How “Kölner Stadtanzeiger” seamlessly moved millions of digital assets into the cloud

At first glance, it might have seemed like a spontaneous decision: the modern Digital Asset Management (DAM) system from COMYAN moved to the Microsoft Azure cloud seemingly “overnight.” In reality, it took months of meticulous planning, preparation, and development. The result speaks for itself: the “cutover” was completed in just a few hours, entirely without glitches or disruptions.

Direct Access without VPN, for all users

Since Tuesday, February 4, editors and photojournalists at the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger,” “Kölnische Rundschau,” and “Express” have been able to access current and archived images, news wires, as well as the entire digital editorial archive of millions of articles and pages—directly in the cloud. Leveraging Azure, the DAM system can now be reached from anywhere, without requiring a VPN connection.

• The integration of Entra ID enables a straightforward single sign-on.
• Images can be uploaded via mobile app from any location.
• Images can be transferred to the existing CMS simply by drag and drop.
• Data from the in-house print editorial system is supplemented with pages from other providers (and other data formats). Both are converted into the neutral Comyan format during import.
• ePaper service providers and numerous B2B customers are supplied daily directly from a single, consolidated source: the Comyan Cloud.

Flexible and Scalable

Beyond its high reliability, the cloud environment offers a highly scalable infrastructure with on-demand storage. This enables the development of new cloud-based features and paves the way for innovative ways to use the archive. For the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger” team, the most important aspect was that this transition went off without a hitch. On February 4, they quite literally “woke up” to the new system, noticing no downtime or major changes—just a seamless shift into the cloud.

Modernize your Digital Asset Management

Find out how your publishing house can benefit from a modern cloud solution and real digital asset management that is independent of all CMS systems: