A DAM/CMS requires a lot of extra IT things that aren’t often taught to digital asset managers, archivists, catalogers, or curators. Most systems we use are also cloud-based meaning there’s no physical server/hardware for us to manage. Here are 3 things you should know about working with a cloud-based DAM/CMS:

(1) Cloud systems pose risks that we don’t often think about.

Our work is increasingly dependent on the same cloud computing structures like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, VPNs, and software like Alma, TMS, & AEM. The benefits: security, existing infrastructure, and access to the systems from our phones or tablets. Many peer institutions use the same products too which creates space to ask others questions, get help on custom builds, or gain industry expertise when job hopping.

But it comes with risks like minimal transparency of what’s under the hood, loss of control over the digital infrastructure, and how the provider sets up redundancy. Cloud computing has a lot of dependencies and if one part breaks it creates cloud outages that literally shut down our ability to do work at a regional/national/international scale.

(2) You have to renew a SSL certificate every year.

When your domain goes from HTTPS to HTTP, this means your HTTPS certificate, a kind of website security certificate indicating the site has an encrypted connection, expired. Browsers typically warn users when they click on a website without a SSL certificate. While this is obviously a security issue, it’s also a UX issue. When users/staff/leadership see a warning pop-up saying your CMS website isn’t secure, it sends mixed messages about data management capabilities and trustworthiness.

The best thing we can do as digital asset managers is to write down the steps to renew your SSL, check if it can be auto-renewed, document who is in charge of doing this renewal and how often. As of April 2025, there’s also a push to shift renewal frequency to every one and a half months! Big change!

(3) Digital systems inherit data debt.

Data debt - or data/metadata that is any combo of incorrect, incomplete, or missing - haunts our records in the DAM/CMS, and also the server and database configurations. Most installs are “out-of-the-box” meaning they were set up without changing any default settings. Yet, DAM/CMS work requires us to customize all aspects of our infrastructure like reports, data export profiles, and user authentication methods to access the underlying SQL database.

Data debt is not a matter of using an open source system versus a proprietary/vendor product. Both contribute to creating data debt. Often data debt persists because we have to conform to system limitations, practitioners don’t document/have the knowledge about their systems, and many institutions silo IT/systems away from DAM/CMS work.