On-Premise DAM: Key Findings
Cloud-first tools are everywhere.
Yet a growing number of teams are quietly moving in the opposite direction.
On-premise digital asset management (DAM) is a response to rising cloud costs, tighter governance demands, and a renewed focus on ownership.
For many organizations, the question has shifted from what is easiest to deploy to what they can actually control long term.
Where creative IP lives matters. So does how it is managed, secured, and paid for.
Murat Korkmaz, CEO of Daminion, has seen this shift play out across industries.
“Five years ago, the main driver was security and compliance,” Korkmaz explains.
“Now, cost predictability and control are just as important.”
In an interview with DesignRush, Korkmaz breaks down why more teams are ditching cloud-first habits for on-premise DAM, gaining control, predictability, and a single source of truth for their assets.
Who Is Murat Korkmaz?
Murat Korkmaz is the CEO of Daminion, a digital asset management software company serving organizations worldwide. He leads the company’s product vision and strategy, with a strong focus on practical, secure, and efficient asset management for creative and business teams. With years of experience in software development and DAM workflows, Murat is closely involved in shaping features such as AI-powered metadata, search, and on-premise deployments. He regularly shares insights on digital asset management best practices and industry trends.
Editor's Note: This is a sponsored article created in partnership with Daminion Software.
Sectors like government, manufacturing, and architecture were early on-premise adopters.
Today, they are joined by creative and commercial teams feeling the pressure of expanding asset libraries and monthly cloud bills that never seem to settle.
“There is also a growing focus on control and independence,” says Korkmaz.
He notes that some teams are rethinking their reliance on third-party platforms for their creative IP.
“As asset libraries grow, cloud storage and subscription fees tend to increase in ways that are hard to forecast.”
Cloud costs often rise in ways that are outside the customer’s control through storage tiers, API calls, data transfer fees, and unexpected vendor price changes.
Once a team’s entire asset library lives with a single cloud provider, even just routine usage can trigger unpredictable expenses.
“For long-term archives, many organizations have realised that cloud costs can become open-ended, while owning infrastructure creates a flatter and more controllable cost model,” Korkmaz adds.
This concern aligns with a 2025 report by RCP Mag showing cloud costs are climbing fast, with hidden storage fees catching leaders off guard.
For many teams, on-premise DAM is no longer about resisting change. It’s about making one that actually sticks.
A Real-World Example: When Cloud Costs Spark Change
That shift from cloud to on-premise isn’t just theoretical.
Some teams are seeing the impact in real time, where rising costs and slower access start to hit daily workflows.
Korkmaz points to a global architecture firm that ran into exactly these problems.
It used Google Drive alongside a cloud DAM, but slow access, rising storage fees, and a public-sector requirement for local data storage started causing real headaches.
“Access to files became noticeably slower, storage costs kept increasing, and a public-sector tender required that project data be stored locally rather than in third-party cloud services,” shares Korkmaz.
The firm moved its master archive to Daminion’s on-premise solution in under eight weeks, keeping folder structures, metadata, and user permissions intact.
“After go-live, asset search became roughly 70% faster, version conflicts dropped sharply, and cloud storage and egress costs for the master archive were reduced to near zero,” he adds.
“Most importantly, the team gained full clarity and control over where their assets live and how their storage scales over time.”
The architecture firm’s experience shows how quickly cloud-only or shared storage can slow work and drive up costs.
The challenges go beyond slow access and high fees.
Teams relying on folders or cloud tools often face three hidden risks:
- Time lost: Searching for files, recreating assets, or tracking down materials wastes hours and drags down productivity.
- Inconsistency: Outdated or duplicate files circulate, creating off-brand or incorrect materials.
- Governance gaps: It’s hard to track who has access to what, leaving control and accountability murky.
Relying on shared folders or cloud-only tools creates hidden costs that pile up fast.
“The biggest hidden cost is time,” says Korkmaz. “Teams waste hours searching for files or recreating assets that already exist.”
That lost time hits productivity hard, even if it doesn’t appear on the books.
Disorganized drives also put brands at risk.
“Outdated or duplicate versions are easy to misuse,” he says.
“Over time, this leads to off-brand or incorrect materials circulating internally and externally.”
And there’s little oversight.
“Shared folders and cloud links make it difficult to fully control who has access to what, especially as teams grow or change,” he adds.
This is where a structured DAM shines, providing one source of truth, clear permissions, and traceability.
As libraries grow and workflows get more complex, the risks multiply when AI-generated content enters the mix.
Without proper versioning and metadata, even a structured DAM can’t stop mistakes.
And that’s why managing AI workflows is now part of running a DAM effectively.
Manage AI Workflows Without Losing Control
AI-generated content is changing how teams handle assets.
“The volume of content teams manage today has increased dramatically, especially with AI tools generating multiple variations of the same asset.
“Without structure, it becomes easy to lose track of which files are drafts and which are approved,” says Korkmaz.
Daminion lets organizations choose where AI features like tagging or transcription run, either locally or via selected cloud services, while keeping control in-house.
“We also put strong emphasis on metadata and versioning. Teams can clearly mark assets as drafts, variations, or approved files, and maintain links between related versions.
“This helps prevent accidental use of unreviewed AI-generated content and keeps creative workflows predictable,” he adds.
The result is a system where AI-driven content stays organized, review processes are clear, and brand integrity is protected.
AI workflows highlight the need for timing and control.
Teams also need to know when to move from cloud or shared drives to on-premise DAM to avoid bigger headaches.
“You’re ready for an on-premise DAM when assets stop being ‘just files’ and become business-critical,” Korkmaz explains.
That usually happens when large media libraries live on a Network Attached Storage (NAS), multiple teams need shared access, security requirements tighten, or cloud costs become hard to predict.
Waiting too long makes migration slower and more expensive.
“Once archives are fragmented and metadata is inconsistent, migrations become slower and more expensive,” he says.
A one-size-fits-all system causes friction.
“Trying to make one platform serve both internal creative work and public brand delivery usually creates friction,” Korkmaz adds.
Successful teams follow a 30-60-90 plan:
- 30 days: Inventory sources, agree on taxonomy, and pilot with one or two teams
- 60 days: Migrate priority collections, connect authentication, and enable approvals
- 90 days: Finalise governance, add optional hybrid publishing, and train the wider organization
“Bottom line,” Korkmaz says, “own the master library close to your NAS, and publish externally when you need reach.
“It’s a calm, predictable way to scale.”
Korkmaz says keep the master library near your NAS and use the cloud just for sharing when needed.
The real shift is not rejecting the cloud, but choosing deliberately which parts of the creative workflow belong in-house and which are better used for distribution and reach.
In practice, this comes down to one decision: keep the master assets where you control cost, access, and governance, and use the cloud only where it adds clear value.
