No matter the size of an organization, files are constantly in motion between  employees,  servers, and applications; both internally and in exchanges with business partners and customers. File transfer is part of the day-to-day operations on which an organization depends. Because file transfer is so pervasive and vital, organizations that investigate managed file transfer solutions often look to recognize value in three key areas:

• Cost control – Unification of technology and process that minimizes the recurring costs of developing, provisioning, securing, troubleshooting and reporting on file transfers.
• Governance and Data Security – Applying security policy and auditing to internal and external file exchanges between users, between systems, and between applications.
• Application Integration – Both the reliable movement of bulk data between applications and the facility by which secure and supportable file transfer is consumed within applications by application developers.

One or more of these managed file transfer topics may resonate with you, causing you to want to learn more.  That is why Realtime Publishers and technology author Dan Sullivan recently developed three articles that can help educate IT professionals on these key value drivers for managed file transfer. The Essentials Series titled, “Controlling Costs, Improving Compliance, and Streamlining Integration with Managed File Transfer,” is an excellent resource for those evaluating managed file transfer solutions for their operation.

The three articles, each focused on a specific value driver, are available on the Attachmate website at no cost:

• Article 1: File Transfers Cost You More Than You Realize—What to Do About It
• Article 2: Managing File Transfer and Improving Compliance
• Article 3: Improving Application Integration with Managed File Transfer

Realtime Publishers’ synopsis of this Essentials Series nicely sets up these articles.

Data is constantly moving through organizations to business partners and into the cloud. Businesses depend on file transfer methods for day-to-day operations as well as for longer-term planning and analysis. Although file transfers might sound like simple operations, they are not. Network connections fail, data packets are dropped, disks become full, and, perhaps worst of all, ad hoc scripts might not provide adequate error handling and reporting to help you troubleshoot such problems. This Essentials Series outlines the business drivers for using managed file transfer solutions and shows how to improve compliance and application integration while controlling costs.

You can access this Essentials Series here.  

If reading these articles leads you to want to learn more about managed file transfer, then check out the newly-revised Shortcut Guide eBook or any of the other educational resources available at Attachmate’s website.

3 Key Value Drivers for Managed File Transfer is a post from: Data In Motion - a Managed File Transfer blog

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“File Transfer Governance” isn’t a term you hear very often.  But it relates to the kinds of rules you deal with in everyday life.

Rules are guiding principles for everything. There are rules to govern the way you conduct yourself at your job, at the gym, as you participate in hobbies and as a citizen. As you go about life, you ask yourself questions to determine if you’re complying with the rules.

The same is true in business. In respect to transferring files, it is critical that organizations are in compliance with the standards – or rules – of their company and any industry requirements. File transfer governance is about monitoring compliance with the policies your organization establishes that enforce those standards. Of course those policies and standards need to be in place first.  Is there a policy establishing the use of a standard for a secure file transfer protocol? Has that secure file transfer protocol standard first been established?

File Transfer Governance Questions to Ask Yourself

We thought it would be helpful to provide you with some quick questions to ask yourself to see where file transfer governance is relevant to your organization and if a managed file transfer (MFT) solution could be an option to help.

1. Is there a corporate policy around encrypting sensitive data during transfer? Do you have procedures in place to ensure compliance with this policy?
• MFT solutions support the secure file transfer protocols that encrypt files in transit. Additionally, they can bridge between insecure and secure protocols making a phased transition possible. MFT solutions often serve as a concentration point for external file transfers, providing file transfer governance by ensuring that no transfer is allowed to occur over an insecure protocol.
2. Is your organization and its employees using multiple solutions for file transfers?
• If yes, then it’s likely each solution has its own approach to configuring security and file transfer governance capabilities, and your team has to learn each one. Consider streamlining your organization’s file transfers with one MFT solution. This can help reduce cost, simplify file transfer governance, and keep the process consistent.
3. Do you leverage “home-grown” applications built on FTP to transfer files?
• This is not uncommon. If yes, look at the potential costs and problems associated with these solutions. Homegrown solutions are typically quite tactical and lack the file transfer governance capabilities built into commercial solutions. Using the insecure FTP protocol, your information could be at risk. This can open the company up to regulatory fines, damage to its image and an increase in business costs when trying to frantically remedy these vulnerabilities as part of a “fire drill” project.
4. What regulatory requirements apply to your business as it relates to protecting data and breach notification? Any international regulations? Does your current solution support compliance with these requirements?
• If your current solution does not support your security policies, then it will be hard-pressed to facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements faced by your organization. Take auditing for instance.  Keeping a record of the secure movement of sensitive files and being able to report in aggregate on file transfer activity over a period of time is a key security control prescribed by file transfer governance and delivered in MFT solutions.

Simplify File Transfer Governance

By leveraging a robust file transfer solution, such as FileXpress, you simplify file transfer governance through such things as consistency, secure protocols and centralized auditing. To help you search for an MFT solution, check out our previous blog post on research tools.

File Transfer Governance? What’s that? is a post from: Data In Motion - a Managed File Transfer blog

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We talk a lot about the benefits of an MFT solution on the “Data in Motion” blog. But once you’ve identified the need for MFT, how do you go about selecting the best one? We thought it might be helpful to provide you with some research tools to utilize when evaluating your options and selecting the right MFT solution that meets your business needs.

Analyst firms that research managed file transfer include Aberdeen, Forrester, Gartner and IDC.  We have included reports published surrounding MFT that can help in your search. We’ve also provided links to helpful blogs and white papers that aid in your search.

 Third Party Research

• Gartner — What MFT Is, and How It Applies to You
• Attachmate is currently offering access to this report on our website at no charge
• Gartner– Use These Evaluation Criteria to Establish Your MFT Requirements
• Gartner — How to Distinguish and Choose Between MFT Solutions
• Forrester –Market Overview: Managed File Transfer Solutions

 Blogs

• Filetransferconsulting.com
• Managedfiletransfer.com

White Papers

• Streamlining Information Workflows with Managed File Transfers
• Controlling the Cost of File Transfers
• Securing Internet File Transfers
• Attachmate’s MFT eBook on eliminating insecure and unreliable file transfer

Discussion

• LinkedIn Managed File Transfer Group

Video

• Making File Transfer a Strategic IT Asset

Once you’ve had an opportunity to evaluate the options that are available, we are happy to discuss our FileXpress solution and how it can help you drive more security, visibility and governance in the way you move data inside and outside your organization. Contact us here.

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The market for managed file transfer solutions is constantly changing. It is important for vendors and consumers to be savvy about these driving forces to anticipate their organization’s needs. Forrester recently came out with a report, “Market Overview: Managed File Transfer Solutions,” in which Analyst Ken Vollmer interviewed 20 MFT vendors, including Attachmate, to gather industry information and perspective.

Vollmer found the market is growing rapidly. One of the largest drivers of the growth is the increased awareness about the limitations of file transfer protocol – or FTP. Both internal and external auditors are demanding “better security and improved governance over information that leaves the enterprise.” Vollmer says that MFT solutions provide an effective option for addressing this need. Vollmer’s report suggests most MFT vendors are targeting three specific sectors, which have seen an increased need for MFT solutions. The financial, healthcare and government sectors are all seeing an increased need for a solution that addresses increased security to maintain privacy and critical information.

Forrester believes MFT revenue grew about 15 percent year-over-year in 2010 and expects this growth rate will continue for the next three years as more and more organizations realize the value of MFT solutions and update their infrastructures.

The report concludes that the trend of traditional FTP being replaced with more robust MFT solutions will continue and that those FTP solutions will “no longer be adequate for meeting file transfer needs.” I’ve written about some of the limitations with FTP in previous posts.

For more information, including interesting survey data, you can check out the full Forrester report, “Market Overview: Managed File Transfer Solutions.”

A Look at the Managed File Transfer Market is a post from: Data In Motion - a Managed File Transfer blog

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My parents have always been real do-it-yourselfers. When I was a kid, every weekend seemed consumed with remodeling some room, or landscaping some portion of our yard. Sometimes they knew what they were doing, sometimes they didn’t. Some of their work has stood the test of time…some of it has had to be replaced.

They were fearless. They were persistent.

I just tried to stay out of the way.

DIY and File Transfer

File transfer is one of those things that many IT organizations have fearlessly developed internal solutions for. I’m not talking just simple point A to point B file movement…but full automation, centralized auditing, and policy enforcement. Real cool stuff.

Frequently the return on these solutions were realized in reduced time to add new file transfers, and reduced time to diagnose when problems occur.

Problems have started to occur with many of those in-house solutions as they have run head-first into challenges imposed by large files, the need for improved security (compliance), and the reality of a reduced ability to maintain or enhance what they have built.

One example…a crumbling foundation

I had a conversation with an IT director of application development for a retail sales company. He had approached us about a problem that he was having with an in-house file transfer solution that his team had built as a departmental project a few years ago. The solution was architected with FTP as a foundation, and it was beginning to show some cracks as some of the transfers of larger files began failing.

Pride of ownership meets reduced staff

I listened to him describe the in-house solution developed by his team, and was impressed at all that it could do and the effort that must have gone into building it. As I described the advantages and capabilities of a managed file transfer solution, I was expecting a certain amount of guardedness driven by a real legitimate pride in his solution. But instead of a “yeah, mine does that too” sort of defensiveness, I encountered only a sense of weariness.

It seems that two things had conspired to generate this attitude.

• The departmental solution had caught on with other departments and as more groups started using it, scalability issues developed, as did new functionality requirements
• His development staff had been cut by more than half

More people were using what his team had built, but there were fewer people on his team to support and enhance it.

“It’s what you do”

The best thing that I heard on that call was something to the effect of, “I like the capabilities you are describing, but what I like the most is that file transfer is what you guys do.” MFT solutions provide an infrastructure with built-in reliability, security, automation, and governance, so that IT departments are relieved from the burden and cost of developing those capabilities themselves.

They’re still do-it-yourselfers, my parents. I love to go over and see their latest landscaping project. I just wouldn’t expect it to transfer 5Gb of private patient health information or batched financial transactions.

The perils of Do-it-Yourself (DIY) file transfer is a post from: Data In Motion - a Managed File Transfer blog

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