Switch your DAM.
Keep the schema.
Replatform between AEM Assets, Cloudinary, Bynder, Brandfolder, Widen, Frontify, and Aprimo without losing your taxonomies, custom fields, workflow state, collections, or audit history. Schema translation is the work — files copy themselves.
- AEM Assets
- Cloudinary
- Bynder
- Brandfolder · Widen
- Frontify · Aprimo
- Sitecore Content Hub
Source DAM
Bynder
Destination DAM
AEM Assets
Asset Type
Brand Hero · Image
jcr:primaryType
dam:Asset
Taxonomy
Campaigns › Spring 2026
cq:tags
campaigns/spring-2026
Workflow status
Approved (Q2 sign-off)
dam:assetStatus
approved
Collection
Spring Campaign 2026
cq:collection
/collections/spring-2026
Rights expiry
2027-04-30
dc:rights
Cleared until 2027-04-30
Custom fields
14 talent + 4 music
metadata/*
18 preserved verbatim
Why DAM replatforming stalls
Copying files is easy. Translating the schema is the work.
Four constraints break every DAM-to-DAM project that treats the binary as the unit of migration. Univaultport treats the SCHEMA as the unit and the binary as a byte stream the engine ships alongside.
- Field model breaks
Schema mismatch
Bynder calls it an "Asset Type". AEM stores it as `jcr:primaryType`. Cloudinary uses structured metadata. Brandfolder has custom fields. Every DAM models the same concepts with different primitives — and you cannot just copy the values; they have to be translated.
- Approvals restart from zero
Workflow state in flight
Drafts. In-review. Rights-pending. Scheduled for publish. Approved but not yet replicated. If you move the binary without the workflow state, every asset has to be re-reviewed and re-approved on the destination — months of human work, repeated.
- Curation lost on cutover
Collections + smart queries
Hand-curated collections, dynamic queries ("everything tagged Q3 + approved"), brand-isolated portals shared with external partners. These are not files — they are the structure that makes the DAM useful. Lose them and the user experience resets to "search-only".
- Lossy auto-translation
Custom fields & extensions
Every DAM accumulates 50-150 custom fields over time — talent contracts, music licensing, regional rights, in-house category trees. They never map 1:1. The choice on cutover day is auto-translate with loss, or pause for human review on every conflict.
What survives the replatform
Nine categories. Each one mapped, not dropped.
Univaultport treats schema as the unit of migration. Every category below is auto-mapped where the destination has an equivalent primitive; flagged for review where it does not; preserved verbatim where the destination accepts arbitrary metadata.
Metadata schema
Field types, controlled vocabularies, required flags, validation rules. Source field model is translated into the destination field model with diff report.
Taxonomy & tags
Hierarchical tags (`campaigns/spring-2026/hero`), flat tags, tag synonyms, language variants. Translated into `cq:tags`, Bynder taxonomies, Cloudinary categories — whatever the destination uses.
Workflow state
Draft · in-review · approved · rights-pending · published · retired. Reviewer history, comments, approval timestamps preserved so no asset has to be re-reviewed.
Collections & albums
Hand-curated collections with their order, descriptions, hero images. Brand-isolated folders, shared portals, scheduled releases — all preserved.
Smart / saved queries
Dynamic collections defined by query (e.g. "tagged Q3 AND approved AND rights-cleared"). Translated into the destination DAM's equivalent saved-search primitive.
Custom fields
50-150 per DAM is typical. Each one is auto-mapped where the destination has an equivalent; flagged for review where the mapping is lossy; preserved verbatim where the destination supports arbitrary metadata.
Activity & audit trail
Every upload, edit, download, share. Operator, timestamp, IP, change diff. Migrates as a structured audit log on the destination so compliance evidence stays continuous.
Permission model
Roles, groups, brand isolation, external user portals, share links with expiry. Translated into the destination DAM's primitive (RBAC, ACL, group inheritance).
Asset relationships
Variants, alternates, parent-child, "related to", "replaces". The graph of how your assets connect to each other survives the move so cross-references on the destination still resolve.
Inside the translation
Five stages, one cutover, field-for-field parity report.
Every replatforming run produces a written parity report — what mapped cleanly, what landed as a lossless approximation, what required human review. You sign off knowing exactly what survived the move and what changed shape.
Discover
Enumerate source schema
Map
Auto-bind fields
Translate
Re-shape values
Land
Write to destination DAM
Validate
Diff parity
Schema support
Every primitive your DAM models — translated, not flattened.
DAM-to-DAM moves rarely fail on file formats (all the major DAMs handle the same set). They fail on the schema primitives below — and Univaultport recognises every category natively.
Metadata standards
- XMP · adobe core
- IPTC · IIM4 / Core 2
- EXIF · TIFF · IFD
- Dublin Core · dc:*
- schema.org structured data
- PRISM publishing
Taxonomy primitives
- Hierarchical · `a/b/c`
- Flat tags
- Controlled vocabulary
- Tag synonyms · language variants
- AEM cq:tags namespace
- Bynder MetaProperties
Workflow models
- Linear · draft → review → approved
- Branching · multi-reviewer
- Scheduled · publish + retire dates
- Rights-pending state
- Reviewer history + comments
Custom field types
- Text · short / long / rich
- Number · int / decimal
- Date · datetime · range
- Boolean · checkbox
- Select · single · multi
- Reference · linked-asset
- JSON · structured object
Permission primitives
- Role-based · RBAC
- Group inheritance
- Brand-isolated workspaces
- External user portals
- Share links · expiring
- Watermarked previews
Audit & activity
- Upload · edit · download · share events
- Operator + IP + timestamp
- Diff log per field
- Approval signatures
- Export to SIEM (Splunk, Datadog)
Ecosystem
Talks to the DAMs your team already operates.
Enterprise DAMs, cloud-native DAMs, brand portals, downstream cloud storage, and the workflow / creative tools that live alongside them. Native connectors for the widely-deployed platforms; custom connectors for in-house, on-prem, and acquired-from-M&A systems.
Custom DAM connectors
Legacy DAMs, in-house portals, regulated cloud enclaves, M&A-acquired systems. Share the API contract and a sample schema — we ship a production connector in 2–4 weeks with the same translation depth as our native ones.
Enterprise DAMs
Adobe AEM Assets
● native
AEM as a Cloud Service
● native
Aprimo
● custom
Sitecore Content Hub
● custom
OpenText Media Mgmt
● custom
Cloud-native DAMs
Cloudinary
● native
Bynder
● native
Brandfolder · Smartsheet
● native
Widen · Acquia DAM
● native
Frontify
● native
MediaValet
● custom
Canto
● custom
Crownpeak DAM
● custom
Brand portals
Brand Portal · AEM
● native
Frontify · Style Guides
● native
Bynder · Express Mode
● native
IntelligenceBank
● custom
Cloud storage destinations
Amazon S3
● native
Azure Blob
● native
Google Cloud Storage
● native
Backblaze B2
● native
Workflow & creative tools
Adobe Workfront
● custom
Adobe Creative Cloud
● native
Figma · Frontify
● custom
Asana · Jira
● custom
Reference scenario
Post-M&A consolidation, four DAMs into one.
Composite shape. Numbers below match the median of DAM-consolidation engagements we've sized; the narrative is not a specific customer.
“The parity report is what got us through procurement. We walked into the steering committee with a written diff of every field, every workflow, every collection — and a signed sign-off from the agency partners that their portals still worked.”
Director of Marketing Ops · Multi-brand consumer goods · EMEA
0 DAMs
consolidated into one platform
0+
assets translated
0%
auto-mapped schema fields
0
workflow reviews repeated
Cutover window
13 weeks
rolling per brand portal, parallel ingest after week 4
Schema parity
98.6%
5,800 fields auto-mapped · 78 flagged for review · 0 dropped
Workflow continuity
preserved
all approval state survived; no asset needed re-review
External portals
24 redirected
agency-shared URLs forwarded to the new DAM without breaks
Frequently asked
What DAM admins always ask first.
Book a replatforming call
Map your schema with a DAM solutions architect.
30 minutes. We sketch the source ↔ destination field mapping on the call, identify the high-risk fields up front, and you leave with a written translation plan either way.
- Source ↔ destination schema mapping sketch
- Schema mapping guide emailed after the call
- Cutover plan with parity-report cadence
- Honest fit assessment — we say no if we are not the right tool
Switch the DAM.
Keep the schema.
A 30-minute call with a DAM solutions architect. Bring your source and destination DAMs; leave with a written schema-mapping plan you can hand to your CIO.
Univaultport for DAM Replatforming · Schema-aware. Audit-continuous.