Where's My Stuff?

"There's the looming prevalence of reasonably inexpensive DVD media and somewhat inexpensive writers," notes Vince Naselli, director of TrendWatch Graphic Arts, a research company that specializes in the assessment of trends in the graphic communications market. By providing timely and strategic information, Naselli's group harnesses some of the most hard-hitting market analysis in the business. This time, digital asset management goes under the gun.

In TrendWatch's latest report, "Storage Media: Where's My Stuff?," Naselli indicates an increasing acceptance of DVDs as a storage medium--especially for archiving purposes among graphic arts professionals. A simple search on Yahoo! indicates that dozens of companies are providing storage solutions ranging from CD-ROMs to DVDs and even searchable databases managed by specialized servers. For instance, at LANRedi, CD solutions promise one type of digitally accessed storage.

"Content on CDs represents years of work and is the most valuable asset for many graphic arts companies," outlines Kanti Purohit, AditiNet CEO. "Leaving those CDs on shelves and not leveraging this media asset for fast re-use, re-purpose or re-expression is like keeping your money under your mattress. Bringing the full library of CDs online is the first step towards effective media asset management."

The report suggests that printers implementing FTP sites are actually abandoning traditional media by encouraging customers to do the same. Accordingly, 45 percent of the surveyed commercial printers already have an FTP site for customers to upload files. And another 15 percent plan to add this ability in the next 12 months, reveals TrendWatch.

Databasics, a distributor that provides network and OPI servers, PDF workflow tools and media asset management solutions, has also implemented CD-ROMs into its archiving and management process. Its Luminex CDR/DVD solutions provides data archiving, distribution and network/Internet storage solutions by supporting a variety of network and Internet environments. The company has since worked with Canto and Farrukh to distribute end-to-end solutions for sending files via FTP sites also using the latest imposition software.