in any way manipulate the digital asset itself, but instead formulates an index. Because of cataloguing  a user can easily find the file or data they are looking for. With the media uncatalogued, a person can just click on a link to lead him to a specific asset.

The main advantage of media cataloguing is it is very cost-effective when you consider other means of organizing digital assets. Moreover, it is easy to install, modify, and use. The efficiency of media cataloguing is that it can help reduce the time and energy, used searching for files, which is better spent doing other tasks. It is also a secure method because it can be set-up to give selective system access.

While the advantages of media cataloguing are impressive, it still has some drawbacks. If you only use a basic media catalogue program, it cannot automatically upgrade itself. Users will manually have to find upgraded versions and install them. In addition to this, some media cataloguing will take longer to perform its function if a search is made across a wide range of geographic locations.

Determining what type of DAM is good for your enterprise

On the other hand, asset repository manipulates the files itself. The files are being physically transferred to a secure database and can only be accessed by the system administrator. Unlike media cataloguing  asset repository presents data directly on where it is being stored. There are some instances that asset repository can be slower than media cataloguing because it searches within the files itself, but this would probably depend upon the file size. There are instances where asset repository is faster than media cataloguing.

The main advantage of an asset repository is that all files and data can be centralized in one single database. But of course, this will still need a bigger storage capacity. Moreover, additional storage capacity is needed for back-up files in case the company needs one.

Digital Asset Management by WEBDAM is a primary tool in managing files such as photos, videos, text, animations, music, and many others media formats. Through media cataloguing and asset repository, DAM can easily organize, manipulate, and share digital assets.

Clyde Jordan has written hundreds of reviews regarding the latest technologies and software pertaining to company organizations. Digital asset management by WEBDAM is just one service he takes particular interest in.

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Digital asset management by WEBDAM

http://webdamsolutions.com/