For any company, file transfer among its team members and other stakeholders is an inevitable part of the business process. Especially if the organization deals with IT, it should ensure fast and secure file transfer to keep up with its changing business requirements. While there are various file transfer and file sharing modes, managed file transfer solutions have become quite popular in recent times. Here, you will learn about secure managed file transfer, its features, and the top managed file transfer software applications.
What is Managed File Transfer?
Managed file transfer or MFT is a trustworthy and efficient mode of secure file transfer. MFT tools encrypt your file or data using Open PGP, AES ciphers, or other protocols before sending it to the recipient. It is considered to be superior to other file transfer methods and protocols such as file transfer protocol (FTP), secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP.) MFT is suitable for transferring compliance-protected, sensitive, or high-volume data. For this reason, companies that belong to retail, manufacturing, healthcare, banking, telecommunication, and insurance prefer this method over other technologies.
Difference Between MFT and Other File Sharing Options
Take a look at how MFT is different from other popular file transfer protocols:
MFT vs. FTP: MFT solutions offer secure encryption. Experts do not recommend FTP as it does not encrypt your file in transit or at rest. MFT vs. FTPS: It is better to choose MFT over FTPS as the latter needs both private and public key authentication in terms of decryption. MFT vs. SFTP: In SFTP, the client setup and key management are more complicated than in MFT. MFT vs. HTTP: Unlike MFT, HTTP protocol is also not recommended because it does not offer an encryption facility.
Benefits of Using Managed File Transfer Solutions
Visibility
It is possible to mitigate damage by anticipating and overviewing risk factors. MFT offers operational visibility over issues like failed transfers that help you with proactive issue resolution and compliance with SLA.
Scalability
With global business expansion, the file transfer requirements of a company are likely to go up over time. As a result, you will need more file transfer bandwidth and new file sharing modules. MFT solutions can help you keep pace with the growth of your company.
Security
For any company, avoiding failed file transfers and data breaches are some of the best ways to retain its reputation. MFT provides companies with a preventive security strategy. Also, it protects your data during the file transfer and at rest through features like real-time monitoring and validation security policies.
Budget-Friendly Customization
Data and file sharing requirements vary from company to company. There are various managed file transfer software apps in the market that offers a customizable solution. Users can go for the MFT tool that suits their budget.
Compliance
Your company has to abide by some legal and industry-specific rules and compliances depending on the industry. These might include Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) 🩺and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS.) The modern-day MFT system is highly configured to fulfill security requirements by encrypting, monitoring the transfer, and storing vital data.
Regular Updates
If your business deals with sensitive and critical data, you need to be extra careful about sharing it with others. To keep your files secured from hackers, you should use solutions that offer regular updates. MFT tools provide updates to help you stay ahead with evolving data security requirements.
Flexibility
Some organizations prefer deploying only on-premise applications, while others use cloud-based services. Apart from these, a group of businesses uses a hybrid solution. No matter which policy you follow, you can get an MFT tool to deploy where you want.
Features of Managed File Transfer Software
Companies often opt for MFT solutions to save time, effort, money, and resources. Efficient MFT tools let you monitor and audit the file transfer process. Before choosing a tool for secure managed file transfer, check if it has the following features: Ease-of-Use: Go for an app that improves your productivity and does not require you to write scripts for data transfer. Extensive File Type Support: Before choosing an MFT tool, you should check how many file types it supports for transfer. It should transfer PDFs, multimedia files, XML, EDI, and email. Security: Your MFT tool should offer optimum security (encryption) features in transit and at rest for both internal and external transfers. Data Analytics: If you want to gather data about file transfer for HIPAA compliance, it is better to opt for tools with built-in analytics and reporting features. Central Workflow Automation: A good MFT tool will allow you to manage and schedule file transfers from an integrated platform. Complete Visibility: MFT software should be able to offer you 360-degree visibility, so you can see who is sharing what using the system. To help you find the right managed file transfer solution, here is a list of top MFT software:
Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC MFT)
There are many secure MFT solutions on the market, but CIC MFT is the top pick when it comes to seamlessly connecting to partners & infrastructure and integrating with complex automated processes. CIC MFT is an award-winning secure managed file transfer software that provides extensive features and functionality to secure your file transfer environment and govern your trading partner community. CIC MFT was built to be easy for you to use. The platform provides complete protocol support, security, end-user authentication/ single sign-on, and visibility/ dashboards/reporting. CIC MFT is built to scale with your business needs. The technology handles deployments from small businesses all the way to multi-billion-dollar enterprises without a hiccup. Other notable platform features include:
Secure access control via LDAP Antivirus and content scanning through ICAP Authorization (OAuth 2.0), authentication (SAML), encryption, and certificate management Perimeter layer security with bidirectional proxy architecture Reporting, audit trails, and visibility dashboards
When it comes to service options, businesses can choose from self-service, managed services, or a blended approach – ensuring complete flexibility and control over their MFT strategy.
GoAnywhere
GoAnywhere is a secure managed file transfer software that enables file transfers between persons and servers. Users can run it on Windows, Linux, IBM i OS, and AIX and have centralized control over the whole process. This tool can perform bulk file transfers according to enterprise requirements by load balancing. Its features like an intuitive interface and complete workflow are sufficient for your organizational needs. To ensure complete flexibility, GoAnywhere offers multiple deployment options. Moreover, you can integrate it with different cloud and web apps your organization uses. As a disaster recovery measure, this tool offers active-active automatic failover.
Progress MOVEit
Using MFT software Progress MOVEit, organizations can minimize enterprise mobility-related risks. This open-source framework comes with the necessary features, such as central access controls, data encryption, and tracking. All these attributes ensure that your organizational file transfer complies with SLA and becomes operationally reliable. Furthermore, using its collaboration capability feature, users can transfer files with internal and external users. Progress MOVEit supports advanced automated workflow without scripting. This platform infrastructure also offers a customized solution for mobile device management if your company has many mobile device 📱users who take part in file transfer.
Diplomat MFT
If your company is looking for a reliable MFT solution that can reduce the time and effort in file transfer, Diplomat MFT is the tool you are looking for. It allows you to transfer files with HTTP, HTTPS, email, and SMB servers among people connected through a local network. This platform can be easily integrated with your day-to-day business processes. Also, you can automate your file transfer and have control over it if you use this MFT software. Therefore, there will be less business risk. Other vital features of this tool include PGP encryption, report, alert notification, process automation, and auditing.
ArcESB
ArcESB is a modern MFT software that lets you implement file-sharing strategies and centrally manage the processes. The robust and scalable platform supports the drag-and-drop feature, making file sharing simple and quick. Thanks to its full logging & auditing, you can enjoy real-time visibility into all the file transfers happening in your organization. ArcESB also supports different data privacy regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI. It helps you get rid of manual file sharing and instead move to an automatic and scheduled workflow using conditional logic, webhooks, and API management. Moreover, it uses AES, Open PGP, and secure DMZ to fully secures data transfer.
Kiteworks
Kiteworks offers you a security-first architecture that ensures large-scale file transfer. Users can streamline and manage the file-sharing operation from the graphical operations dashboard of this tool. Creating any workflow and having new partners onboard is super easy with this software. You can start a file transfer manually or schedule it at your preferred time. The vault-to-vault transfer feature of Kiteworks ensures end-to-end security of the transferred files. You can access the data in folders, repositories, and the cloud. Furthermore, the software lets you develop visual workflows without coding with the help of a library of thousands of workflow functions.
Axway
Axway offers a reliable and secure managed file transfer solution, especially for the healthcare, finance, and manufacturing industries. This platform facilitates file sharing between companies, employees, partners, and applications. Besides putting you in control of the file transfer needs of your organization, it also complies with the regulations such as HIPAA, PCI, DSS, and GDPR.
IBM Aspera
IBM Aspera is a highly flexible platform available on-premises or via the hybrid cloud. Instead of optimizing the file transfer, it utilizes 100% available network bandwidth to avoid underlying bottlenecks. It also supports large file transfer, data transfer automation, hybrid cloud workflow, and secure asset exchange using blockchain technology.
Conclusion 👩💻
Managed file transfer solutions are necessary to ensure security and stay ahead of the competitors, especially for companies with complicated file sharing requirements or multiple external stakeholders. These also play a significant role in a company’s success. As business networks continue to expand globally that need quality service, only dedicated tools can offer the right kind of secure managed file transfer service. You may now look at the tools that will help you share large files online.
