Canto (http://www.canto.com) has released Cumulus Sites, a new product that "bridges web site ease of use with the power and control of Canto Cumulus digital asset management." It offers a live asset delivery platform organizations can stylize to suit their identities, and customize to suit their file sharing and distribution requirements.

Cumulus Sites features a “login-free” mode that offers instant “guest” level access. Common permissions for guests include browsing of approved files, and downloads of watermarked-on-the-fly variants, though any access level can be defined. Cumulus account holders can gain higher access levels through an “anytime” log-in option. User actions can be tracked for usage statistics reporting from within Cumulus.

Sites users can share one or more files using a collection link feature. Links can include passwords and expiration dates, and they may be emailed or even added to PDFs, YouTube/ Facebook/Twitter pages, etc. for “viral” distribution benefits, says Canto CEO Ulrich Knocke. Cumulus accounts aren't required to access files shared via collection links.

The appearance of Cumulus Sites can be modified using layout options inside Cumulus. Additional basic configurations are defined via XML, while advanced configuration changes can be performed via CSS and JSP.

Cumulus Sites also supports Canto’s new “Cumulus-Direct URL” technology, which enables organizations to provide downloads and previews of Cumulus assets from URLs embedded in web sites. Cumulus-Direct URLs prevent customers from having to upload updated files to web site directories, because Cumulus always serves the most recent version. Downloads and previews are tracked for usage statistics reporting from within Cumulus.

Cumulus Sites is a standard component of new Cumulus Workgroup, Enterprise and Complete systems. Cumulus Sites requires Cumulus 8.1.1, which was released concurrently. Sites is available as an add-on to Cumulus Entry and previous Cumulus systems updated to 8.1.1.