When it comes to hosted services, it’s critical for the DAM solution to pass every test of functionality, security, scalability and performance. When we took a closer look at Corbis, Interwoven, Media Bin, Northplains and ClearStory, all had good functionality and security although ClearStory seems to have a leg up on scalability and performance as a result of its significant investments over the past few years to improve and expand its underlying architecture.
Like most companies that consider a hosted service, National Geographic sought quick deployment, persistent performance and rapid ROI. More importantly, NGCI needed round-the-clock availability for its global constituency. They required a digital asset management service provider they could trust to provide high-availability and that would assume the burden of maintaining and upgrading the system as well as provide the management and operational expertise. These functions require real labor investments, which NGCI preferred not to make themselves. For this reason, they selected a vendor who was dedicated to sustaining a state-of-the-art hosting facility and which has a demonstrated commitment to delivering hosted services long-term.
Yet even if a company ultimately wants to have the solution in-house, opting to start with a hosted service still has numerous advantages. For one, it can help companies build the business case for resource allocation by demonstrating the effectiveness and ROI potential of the solution. This prevents the delays that can occur while struggling to achieve buy-in, which can result in significant losses and missed opportunities.
Once implemented, the customer should have complete control of the system through a non-technical, web-based interface. The system should easily accommodate the addition of new users, metadata definitions, other rich media assets, expanded storage, and other administrative changes. And internal system administrators should be able to make these changes independent of the hosted service provider.
Digital Asset Management
