When setting up a Digital Asset Management or DAM system in your organization there is a fine line to be walked between over-securing your assets and leaving them wide open. If assets are not properly secured, you are potentially leaving your business at risk. Lock things down too tight, you risk alienating your user base. On the other hand, if you don’t secure them enough then you may face litigation due to rights violations or worse suffer from a campaign leak reducing its impact. This brings us to the perennial dilemma faced globally by organizations leaving us asking: How secure is secure enough? What level of security is too much? Where is the asset security sweet spot? Finding your asset security sweet spot maximizes user adoption while minimizing risk.

Whether your DAM uses ACLs (Access Control Lists), metadata, collections, folder-based security, or some other mechanism or combination of mechanisms, the MOST important thing is ensuring that the right team members have access to the right assets when they need them.

During a career of nearly 20 years working in the DAM industry, I have seen and implemented a plethora of security models. These security models allowed customers to secure their assets based on their current requirements. Securing their assets allowed them to feel that they had control over their content. Having control ensured they were in a position to take advantage of their digital assets over time.

Reasons a company needs to secure some or all of their digital assets are as diverse as the companies that have developed them. Assets should be stored in a DAM solution of some kind where they can be easily found, access is controlled and tracked. By storing assets in a central DAM repository it is possible to control access in the manner that best suits your business. Whether you work in a regulated industry, like pharma, and need your assets retained for a defined duration based on the regulations you operate under or your company has a long history and likes to keep a record of beauty shots from years gone by, securing your assets is important. Securing assets from an access perspective, and more importantly to prevent them from being accidentally deleted and lost forever, is why DAM solutions exist.

How secure is secure enough? Secure enough really means that your assets are only accessible by those who should be able to see and/or use them. What level of security is too much? This really is what allows your teams to access what they need without security being prohibitively constraining such that they become frustrated with the system and go around it. What is the sweet spot for my industry? This is really best answered through a discussion where we can understand your needs, your industry, and what your users need to do daily; contact us – we’d be happy to help you find your asset security sweet spot.