Adobe Anywhere for Video Reaches the Market; Is it Right for your Team?

Since raw video files are huge, collaborating on video projects has either meant sharing files within an office, or waiting and waiting for files to download. Now Adobe offers a better way, and it's called Adobe Anywhere.

Introduced back in September of 2012, Adobe Anywhere has finally hit the market. Anywhere is a new component to the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, one that lets users store video assets in the cloud and work collaboratively with people anywhere in the country. Anywhere now works with Premiere Pro CC and Prelude CC. Adobe says that After Effects CC support should come later this year.

With Anywhere, Adobe is targeting broadcasting, education, and government institutions, or any large organization that needs video collaboration. Anywhere is hosted locally but run in the cloud off a cluster of servers. It contains two parts: the Anywhere Collaboration Hub, which stores project information and allows collaboration, and the Adobe Mercury Streaming Engine, which lets remote workers access files without long download times.

But Adobe has changed how it charges for its applications, and not everyone is pleased. Adobe Creative Cloud applications are only available for rent, rather than purchase, a move that has angered many Adobe devotees. New York Times technology columnist David Pogue recently reviewed the suite and noted that it will mean higher prices for many users. Pogue condemned the move, saying " Adobe isn't offering the rental plan -- it's dictating it. The 800-pound gorilla of the creative world has become the 1,600-pound gorilla." In a follow-up blog post, Pogue said Adobe is sacrificing customer happiness for greater profit.

For larger companies that need video editing collaboration between offices, however, the higher price might well be worth it.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net