DAM vs VPN: Why a DAM is the Perfect VPN Alternative

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) has always had its place and purpose – to securely connect business networks and allow employees to connect to their network from home. And while VPNs may have their challenges, they’ve historically been manageable thanks to low traffic flows and sporadic use.

But, as remote work becomes the norm across various industries and company sizes, a VPN may no longer be the ideal solution. For highly collaborative departments, like marketing and creative teams, a VPN can cause more problems than solutions.

In this post, we highlight the common challenges organizations experience and why a cloud DAM is the perfect VPN alternative to help your team stay productive while working remotely.

Seamless Access

When accessing a VPN, your users need to follow a multi-step workflow - logging onto the VPN, then navigating to their storage to access their files. These steps often need to be repeated throughout the day, creating a major point of frustration for your team.

A cloud DAM allows you to streamline these steps, as users simply sign into the DAM through their web browser of choice and immediately access the assets they need. With a DAM, there’s also no need to compromise on accessibility, as your assets are always available in the cloud, no matter where you or your team are located. 

Enhanced Connectivity

VPNs are known to have serious lag times and connectivity errors that can cause users to disconnect from the system. It often puts projects on hold while users try to reconnect or wait for IT to resolve the issue.

With a cloud-based DAM, like MediaValet, you can rest assured that you won’t waste any time reconnecting or troubleshooting. Users have 24/7 access to the assets they need, allowing your team to stay productive and focused on what matters.

Having a VPN alternative like DAM, also makes it easier to distribute your assets to colleagues, partners, vendors, and more. Instead of receiving a dreaded “Failed to Send” notification when trying to share large files over email, a DAM allows you to easily distribute large files to anyone, ensuring you can always collaborate and stay productive.

Heavy-duty creative programs, like Adobe Creative Cloud, can easily bog down VPNs, resulting in syncing errors and program crashes within the program. Many DAMs offer direct integrations into Adobe Creative Cloud and other popular marketing tools, ensuring your team can easily sync assets between their DAM and favorite programs.

Improved Search Capabilities

Asset discoverability is a common challenge experienced by most organizations when storing a large number of files. This issue quickly multiplies when trying to work remotely using a VPN.

A DAM can help users find the assets they need significantly faster. When an asset is uploaded, an AI engine uses object, color, and text detection to automatically tag it with searchable keywords. From there, you can add your own tags and categories to provide business context. A DAM also offers advanced search filters to allow users to further narrow down their search results.

With a DAM, you can preview a number of asset types, including photos, videos, PDFs, Adobe Creative files, and 3D renderings. This eliminates the frustration that users experience when they download the wrong asset using their VPN.

Easy Maintenance & Setup

VPNs typically require an IT manager to help with user setup, regular maintenance, and system improvements. By using a DAM as an alternative to VPN, once you’re onboarded, you’re good to go!

As VPNs have limited bandwidth, there can also be significant challenges when large volumes of users try to access the system at once. With DAM, there are no restrictions on the number of users, nor does having more users slow down the system.

Top-Notch Security

There are often strict requirements that IT teams must follow in order to protect their servers and infrastructure. While a DAM is a vastly different solution from a VPN, there’s no exception in terms of security. A VPN layer is an additional factor of authentication, but a DAM can integrate with your company's identity provider to harness Multi-factor authentication. Many enterprise DAM solutions, like MediaValet, provide significant security measures and have a variety of certifications and attestations, such as FIPS, HIPAA/HITECH, FERPA, and SOC 2.

While a DAM is an excellent alternative, your IT team may require you to continue using the VPN while working remotely. Here's how a DAM can be used in conjunction with your VPN to boost marketing team efficiency.

To learn more about how a Digital Asset Management solution can help your creative and marketing teams contact us today to see which options are best for your specific needs.