Every business nearly every day and often all day long uses "file transfer" to move or, as some would say, transport data from one point to another. 

File transfer and secure file transfer is a series of protocols (rules) that provide accurate, reliable, secure tracking of files from one or multiple points to another. All businesses use file transfer but more often managed by the professionals in the IT department and how they do that is vital to any computer network. To expedite the management of file transfer comes the concept of managed file transfer or MFT. As Progress points out, "Managed File Transfer solutions are better suited to address the security, control and automation requirements of core operational processes and regulatory compliance.

Organizations concerned with the exchange of files between remote data centers, customers, trading partners, service providers, and cloud applications are better served with a fully auditable Managed File Transfer solution." MFT processes can expedite file transfer but also is key to IT security control integration along with automation tools that reduce management processes including compliance and load. Here's one of the key features used in MFT software, like MOVEit. MOVEit is an automated file transfer system that lets you manage, view, secure, and control all file transfer activity through a single system. You will always know where your files are with predictable, secure delivery and extensive reporting and monitoring. MOVEit reduces the need for IT hands-on involvement and allows for user self-service as needed. It provides the perfect solution for secure file transfer to meet security and compliance needs in any industry and company size while reducing administration time and costs.

One of the essential business needs for file transfer is backup. Every business needs a backup plan to provide for recovery or resilience to protect again disasters, hackers and other crisis's as the cost of downtime even for a second can cause irreparable harm to revenue, resilience, reputation and public responsibility. Here is one good example of file transfer in providing business resilience. Rochester General Hospital has taken advantage of Progress MOVEit’s point and click simplicity to set up, manage and track more than 70 different file transfer operations between hospital servers and the systems used by payers and outside healthcare providers. “We use MOVEit to transmit many different types of files: claims and remits, patient records from our electronic medical system, reports our systems generate for outside physician practices, and other files. We’re easily sending eight or nine hundred files a day, so there’s a lot of traffic going through this.” In this case, patient’s data is protected and the hospital ensures HIPAA/HITECH compliance.

Whether business, government, military, sports teams, movie/film studios and even personal websites file transfer makes managing content to and from the cloud, websites, data centers and other servers a critical element of managing internet content.

Summary

Connected by massive telecommunications and IT data networks is a complex process where file transfer really moves data to where it needs to be in the fastest, compliant, reliable and easiest means possible. I would like to thank Progress (where you can read more about how customers are using their solutions) for the opportunity to share some ideas on how you can use their innovative solutions. This is a very exciting subject and invite your comments and further discussion, email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/evankirstel.