Portfolio 4.1.1 going into beta; on-premise MAM/DAM leader now has over 1,500 customer sites worldwide
Axle AI, a leader in the on-premise MAM (media asset management) space, has purchased the Portfolio product line from Extensis, a Monotype company. Axle AI has formed a new division, Portfolio DAM, LLC, to focus on the product. The company expects to maintain Portfolio’s long-time core emphasis on easy-to-use, on-premise DAM software for workgroups and enterprises, while expanding Portfolio’s capabilities in a modular fashion based on new advances in on-premise AI, process automation and video handling.
Portfolio has built an incredibly loyal community; it was important to us to find the right long-term home for both the product and its customers. Axle AI’s deep DAM focus makes them a natural fit.”
— Bernie Gracy, Managing Director, Extensis
Axle AI sees a clear shift underway in the creative industry towards keeping media assets on-premise, as a reaction to the costs and security concerns that accompany cloud solutions. Creative teams are increasingly concerned with possible exposure to cloud-based AI tools that may ‘scrape’ images and videos for later generative use. By contrast, Axle AI’s solutions are designed to run completely on premise, without accessing any cloud services.
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“We’re capitalizing on the worldwide trend towards on-premise creative workflows, which have driven accelerating double-digit annual growth for Axle AI since its founding,” said Sam Bogoch, CEO of Axle AI. “As file sizes get larger and social media necessitates faster turnaround times, there’s no substitute for having all your assets centralized, whether physically on-premise or in a private cloud. In addition, the proliferation of public-cloud services and tools, from Dropbox to ChatGPT, have created a ‘cloud sprawl’ scenario where many content teams and IT departments don’t even know the full extent of their company’s assets and where they’re stored. Portfolio DAM is key to bringing back a central source of truth for branding and other purposes.”
Following Monotype’s acquisition of Extensis in November 2024, the companies evaluated how best to support Extensis’ digital asset management product, Portfolio. To ensure continued innovation and dedicated expertise for Portfolio customers, the product will transition to Axle AI, a leader in media and digital asset management solutions.
Bernie Gracy, Managing Director of Extensis and Chief Digital Officer of Monotype, said:
“Portfolio has built an incredibly loyal community over the years, and it was important to us to find the right long-term home for both the product and its customers. Axle AI’s deep focus on digital asset management makes them a natural fit to continue evolving Portfolio while ensuring customers remain well supported as their needs grow.”
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As part of the transition, Axle AI has hired Richard Bamford, a longtime Portfolio product specialist and thought leader in the DAM industry, as Product Manager for Portfolio DAM. Based in the UK, Richard will be working closely with the development and support teams as well as customers worldwide, to build out the roadmap for the product over the coming months.
The team has begun working on the codebase prior to the announcement, and is making a new version of the software, Portfolio 4.1.1, available for beta testing. Portfolio 4.1.1 includes the following changes from previous versions of the DAM software:
• Major upgrade to Apache Tomcat internals, addressing vulnerabilities of previous versions.
• Major upgrade to Java Runtime Environment internals, with performance and security enhancements.
• Removed requirement for Windows Server. Portfolio’s server can now run on Windows 10 and 11 desktop OS’s for smaller workgroup configurations (5-10 users), making Portfolio an even more cost-effective option for the wider market.
• The client browser (Chrome/Safari/Edge) and drag-and-drop application user interfaces are now tested on the latest MacOS and Windows releases.