We came across a great article on CMS Wire by Ralph Windsor. In his article, Ralph does an excellent job of talking through the various ways, good and bad, of determining the true ROI of implementing a digital asset management system.

Here is the first part of the article:

In common with most types of business oriented software, DAM systems need to have business case that can demonstrate an opportunity to gain a positive ROI (Return On Investment). While all this is obvious stuff that you don't need an MBA to understand, proving an ROI case is harder than it might superficially appear.

In this article I am going to critique one of the more popular methods that is often used and discuss alternatives which I believe are more realistic and useful.

Statistical Follies And Quantitative Farces
The kind of ROI data that corporate bean counters like is typically numerically oriented and reads as though someone has gone away and scientifically measured activities using a precise and rational method. Statements like "we can save x per employee" usually go down well.

Most pre-implementation statistical evaluations will be composed of some ROI propositions — with search related activities being prevalent (as you would expect for DAM). A common method is to then work backwards from each of these benefits and estimate how long they take as an average. For example:

Average Search Time Per Hour x Employee Cost Per Hour = Current Hourly Cost To Business

Theoretically, this tells you how much it costs to search for assets without a DAM. Various analyst supplied stats about how much time you can save by using a mythical generic DAM system then get quoted (30% seems to be popular). The discount factor is then applied to tell you the ROI.

This sounds reasonable, but there are assumptions and fallacies baked into this technique that, in my opinion, render it unfit for purpose.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

MediaValet was mentioned in a recent article on Business TechEdge about how the cloud is able to help medical practices back up data in case of disasters. Here is the first part of the article:

In light of recent natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, it is clear why disaster recovery is an important topic for businesses. Medical practices, in particular, must continue to run without a hitch and require patient records, insurance forms, and data to remain accessible at a moment’s notice. Several options are available, from out-of-the-box self-hosted tools to cloud computing.

Cloud storage is a prevalent player, as backup and disaster recovery are two of its top uses thanks to advancements leading to inexpensive, efficient solutions. Cloud storage offers affordable, reliable, scalable, and secure environments for storing clinical and non-clinical content generated in medical practices. Many different storage and document management services are available.

Cloud Storage to the Rescue
Information is the lifeblood of all businesses and 24/7 access to critical data such as patient records and financial is mission critical for any medical practice. “Patients with life threatening conditions cannot wait while healthcare providers search through data backups, or wait for IT administrators to bring records back online,” advocates Jake Wang, strategic marketing manager for LaserJet and enterprise solutions group, Hewlett-Packard (HP). Disaster recovery through conventional means often takes hours or days, while cloud-based disaster recovery is instantaneous.

Healthcare organizations may use the cloud to store and secure digital assets that need to be backed up and accessible at all times. “The more assets an organization has, the more people who need to access those assets, and the more locations from which those assets must be accessed, the stronger the argument to use the cloud,” adds David MacLaren, CEO, MediaValet, VRX Studios Inc.

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

Weeks in the making, we're excited to release our first product video. Using typography and motion graphics we answer the question we get asked more than any other: "What do you guys do at MediaValet?"

If we've succeeded, after watching our inagural video, you'll have a much better understanding of what MediaValet is all about.

We hope you enjoy our labour of love…



You can also watch this video on our YouTube channel.

A couple of months ago, Microsoft approached us and asked if they could showcase MediaValet at their annual developers conference, Build 2012, at the end of October. We thought about it - for about a second - and said "heck yes!"

...Well, we had no idea what we had agreed to.



On Wednesday, October 10th, we all arrived at our office and were confronted by a huge lighting truck parked right in front of our main entrance. None of us thought this could be for the film crew as we just couldn't comprehend what was involved in creating what was supposed to be a 4 minute video. We had thought they would be in and out of our office in a couple of hours – max.

The film crew arrived at 8 AM that morning and within an hour we had so much lighting and video equipment in our office that we could barely move. And this was just the beginning. The first shot they set up was an interview with our CEO, David MacLaren, in his office. The poor guy was interviewed for two and a half hours. It looked like he had a lot of fun but TWO AND A HALF HOURS! That's a lot of time to be constantly talking. David covered things like our history, how we were first created as a tool for VRX Studios to manage over 20 terabytes of imagery for it's thousands of hotel customers, to becoming a standalone digital asset management service for companies of all sizes, in all industries, all over the world; why we chose Microsoft's Windows Azure platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud platform over Amazon and Google's infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud offerings; and why we do what we do. Next up was our CTO, Jean Lozano. Over the next hour and half, Jean discussed specific challenges we faced developing on Azure and how we overcame them.



Once the interviews were done, it was our turn. The film crew set up and shot several action sequences around our offices showing the type of things we do everyday. From programming, to working with digital assets, to customer service and training. It was quite fun to be in front of the camera showing off what we do. The film crew finally left at just before 6 PM. Whew! What a day. And all for 4 minutes of video. We can't wait to see it at Build.

Here are a couple more shots from the day of filming.

We came across this article by Jonathan and thought it was a very well thought out business case as to why companies should consider DAM solution. One thing we do want to point out though, a cloud-based solution such as MediaValet, is a fraction of the total cost of an on-premis solution – and much easier to maintain.

Few things are more frustrating than spending time and effort on redoing work that's already been completed. And yet many organizations end up doing just that because recreating a file, a Word document or even an image won't take as long as finding and distributing the asset no one can seem to locate.

But as more and more content is created and enterprises collect and store it in an ever-expanding array of types, it is becoming more critical for organizations to efficiently manage it all. This is especially true at companies where video and digital images and other types of rich media assets play an increasingly important role in marketing and other business uses across multiple channels. And it's not just about customer-facing assets. Internal training videos, corporate marketing videos and video conferencing are all expanding in popularity and importance. Digital asset management (DAM) is a rapidly growing technology area with the potential for simplifying the production, retrieval and distribution of a wide variety of rich media content.

"Most people aren't managing the content properly, and that has obvious consequences," said Anjali Yakkundi, a researcher with Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "Content has to be refreshed across channels and regions, and it's kind of getting lost because content complexities are growing among organizations."

But before a production department or marketing department can hope to deploy DAM, it has to make the business case for adopting the technology. And that business case can essentially be made by proving one or more of three key business arguments, said Beau Brewer, vice president of business development at Siteworx Inc., a consulting firm based in Reston, Va.

To read the entire article, click here.

In a recent CMS Wire article by Henrik de Gyor, he writes about the purpose and importance of auditing your digital assets. Here is a portion of the article:

Auditing is not just for taxes or financials. If you want to bring clarity to the digital assets you have, auditing is one of the ways to do this. You can audit digital asset whether you have a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution today or not. The following is what you should think about...

Why Audit Your Digital Assets?
Some people fear the idea of an audit because of what it may uncover. I recommend embracing the idea of an audit as a good practice in the long term so issues get resolved instead of brushing them under the carpet. An audit can bring clarity about assets and around collections of digital assets to help make informed decisions about them. It also helps establish process, policy and presidence around managing digital assets. Too often, digital assets just sit there as they remain:

• undervalued (or not valued as true assets should be)
• poorly used (used only once or remain unused)
• unknown to many users who may need/want them
• not found upon search

To read the entire article and see answers to the following questions, click here.

What are we auditing?
What are the objectives?
Are these objectives SMART?
How do we do and internal audit of our digital assets?
How do we do an internal audit of our search capabilities?
How long will an audit take?

In this interview, MediaValet's CTO, Jean Lozano, discusses various development strategies that he and his team learned while ramping up development on Windows Azure. You'll hear about the lessons they learned from various cloud-related challenges faced during development and from an application support/maintenance perspective. This presentation will focus on insights acquired from architecting, building and maintaining a business application on Windows Azure over the last two years, using examples from MediaValet, a multi-tenant digital asset management system that was designed and developed from the ground up on Windows Azure.

In a recent CMS Wire article by Henrik de Gyor, he writes about what scale is, how to scale search from the beginning and long term and short term thinking on scale. Here is a portion of the article:

One thing many people do not think about enough is whether something will scale (up, out, in and/or down) as needed. Scalability is critical for any organization to consider if they plan to grow and thrive, not just survive. Otherwise, staying with decisions made in the short term will affect the organization rapidly in the long term.

What is Scale?
Ever seen a scale model car or train? It is usually smaller, less functional, less powerful and less expensive than the real thing. The same principle applies to the number of people working, the processes followed and technology in use.

Digital Asset Management is a business tool to search, find, use, reuse and repurpose digital assets quickly. That still takes people following good process empowered by technology.

Unless we archive offline at the end of an established digital asset life cycle or purge (due to regulations), we will only accumulate digital assets. The rate of growth is likely increasing and likely even multiplying regularly. We can measure and track this growth based on asset count over given periods of time. Measure what you manage. Otherwise, we better plan on increasing storage space exponentially and very often. Specific to technology, scalability is more important than ever. Nowadays, increasingly more of our assets are intangible, digital assets which require more of everything, including:

• Bandwidth
• Storage
• Hardware
• Software (that scales up)
• Concurrent users
• Processing power
• Languages (not just in the user interface, but the assets themselves if you truly have an international audience going beyond one language)
• Metadata
• Version control (of assets and metadata separately)
• Access (including mobile)
• Security vs. openness
• Rights and permissions (clearly explained)
• Collaboration
• Workflow
• User adoption
• Delivery portals to various channels/vehicles
• Reducing silos and exact duplicates
• Analytics (to measure and track usage)

CopperEgg wrote an article about how Windows Azure is enabling companies like MediaValet to improve their operations and achieve greater cloud scalability. Here is the first bit of the article:

Microsoft has continued to offer its cloud computing solutions to help companies of all types to improve their operations. The vendor recently announced that VRX Studios, a global content services and photography business – which is now operating under MediaValet – has adopted the Windows Azure platform to replace its digital management system to achieve greater cloud scalability.

By providing MediaValet with the new cloud solution, Microsoft also said it is the first vendor to establish a digital asset management system that is 100 percent cloud-based.

"Windows Azure enabled us to harness more than a decade of experience in producing, managing, distributing and licensing digital media to build an enterprise-class digital asset management system – in less than 12 months – that can compete with the best and biggest in the digital asset management industry," said VRX founder and CEO David MacLaren.

MacLaren also said that launching an asset management solution before the availability of an option like Windows Azure would have been difficult for a variety of reasons. He said large budgets and a "massive" IT team would have been needed to support this system.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

In his recent article, John does a great job of answering the following questions:

What is DAM?
How did it come about?
Why is DAM Needed and Who is Doing it?
Where is DAM Headed?

Here are a few tid bits:

What is DAM?
DAM is the business process of managing digital multi-media assets for strategic use, re-use and future access as directed by the business. DAM controls every aspect of a digital asset’s life cycle through its ingestion into the system, application of security rules, cataloging, storage, retrieval and distribution.

These digital assets may well include digital photographs, animations, videos, graphics, music, 3D Models or even documents as is needed by the business and its objectives.

How Did It Come About?
DAM started as a practice in the 1990s born out of the printing and photography industries in tandem with the explosive rise of the Internet and digital communications. “Assets” flowing into feeding into Content Management (CM) systems for the web — images, graphics, documents, video — were not being managed effectively.

There was a need for technological solutions facilitating workflow for enterprise-wide image and graphic libraries and to share those assets both internally and externally for use and reuse.

DAM effectiveness was eventually enhanced by the application of XMP technology in addition to existing IPTC standards for managing information so that users would be able to identify assets with accuracy and authenticity. The road was set for DAM.

Why is DAM Needed and Who is Doing It?
Using DAM can deliver explicit knowledge and measurable cost savings, as well as other tangible benefits for the enterprise and senior marketing and production management, such as:

• "Brand” identity
• Improved workflows
• Cost reduction

Posted by Techvibes Newsdesk, March 6, 2012

Earlier today, we reported that the cloud will help create 70,000 new jobs across Canada over the next three years. Vancouver will be a leader in this growth, boasting 6,000 new cloud-related jobs by 2015.

Microsoft's Release yesterday is generating a lot of buzz. Here's a great article by Russ Martin at Canada.com that focuses on the pervasiveness of the cloud.


Cloud computing to create 70,000 jobs in Canada
By Russ Martin, March 7, 2012



Cloud computing–the use of external systems to host data and even run software–may be at its tipping point: A recent study commissioned by Microsoft has revealed that cloud computing may create as many as 70,000 jobs across Canada.

Companies like Amazon and Microsoft have long been using the cloud to host their services but now industries outside of IT, including small businesses, are moving to the cloud.

According to John Weigelt, National Ttechnology Officer at Microsoft Canada, many of the 70,000 jobs will be in marketing, admin and other non-tech related fields; even plumbing or carpentry.

Cloud computing is expected to create as many 14,500 jobs by 2015 in Toronto and an additional 6,000 in Vancouver. But the impact will go far beyond the major cities, Weigelt said.

“Cloud has an impact across Canada. Often we think of pockets of innovation in the country, be they Vancouver or Toronto, but it’s interesting to note that the cloud has a positive economic impact across the Canadian economy,” he says.

As businesses spend less money on locally hosted and updated computing systems, they will have increased budgets to hire additional staff and focus on their businesses’ core offerings, Weigelt adds.

Suresh Bhat has seen the impact of cloud computing first hand. As an associate at Extreme Venture Partners, Bhat works with startups that are looking for their big break.

“Cloud has changed the way we make our investment decisions,” Bhat says. “We don’t have to invest as early in companies who just have ideas and don’t have a product. They can build stuff themselves using the cloud.”

The shift from heritage systems to cloud computing has had a big impact on the startup scene. “The cloud paradigm has really shifted the way things are. Five or 10 years ago, people weren’t depending on the cloud as much, maybe for liability issues, but now I think the cloud has become quite predominant now in the startup scene,” he said.

Photo studio turns data issue into cloud gold
By Christopher Rogers, March 5, 2012



Two years ago VRX Studios had a big problem. A global photography company, the firm was trying to manage a rapidly growing media library that at the time had just surpassed 20TBs. The digital asset management system it was employing could no longer handle the scale or growth of the company’s data.

Understand, in 2009 VRX was engaged in content production, management, distribution and licensing for roughly 8,000 hotels. These assets were not limited to photos of hotels, but also included hospitality and travel-related videos, slideshows, virtual tours, and interactive maps.

The Vancouver-based company used a custom-built asset management system and had grown as new clients came on board. As a result the architecture of the system was becoming too complex to support. The system was collocated in Houston, Tex., which complicated frequently-needed server and storage additions.

Having physical servers was difficult because of fluctuating storage and processing requirements.

David MacLaren, president and CEO of VRX Studios, said he needed a system that could handle the amount of data and users, and grow with the company.

“We also needed a system that could be easily accessed by our customers throughout North America, Europe and Asia,” he said.

The fact that the servers were hosted in Houston was a problem. It worked well for the company’s North American customers, but not for those overseas.

The terms were set. VRX needed a cost-effective, globally accessible digital asset management system able to handle large amounts of data, file types and users.

A cloud-based solution seemed like a natural fit, but MacLaren lamented that when the company went looking there was no product that fulfilled the firm’s unique needs. He described two options, both of which would require collocating to at least one data centre on each continent:

1: purchase a system that had all of the required features;
2: purchase a system that didn’t have all the features and customize it.

Azure

As neither optioned worked for VRX, MacLaren and his team turned to the cloud. While there weren’t many cloud platforms that would meet VRX’s needs, there was one that did.

In 2009 Microsoft was coming out of beta with Windows Azure, a platform as a service offering that could provide the basis for what MacLaren and his team at VRX needed.

The Azure platform would also allow the solution to be globally accessible at launch. That revelation prompted a massive shift in VRX’s approach to the tool.

The solution went from a tool built specifically to meet a single pain point to a product that would solve more than one issue.

The tool was custom-built on Azure and within a few months it was offered to VRX’s hotel customers so they could access the content that VRX created for them. VRX referred to it as its “Digital Asset Management Service.” MacLaren said the reaction from the customers was significant and many asked if they could use the tool to manage non-VRX assets they owned.

Expanding Horizons

MacLaren now had a custom cloud digital asset management product used by thousands of hotels. VRX called it “MediaValet,” but the system seemed a good fit for other industries as well.

“We did a little bit of online advertising, just to see if there was a market outside of the hospitality and travel industries and we were overwhelmed by demand,” he said.

MediaValet has since become its own standalone brand, to make it more accessible to new clients who wouldn’t be familiar with the VRX brand.

MediaValet now has clients in industries from manufacturing to real estate, construction to advertising. MacLaren, who now heads both VRX and MediaValet, attributes much of this cross-industry, cross-continent success to the Azure platform.

“I think Azure is going to do this for a lot of companies,” he said. The platform makes it easy to build the required tools and make them available cost effectively – keys for startups, MacLaren said.

“Platform-as-a-service cloud offerings are going to enable companies of various sizes, across industries, to reduce their IT costs, improve their productivity, and uncover new product and service offerings,” he said.

To view the full article on Channel Insider, please click here.

This article was written by Nelson Bennett of Business in Vancouver in response to Microsoft's Release yesterday regarding IDC's recent study on the rapid growth of the Cloud and it's affect on new job creation around the world.


Moving to the Cloud Creates Jobs: VRX Studios
By Nelson Bennett, March 7, 2012

Moving to the cloud could foster 6,000 jobs in Vancouver over the next three years, according to a study commissioned by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT).

Microsoft, which uses its massive data centres to provide cloud computing, commissioned IDC to study the job creation power of cloud migration.

The IDC study concluded cloud computing could create 14 million jobs worldwide over the next three years, 70,000 Canada-wide and 6,000 in Vancouver – a claim dismissed by TechEYE.net as “drivel.”

Earlier this year, at its annual technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) predictions, Deloitte said cloud migration is happening slower than the hype would suggest.

In response to Microsoft's Release yesterday that extolled the virtues of the Cloud and how it's driving job growth around the world, Scott Simpson wrote the following story that appeared on the front page of the business section of The Vancouver Sun today.



Cloud Computing will Touch Off Global Job Boom
By Scott Simpson, March 6, 2012

Metro Vancouver is expected to gain 6,000 jobs by 2015 as part of a global trend toward adoption of cloud-based computing technology.

Research undertaken for Microsoft by International Data Corporation indicates that the cloud will support creation of 14 million jobs worldwide, including 70,000 in Canada within three years.



IDC foresees 20 per cent annual job growth related to cloud services through 2015 in Vancouver. The technology consulting firm determined that at least 75 per cent of information technology (IT) spending is consumed by maintenance of cash-eating legacy computing systems and “routine upgrades.”

IDC says businesses will shift from in-house systems to off-site, third-party systems to process, manage and store data – redirecting money to business growth and innovation. Transitioning out of IT could free up $1.1 trillion globally by 2015.

IDC reported worldwide spending of $28 billion on cloud services in 2011. Businesses using the cloud generated an additional $400 billion in revenue and 1.5 million new jobs. Half those jobs were created by small and medium sized companies.

This year alone, IDC projects cloud-based job gains of 6.7 million, led by communications and media, banking, and manufacturing.

IDC projects that by 2015 in Vancouver, small and medium sized businesses will add at least 2,900 new jobs as a result of cloud technology, Large-scale companies will add more than 3,000 new workers.

John Weigelt, national technology officer for Microsoft Canada, said in Vancouver that it’s a philosophical shift — and a financial one — as opposed to a technology issue.

The cost to start a company focusing on applications for smartphones and tablets ranges around $25,000, as opposed to $25 million or more a decade ago because there’s no need to invest heavily in computer servers or other infrastructure. Cloud systems like Microsoft’s Azure offer state of the art computing power through the Internet at a fraction of the cost of an internal system.

“People starting businesses have these bright ideas and when they’re seeking funding, the people providing the funding are looking to fund those ideas. They don’t want to fund infrastructure, they don’t want to fund equipment and hardware,” Weigelt said.

“By making use of computing resources on demand, you can put the money into the bright idea. In the mobile apps environment you don’t have to build a server farm. You don’t have to wait for equipment to come in. You don’t have to wait for software to be provisioned. You can plug into the web and make use of what you require, on demand.”

Cloud powers innovation, spurs sky high job growth in Canada and across the globe
By Canada Newswire Group, March 6, 2012



To view the full infographic, please click on the image above.

New IDC study says cloud will deliver almost 6,000 new Vancouver jobs by 2015; 70,000 in Canada

VANCOUVER, March 6, 2012 /CNW/ - Cloud technology is expected to create millions of new jobs around the world and will be an important force in inspiring the business innovation needed to restore global economic health, according to a new IDC study released today. The study, commissioned by Microsoft, found that by the end of 2015, nearly 14 million new jobs will be created worldwide, and just over 70,000 across Canada.

In Vancouver, new jobs related to the cloud will increase an average of 20 per cent annually, resulting in almost 6,000 by 2015.

The cloud is a web-based way to process, manage and store data - an IT solution so cost-effective that businesses of all sizes are moving away from the expensive maintenance of legacy systems, and instead opting to build on top of the cloud's common infrastructure. By using the cloud's global scalability, businesses can, in turn, invest those savings directly into business innovation.

IDC reports that worldwide, at least 75 per cent of IT spending is currently tied up with the maintenance of legacy systems and routine upgrades.

"By harnessing the power of the cloud, businesses benefit from reduced fees and equipment costs, and in turn free up IT staff to turn their focus to more mission-critical and strategic tasks," says John Weigelt, National Technology Officer, Microsoft Canada. "But we often overlook one of the cloud's most compelling benefits: by empowering business innovation and increasing revenues, using cloud technology can lead to job creation across all sectors, and in turn, drive Canada's economy forward."

The IDC also reveals several other interesting cloud facts:

• In 2011, more than $28 billion was spent on cloud services worldwide.
• In 2011, the cloud helped businesses around the world generate more than $400 billion in additional revenues and 1.5 million new jobs. More than 50 per cent of those jobs accrued to small and medium businesses.
• By 2015 in Vancouver, businesses with less than 500 staff (SMEs) will see an increase of more than 2,900 new jobs, while larger enterprise companies will increase by more than 3,000 jobs.

Our illustrious founder and CEO was on hand at Microsoft's 2012 Windows Azure Partner Summit in Redmond, WA last week to tell our Azure story. David regaled the audience of global ISV CTOs and CIOs with the ups and downs we've experienced developing MediaValet from a tool - to address our parent company's (VRX Studios') digital asset management woes back in late 2009 - to the fully independent, global SaaS offering that MediaValet is today.

On hand to tell their Windows Azure stories as well were Rob Minaglia, the VP of Strategic Alliances at CA Technologies; Art Haddad, the Lead Architect at Esri; Van Beach, Product Manager for Milliman; Ted Pendleton, Sr. VP, Numerix; and, Chris Ford, RenderMan Business Director, Pixar Animation Studios.

There were numerous senior Microsoft people who presented at the two day event as well, including: Kim Akers, General Manager, ISV Partners, Developer & Platform Evangelism; Tim O'Brien, General Manger, Platform Strategy; Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, Azure Application Platform; Dr. Dileep Bhandarkar, Distinguished Engineer, Foundation Services; Steven Martin, General Manager, Windows Azure Business Strategy; Bob Kelly, Corporate Vice President, Windows Azure Marketing; and, Kevin McCarthy, Chief Financial Officer, Xbox.

In our minds, the best quote of the event was Bob Kelly's: "Microsoft wants to run the world's Apps". We heard this repeatedly throughout Bob's presentation and it's the first time we've heard it put this way. This is very good us as it means Microsoft will continue to invest in the Azure platform, making it better and better for applications such as MediaValet. If the past year is any indication of what's to come, we can only assume that the platform and the tools that support it are going to improve exponentially throughout 2012.

Thank you Microsoft, we're "all in" as well.

Cheers,
The MediaValet Team.

Our friends at Microsoft graciously published a new business case on MediaValet this week extolling our virtues and regaling readers on how we leveraged Windows Azure to not only build a tool to help our sister company, VRX Studios, reduce costs and increase productivity but also to transform that tool into a entirely separate business that now delivers digital asset management services, under a SaaS model, to companies of all sizes and industries all over the world. Thanks Microsoft, we really appreciate it!

To read the case study, please click here.

An increasing number of printing companies are turning to digital asset management to not only survive but also thrive in a production environment that is fast paced and pressure filled. There is little time and for those people whose job it is to handle such duties, even less energy to track down misplaced creative and other essential files. A quality, highly intuitive DAM solution drastically reduces wait times. Files can be found and accessed in seconds by those that need them digitally and from a centralized, virtual location.

Please click here to read the full post.

MediaValet, and its sister company VRX Studios, have been selected as one of three Finalists for the ‘Windows Azure Platform ISV Partner of the Year’ award in the ‘Emerging Technologies and Innovation Awards’ category of Microsoft’s 2011 IMPACT Awards.

The ninth annual IMPACT Awards recognize excellence within Microsoft’s partner community in Canada. The 2011 IMPACT Award finalists will be honoured at a gala event taking place on November 30th, 2011, in Toronto, ON.

Our founder and CEO, David MacLaren, recently shared his cloud-computing experience with the 7,500 entrepreneurs, in 38 countries, that make up the global Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). Writing for Overdrive, the official blog of EO, David shared his experience developing MediaValet on Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud-platform.

David’s main point in the article: Cloud-computing not only saves entrepreneurs time and money, but provides further benefits including scalability, accessibility, security, faster time to market and a significant reduction in upfront capital expenditures.

Barb Darrow, a contributing editor at the renowned technology publication, GigaOM, recently wrote an article about Microsoft’s Windows Azure and how Microsoft is fairing in the Cloud. She interviewed a number of industry experts including our founder and President, David MacLaren.

In speaking with Barb, David pointed out that we chose to build MediaValet on Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud-platform because most of our parent company’s customers already have Windows expertise and that Azure enables us to ‘tap into’ Microsoft’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) as needed: “it takes two minutes to turn on CDN to light up 25 additional data centers around the world — all without calling (a company like) Akamai and telling them how we want it done.”

MediaValet was featured by KMWorld, an online publication that covers the latest in Content, Document and Knowledge Management. The article, entitled "Digital Asset Management Supports a World of Rich Media", gives a brief overview of the digital asset management market, emphasizes the importance of metadata in facilitating search and gives an overview of the myriad benefits DAMS bring to organizations. The article also chronicles VRX's decision to use Microsoft's Azure platform to build their own flexible, massively scalable, globally accessible DAMS - MediaValet.

Please click here to access the full article.

We are excited to announce that MediaValet now replicates (i.e. backs up) our customers' digital assets, at no additional cost, in a secondary data centre within the same geographic region (i.e. North and South US, North and West Europe, and East and Southeast Asia). This is big news for us and our clients as it's in addition to the triple redundancy that we currently provide for all assets and delivers industry leading data durability that protects our customers digital assets incase of a major data centre disaster.

Today, MediaValet was featured prominently on smartertechnology.com, a online technology publication with articles that focus on planning and leadership for a better world. The article, entitled "Digital asset management moves to the cloud" discusses the emerging cloud-based digital asset management market, and uses MediaValet as a prime example of how cloud-based software can provide flexibility, scaleability and worldwide access to companies of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries.

Please click here to access the full article.

David MacLaren, MediaValet's President and CEO, wrote an article that appeared in yesterday's edition of MediaPost, a leading news and events site for media, marketing and advertising professionals. The article, "Taking Your Digital Assets to the Cloud" describes the challenges that marketers face as the digital assets they need on a day-to-day basis accumulate at a rapid rate. David describes the need for a system that can centralize, index and archive these assets and then focuses on the particular benefits of cloud-based digital asset management for today's marketing professionals.

Please click here to access the full article.

David MacLaren, MediaValet's President and CEO, was quoted in an article on Business Tech Edge, an online publication focused on the latest small and medium sized business technology news, software, and wireless technology. The article, “Send it to the Cloud”, highlights various benefits of cloud computing, including the elimination of capital expenditures, increased cost effectiveness, and flexibility, which are all critical to the success of small and medium businesses. The article includes a number of real life examples that illustrate these benefits across a variety of companies and industries.

Please click here to access the full article.

MediaValet was featured on SearchCloudStorage.com, one of 100 TechTarget news sites that reach 10 million registered members. The article, “Cloud ROI tips for finding the bottom line”, discusses the ongoing debate around accurately determining cloud ROI. Analyst experts weigh in on which metrics are most reliable when determining the real cost of cloud storage strategies. As part of the article, editors Rachel Kossman and Dave Raffo, feature MediaValet as a real-world example of how our parent company, VRX Studios, successfully eliminated at least 50 percent of its cost in bringing MediaValet to market by using Windows Azure.

Please click here to access the full article.

MediaValet was featured today in a story on Microsoft's Windows Azure blog, I've Built a Windows Azure Application...How should I Market it?, which focuses on strategic challenges that Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) face when transitioning from a traditional company model to a Software-as-a-Service model. The author, Yvonne Muench, a Group Manager in the Azure ISV Market Insights Group, reviews a number of key trends amongst those ISVs making the transition to a SaaS model, including organizational structure changes and adjustments to packaging and pricing. She provides great real life examples of these trends through a recap of her roundtable discussions with representatives of three ISVs at last month's Worldwide Partner Conference, including Markus Eilers, the CEO of runtime and pulsd, Arthur Berrill, VP Technology at DMTI Spatial and MediaValet's Founder and CEO, David MacLaren

Please click here to access the full article.

I'm pleased to announce that we've been selected by Microsoft, from over 3,000 of Microsoft’s Canadian independent software vendors (ISVs), to be one of only 40 Microsoft Field Managed ISV Partners in Canada. This recognition demonstrates our success to date, and our ongoing commitment, to deliver a best in class, cloud-based, digital asset management system.

Microsoft Field Managed ISV Partners are selected based on their historical success and future potential. With this program, Microsoft provides a Dedicated Partner Account Manager, development guidance and resources, access to product teams, increased visibility of Microsoft’s product plans, go to market resources and executive level awareness and support.

Microsoft has been a tremendous partner to us since we began working on MediaValet in 2010. Being awarded Field Management status is a testament to all that we've achieved over the past year and will help us reach new heights in technology development, market penetration and Cloud platform leadership in the future.

MediaValet was featured on Bottom Line, a blog by Baseline Magazine, an online publication focused on driving business success through technology. The article, "Cloud Spawns a New Business Line", chronicles the story of our parent company, VRX Studios, and the challenges they faced finding a digital asset management solution that was flexible and scalable enough to meet their global needs. The article focuses on the benefits of cloud computing and chronicles VRX's decision to build MediaValet as a stand-alone entity built on Microsoft's Azure platform. MediaValet is highlighted as a prime example of how the cloud allows companies to bring new SaaS offerings to market faster and more cost-effectively than previously possible, ultimately delivering more value to end users.

Please click here to access the full article.

At MediaValet, we see tremendous potential in cloud computing and wanted to share this great article from datamation.com with you. It does a terrific job of highlighting the tremendous progress being made in the realm of cloud computing and draws upon the expertise of a number of researchers and cloud providers to forecast industry growth rates for the next five to ten years. Estimates vary but the experts agree - growth will be monumental. The most conservative estimates call for 20% year-over-year growth for the foreseeable future. The article also touches upon the environmental benefits of cloud computing as well as the importance of PaaS and SaaS, respectively. 

Please click here to access the full article.

I’m back from WPC11, Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference , where I had the pleasure of presenting our cloud story as part of Kim Akers’ keynote presentation, “ISVs Leading the Shift to the Cloud”, and participating on a panel discussion about “Moving from a Software to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model”. Both were great experiences and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone from Microsoft and the attendees. Since being back, I’ve had a little time to digest the week’s myriad of announcements by Microsoft. For those of you, like me, who find major events are packed with so much news it’s hard to absorb anything, I thought I’d share my main take-away from WPC11.

Today, MediaValet was featured on Talkin' Cloud, an online publication focused on cloud-computing. The article, "How a Media Company Cashed in on Windows Azure", focuses on how a business can be completely transformed by using the cloud, specifically Microsoft Azure. The article references our parent company, VRX Studios, and the challenges they faced finding a digital asset management solution that met their global needs. It chronicles VRX's decision to build MediaValet on the Microsoft Azure platform and uses MediaValet as an example of how cloud-based solutions allow companies to bring their solutions to market quickly and cost-effectively. Later this month, our CEO David MacLaren will be interviewed by Joe Panettieri, the author.

Stay tuned for more details, and click here to access the full article.

MediaValet was one of three cloud applications showcased during Kim Akers' Value Keynote presentation at the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. David MacLaren, President and CEO of MediaValet and VRX Studios, was invited to join Kim on stage to share VRX Studios' Cloud story. He recounted the difficulty that the company had finding an existing digital asset management system, learning about Cloud-computing and how Windows Azure met their needs for a flexible, massively scalable digital asset management system. In addition, David joined top Independent Software Vendor (ISV) executives Monday afternoon as part of a roundtable discussion about "Moving from a Software to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model".

Please click here for the full press release.

On July 1st, MediaValet™ was featured on CloudTimes, an online publication focused on cloud computing. The article, "Creating a Better Digital Asset Management System in the Cloud", focuses on how the cloud can completely transform a business by creating new revenue streams or entirely new businesses. The article references MediaValet's parent company, VRX Studios, the world's leading full-service photography and content management company, and the challenges they faced in finding a digital asset management solution that was massively scalable and could be deployed on a global basis swiftly and cost effectively. It chronicles VRX's decision to build their own cloud-based, enterprise class, digital asset management system, MediaValet™ for companies of any size, anywhere in the world. The author uses MediaValet™ as a prime example of how cloud-based DAMS benefit companies of all sizes by increasing their productivity, generating cost savings and providing reliable, secure and accessible service.

Please click here to access the full article.

Today's edition of the Toronto Star newspaper featured an interview with MediaValet's Founder and CEO, David MacLaren. The article, "Future of data storage floats on a cloud", references MediaValet's parent company, VRX Studios, the world's leading full-service photography and content management company, and the challenges they faced in finding a digital asset management solution that was massively scalable and could be deployed on a global basis swiftly and cost effectively. The article focuses on the the cloud as an enabler for small and medium sized businesses and chronicles VRX's decision to launch their own cloud-based, enterprise class, digital asset management system, MediaValet™, first first as a tool for VRX, then as a product for its hospitality clients, then ultimately as an entirely separate entity to meet the needs of all companies, no matter how large or small, or where they're located.

Please click here to access the full article.

An interview with MediaValet™'s Founder and CEO, David MacLaren (pictured here), was featured in today's edition of Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. The article, "The big new bet in tech for small business" references MediaValet™'s parent company, VRX Studios, the world's leading full-service photography and content management company, and the challenges they faced in finding a digital asset management solution that was massively scalable and could be deployed on a global basis both quickly and cost effectively. The article focuses on the benefits of the cloud for small businesses and chronicles VRX's decision to launch their own 100% cloud-based, enterprise class, SaaS digital asset management system, MediaValet™, first as a tool for VRX, then as a product for its hospitality clients, then ultimately as its own separate entity designed to meet the needs of all companies, no matter how large or small, or where they're located.

Please click here for the full article.

We wanted to share this useful article from Another DAM Blog (a favourite of ours) that discusses the question "How many DAM solutions should my organization have?". The best DAM solutions should be scalable and flexible enough that one system is enough to meet an organization's needs, however, many companies still accumulate multiple DAM systems. Henrik de Gyor discusses some of the reasons that DAMS proliferation can occur, and suggests ways to simplify and consolidate your digital asset management systems.

Click here to read the entire article on Another DAM Blog.

We came across this helpful article in Marketnology(SM) that outlines some key questions to help you determine whether your organization should be considering a DAMS, including:

• Does my company have thousands of brand assets managed by many departments and/or vendors across different geographies?
• Is it a challenge to verify whether we have the rights to use assets in our existing library?
• Could other organizations benefit from reusing our digital assets across multiple communications channels?
• Is the process/workflow for getting access to digital assets confusing, convoluted, confusing and frustrating?

MediaValet™ was featured in this month’s edition of Profit Magazine. The article, entitled ‘Tech’s Renewable Resource’, focuses on de-mystifying cloud computing. It discusses the many benefits of the cloud and the factors that companies should consider before moving toward cloud-based solutions. The article referenced MediaValet™’s parent company, VRX Studios, the world’s leading full-service photography and content management company, and the formidable challenge they faced in finding a digital asset management solution that was massively scalable and could be deployed globally both quickly and cost effectively. It describes VRX's decision to launch MediaValet™ as a separate entity to meet their considerable digital asset management needs – archiving, organizing and accessing 30 terabytes of data for over 10,000 hotel clients around the world – and those of all companies, no matter how large or small, or where they're located.

Click here to read the entire article in Profit Magazine.

Tuesday, April 12

MediaValet™’s Founder and CEO participates in the Align IT Roundtable in Vancouver, BC.

David MacLaren, MediaValet™’s Founder and CEO, participated in the Align IT Roundtable in Vancouver, BC this past Tuesday. Align IT Vancouver, the last in a series of events held across Canada, was organized by Ruth Morton, Technology Platform Advisor at Microsoft Canada, and Damir Bersinic, Senior Platform Advisor at Microsoft Canada. The event was centered on how to effectively align business objectives with solid strategies for a flexible, cost-effective and secure IT environment – from the desktop to the cloud.

David was selected to be part of the panel based on his experience bringing to market the first 100% cloud-based, enterprise class, SaaS, digital asset management solution, MediaValet™. The two additional panellists, Dave Kawula, the CEO of TriCon Technical Services and Bruce Johnston of Ideaca, both from Calgary, AB, were selected based on their extensive real-world experience of implementing cloud-based solutions. The panel discussed a wide variety of issues, including access speeds, security and legal issues surrounding storing and accessing data in the cloud.

As part of the panel, David talked about the team’s exciting journey building MediaValet™ - on the cloud - from the ground up. MediaValet™ was originally conceived as a tool to help VRX Studios manage over 20 terabytes of data but it quickly evolved into a standalone product that it now offers to all companies, no matter how large or small, where they’re located or how much content they have to manage. From the beginning, VRX Studios needed a highly scalable and flexible solution that could be quickly and cost effectively deployed globally. When the company was unable to find an existing solution that met these basic needs, VRX looked to Microsoft and it’s new Windows Azure cloud platform as it promised the scalability, flexibility and global IT infrastructure that VRX Studios needed.

The event reinforced how serious Microsoft is about the cloud and it’s future impact on technology, both for the company itself and the business world in general. When asked about the event, David said, “Ruth and Damir put on a great event and delivered a ton of helpful information. My co-panellists, Dave and Bruce, brought a tremendous amount of experience to the panel and shared some great stories. On my side, I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the story of MediaValet and our experience building a SaaS application in the cloud. I’m already looking forward to TechDays in the fall.”

We came across these helpful naming convention tips from our friend Henrik de Gyor at Another DAM blog. Note: We’ve made a few changes to Henrik’s post - we couldn’t resist adding a little bit of our own MediaValet flavour.

In order to maximize the value of your digital asset management system, it’s important to create and maintain a clear file naming convention. These simple tips will help you get started:

1. Create a clear naming convention: When you’re creating the convention, think about your company’s current needs, but also keep in mind how your company will evolve and change. Your convention will need to scale alongside it.
2. Distribute your naming convention: Create guidelines and samples for your employees – make sure that there’s only one version of the guidelines and that everyone is informed of changes.
3. Train employees: It’s important that your employees understand and appreciate the role that they’ll play in the new naming convention. Training is a great way to answer employees’ questions and to make sure that everyone is clear on how to use the guidelines. Remember – training should be fun as well as educational!
4. Evaluate employees: An informal evaluation at the end will help you ensure that your training was effective.
5. Follow the convention after you’ve trained and evaluated employees.
6. Monitor progress: Monitor employees’ use of the convention. There are bound to be a few mistakes, and when this happens, you can simply follow up with the employee to clarify the importance of the guidelines, and answer any questions they might have.

Henrik de Gyor wrote an excellent article entitled, How Can I Measure DAMS Progress, in April 2009 that is still very relevant today. In his article, Henrik discusses how to measure the success of a DAM initiative by tracking a variety of metrics using your DAMS’ reporting feature. Here are several of the metrics he recommends tracking on an on-going basis (and we agree whole heartedly):

• How many active DAM users do you have?
• How many departments or groups in your organization use your DAMS?
• Who are the most active groups or users?
• How many assets are being ingested into your DAMS?
• How many assets are catalogued?
• How many assets are being downloaded from your DAMS?
• What type of asset is the most popular download?
• When does the activity in your DAM peak?
• Where are the most active users of your DAMS located geographically?

We came across this blog post on TopRank, a blog about online marketing and SEO, and we thought you might enjoy it:

5 Ways to Show Digital Assets a Little Respect

Don’t fight it: Blended search results, and hence digital asset optimization, are here (at least for now).

Text content may be your SEO poster child, but with images, video and audio content often appearing in standard search results, digital assets can no longer be treated as the ugly stepsister in the online marketing family. Many companies produce a variety of content and media that never make it to the public web.

To this point, the majority of marketers have either overlooked or ignored optimization of non-text digital assets.

Henrik de Gyor does a great job of answering this question (although somewhat satirically) in his blog post dated January 10, 2009 - well before MediaValet was conceived. Two years later, as the first 100% cloud-based digital asset management system (DAMS), MediaValet adds a variety of new features to traditional DAMS that weren’t available in 2009, including two game changers: Global Accessibility and Infinite Scalability. Click here to read Henrik’s 2009 post.

Microsoft recently published a case study on VRX Studios and it’s recent transformation into a global SaaS DAMS provider as a result of launching the world’s first 100% cloud-based, enterprise class, digital asset management system. Read the full case study on Microsoft’s website or download the PDF copy.