Among the main features of Cumulus 1.0, the search function automatically generated previews and contained support for the included AppleTalk – Peer-to-Peer – network.
Cumulus 2.5[2] was available in five different languages and received the 1993 MacUser magazine Eddy award for "Best Publishing & Graphics Utility".
Cumulus 3, released in 1996, introduced a server version for the first time and contained the possibility to spread files over the Internet via the "Web Publisher".
[citation needed] Cumulus 4 was the first version that was network-ready, and was available for Macintosh, Windows and UNIX operating systems allowing for cross-platform file sharing.
Cumulus 5 modified the software core to use an open architecture providing an API to external systems and databases.
[4] Cumulus 8 was released in June 2009, with new indexing capabilities taking advantage of multicore/multiprocessor systems, and ability to manage a wider variety of file formats.
Other additions include features for collaboration links, multi-language support and automated version control.
Portals is the read-only version of the Cumulus Web Client where users can work with assets that admins allow.
[7] Cumulus 10.2 was introduced in September 2016 and brought the Media Delivery Cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The indexing is based on a predefined taxonomy, which is governed by the internal rules of the organization or by industry standards.