As the demand for best-in-class content continues to grow, managing digital assets efficiently has become the cornerstone of success in the media and entertainment industry.  Whether you’re a broadcaster juggling hundreds of terabytes of video files or a VFX studio collaborating across regions on complex animations, the ability to organise, retrieve and utilise your assets effectively can make or break a project.

In this blog we are going to explore Media Asset Management (MAM) in the cloud – a powerful solution leveraging Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and cloud storage to transform how creative teams handle their digital assets and unlock new levels of productivity.

What is Media Asset Management (MAM)?

Media Asset Management (MAM) is a solution designed to store, organise, retrieve and distribute digital content effectively.  Where content creation involves huge volumes of high-resolution videos, animations, sound files and project data, MAM plays a critical role in streamlining and optimising digital asset workflows.

By centralising digital assets into an easily accessible but secure repository, MAM solutions empower broadcasters, production studios and VFX artists to collaborate with their teams, meet tight deadlines and maintain version control.  With tools for metadata tagging, advanced search capabilities and automation, MAM allows creative teams to quickly locate the right assets, repurpose content and avoid redundancies.

From managing a broadcaster’s archive for live TV to ensuring VFX studios can access updated files across global teams or organising a film studio’s postproduction assets, MAM will provide the efficiency and structure needed to keep pace in this fast-evolving industry.

The Shift to Cloud-Based Media Asset Management

Traditional MAM systems are tied to on-premises infrastructure, with physical servers and local storage systems shouldering the burden of vast libraries of media files. However, these systems often struggle to keep up with the exponential growth of file sizes and the demands for instant accessibility from distributed teams, all leading to rising operational costs.

By migrating MAM to the cloud and utilising IaaS alongside scalable cloud storage solutions, media organisations can access advanced tools and efficiencies that traditional setups simply can’t offer.  This shift focuses on streamlining content management with features that allow companies to:

• Organise assets more effectively: Metadata-driven cloud MAM systems enable creators to tag, sort, and locate files intuitively, reducing time spent searching for assets.
• Enable global collaboration: Cloud solutions empower teams—whether in the same region or across the globe—to access and work on assets simultaneously, with centralised secure repositories ensuring version control.
• Scale effortlessly: As projects expand, cloud storage can quickly and easily scale to meet demand without requiring upfront investment in physical infrastructure to ensure costs are controlled and project delays are avoided.

What are the benefits of cloud-based MAM (Media Asset Management) for Media and Entertainment?

The benefits of Cloud-Based MAM (Media Asset Management) go beyond simple storage providing transformative workflows and benefits:

Seamless Scalability

One of the standout advantages of IaaS for MAM is its scalability. Scalable Media Asset Management solutions allow media teams to handle fluctuating storage needs effortlessly – particularly during large projects or seasonal campaigns. With cloud storage, businesses can scale up or down on demand, ensuring they only pay for the resources they use. This flexibility eliminates the need for costly hardware investments and future-proofs content management strategies.

Efficient Organisation
Cloud-based MAM platforms make it easy to organise, search and retrieve content, enabling media content organisation in the cloud.  Whether you’re working from a remote workstation or collaborating across multiple locations and regions, team members can access the same asset library in real time.  With integrated advanced tagging, AI-driven metadata generation, and user-friendly interfaces, simplifying the organisation of vast libraries has never been more efficient. For example, a broadcaster managing years of archive footage can quickly find clips based on keywords, timestamps, or even image recognition algorithms.

Seamless Access
In industries like VFX and animation, where tight production schedules leave little room for delays, efficient media asset retrieval is critical. Improving content retrieval with Cloud MAM systems allow users to retrieve assets within seconds, no matter where they are located, eliminating the frustration of hunting through local drives or waiting for IT to retrieve backups.

Enhanced Collaboration

Cloud-based MAM fosters collaboration across teams and geographies. Editors, producers, and stakeholders can access, review, and share files in real time, regardless of their location.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides the necessary computing power to support these workflows, ensuring smooth performance for even the most resource-intensive tasks such as video editing or rendering.

Minimised Downtime and Enhanced Data Security

With reliable backup and disaster recovery losing valuable media assets to hardware failure or accidental deletion can be a thing of the past.  Cloud storage for digital assets offers built-in redundancy and automatic backups, ensuring those assets are always safe and recoverable.

By leveraging IaaS, companies can implement robust disaster recovery solutions to reduce downtime and safeguard critical content from unforeseen disruptions. Advanced security features such as encryption, role-based access controls, and redundancy provide additional protection against breaches and accidental loss.

Enhanced Security
The cloud offers advanced security measures like encryption, role-based access controls, and redundancy, protecting valuable intellectual property from breaches and accidental loss. This is crucial in the media and entertainment industry, where leaks can lead to significant financial and reputational damage.

Cost Efficient

Traditional MAM systems require substantial upfront investments in servers, storage devices, and ongoing maintenance costs. IaaS eliminates these barriers by providing a pay-as-you-go model. This not only reduces capital expenditure but also shifts IT spending to an operational cost, making budgeting more predictable. With the ability to scale resources up or down during different stages of your project, you only pay for what you use.

Additionally, with no need to maintain and upgrade physical hardware, media teams can focus on creativity and innovation rather than IT management.

Improved Asset Utilisation
Assets stored in silos or disorganised folders often go underutilised. With cloud MAM, teams gain full visibility into their repositories, ensuring that existing assets can be repurposed, reducing redundant creation efforts and maximising ROI.

Futureproofing with Emerging Technologies

As the industry evolves, cloud-based MAM tools can easily integrate with emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and automation tools. These innovations enhance digital asset management by enabling features like:

• Automated metadata generation for faster organisation.
• Content analysis for better insight and decision-making.
• AI-powered workflows for tasks like captioning, tagging, and versioning.

IaaS ensures that your infrastructure can support these cutting-edge tools without the need for costly upgrades or downtime.

Looking Ahead

The future of collaborative media asset management is inextricably tied to the cloud. As new technologies like AI and machine learning continue to enhance metadata tagging, predictive asset usage, and automated workflows, cloud-based MAM systems will become even more indispensable.

For media and entertainment professionals, adopting a cloud-first MAM strategy is no longer a choice—it’s a necessity to stay competitive in an industry that demands speed, efficiency, and innovation.

By embracing the scalability of IaaS and the flexibility of cloud storage, organisations can transform how they manage their digital assets, paving the way for greater creativity, collaboration, and success.

ERA partner with Axle Media Asset Management to provide the best-in-class solutions for our customers.  Are you ready to revolutionise your Media Asset Management?  Let’s talk about how cloud solutions can enpower your workflows, contact us now.