File transfer requirements are diversifying at a rate of knots with more products available than I care to count, but for me there are three distinct types of solutions I believe the majority of the larger corporate and blue chip customers are interested in. These are;

Enterprise File Transfer – making use of email to deliver a message to the end user that provides them with instructions on how to download the files(s) with the added functionality of tracking and reporting.  This method is great for the ad-hoc user, requiring little to no training.

Managed File Transfer -  relates to the secure delivery of files, in many cases making use of FTP based protocols also providing additional functionality such as reporting and monitoring.  These solutions are generally embedded processes that are not seen by the users and underpin internal/external business processes.

Fast File Transfer – with businesses needing to shift large volumes of data over increasing distances across the WAN or Internet traditional delivery protocols such as FTP have been superseded with UDP based delivery solutions, which have the ability to send files significantly faster.  With the cost of Internet connectivity as it is, WAN acceleration technologies are becoming more frequently used to maximise the throughput over those connections.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has any suggestions for areas that we may have missed, specifically if you’re a vendor of the solution and are looking for representation in the UK.

Lets face it file transfer isn’t the most interesting subject in the world, but its a necessity for many businesses to move data from one location to another in order for individuals or teams to carry out certain tasks.

For many businesses however file transfer is a tedious process requiring manual intervention.  Regularly staff are expected to manually create a job to send and watch the file being delivered to the remote site to ensure that its gone, a good example being the user of an FTP client.  Clearly there are instances where this scenario works and is the most economic way, e.g. the one off or infrequent transferring of files, but for companies that regularly need to send large files to the same location this approach is nothing short of a criminal waste of resources.

As businesses strive to succeed in these challenging times many more are looking towards automation of their internal processes, this is the case irrespective of industry sector and to some extent business size.  A small part of many businesses workflow process is the delivery of files/data to another location – whether its on the same LAN, across a WAN or via the Internet whatever route the premise is the same even if the conditions are not.

File transfer should in my opinion wherever possible be an embedded process, effectively seamless, with the user not even aware that its taking place.  There are many ways of achieving this result (which in itself is another blog post entirely), whether hot-folder initiated or integrated with existing applications using various SDK’s.  Then there are the considerations of which delivery protocol is most appropriate, e.g. TCP/IP (FTP) or UDP (MTP/IP) and whether encryption of the data should be included.

The bottom line is in fact the bottom line (of your P&L statement).  Businesses need to wake up to the fact that manually sending files is not a good use of resources and where automation is possible processes are streamlined, files are delivered faster and human error is eradicated.

If you or your company could benefit from embedded file transfer or file transfer automation Pro2col would be pleased to assist you.