When FTP fails, your organisation is grounded. Are you at risk?

Back in 2017, The Economist published a story titled, “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” Businesses collect, analyse, transfer the data internally and also transfer externally with their partners and customers.

Do you know that on an average, 55% of the system integration relies on successful file transfers? File-based data movement is the lifeblood of business and enterprise.

Have you ever wondered what technology is your company relying on for transferring your data \ files across enterprise and organisation?

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Secure FTP (SFTP) are among the most widely used methods for file sharing. Are you using them?

According to DataBreaches.net, more than 200,000 patients’ records were exposed on MedEvolve’s public FTP server in 2018. The FTP server was configured to allow anonymous login and thus no login id and password are required to get access to these confidential records!

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is simple to use and often free or inexpensive. Many organisations will have experiences with FTP. FTP is appropriate if there is an occasional need to send non-sensitive files. However, widespread use of FTP for sensitive and compliance-protected data puts organisation at risk.

Am I exaggerating when I said that using FTP/SFTP is putting your business at risk? Definitely not.

Studies has shown that 88% of organisations have difficulty moving big data quickly and efficiently and the average cost per lost or stollen record is $146 USD. FTP presents many challenges including lack of security controls, lack of visibility when a problem occurs and lack of automated recovery from failures.

FTP-based solution was never designed to handle the exploding need for fast, secure and scalable exchange of digital information. FTP provides a plain simple way to transfer files to and from remote systems, but its simplicity of operation often comes at a high cost.

Data & Trust

The data-driven world doesn’t run only on data. It runs on trust. Considering the important data being transferred every day by businesses that the businesses depend upon to function, reliable transfer of data across enterprise and externally with partners and customers is of utmost important.

What is MFT?

Managed file transfer (MFT) is a technology platform that helps organisations reliably exchange electronic data – including sensitive and compliance-protected data - between systems and people (externally and internally) in a secure way at scale.

MFT is a more reliable and efficient means of secure data and file transfer than standard file transfer protocol (FTP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) and other methods.

Who needs MFT?

Data exchange solutions will continue to be in demand because no business is an island and business networks continue to grow, requiring qualities of service that only purpose-built software can deliver," says Stewart Bond, director of Data Integration and Integrity Software research at IDC.

Any organisations who exchange electronic file data such as contracts, customer information, employee information, project data, reports – regularly – between internal systems and external partners – should consider MFT solutions that address security, visibility, regulatory compliance, flexibility and reliability.

Essential Capabilities of MFT

Capabilities of Management File Transfer (MFT) that are essential:

1. Security: Ability to encrypt internal and external transfers, in motion and at rest. Secure file transfers with advanced capabilities like session breaks and protocol inspection maximise the protection of sensitive data at multiple layers.
2. Visibility: Ability to see who is transferring files, what is being shared and the volume passing through the system. This 360-degree view in near real-time allows potential issues like delays and failed transfers are visible for prompt actions before impacting any downstream business processes or missing services level agreements.
3. Regulatory Compliance: Strong encryption helps companies avoid compliance failures which can lead to hefty fines. Thorough audit trails confirm regulatory compliance.
4. Flexibility: Offers timely and flexible data transfer across a range of file transfer activities and support for multiple file types, including multimedia, PDFs, email, XML, EDI and more.
5. Reliability: Automated scheduling, checkpoint restart and automatic recovery with automatic alerts that ensure predictable, assured delivery of electronic files all the time.

Managed File Transfer Solution

IBM Sterling Secure File Transfer (SFT) as the market leader for Managed File Transfer solutions, bundles together the best of IBM managed file transfer (MFT) offerings to provide a consolidated MFT solution that securely move electronic files at the speed and scale companies need to conduct business inside the enterprise and with external partners, customers and suppliers.

To learn more, watch a short video for ideas about how you can seamlessly consolidate your point-to-point and edge-based file transfers on a single, intelligent platform at ibm.biz/BdfZts and visit the website on IBM Sterling Secure File Transfer at ibm.biz/BdfZtr