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The Continuing Challenge and Need of Sending Large Files
Today's business environment is changing more rapidly than ever before. Globalization and increased competition are driving new business models and collaboration needs. For example, outsourcing is creating new demands to synchronize business processes across companies and increase the sharing of information. Information and how we share it has evolved as well. Five years ago, most people would use e-mail to share spreadsheets and Power Point presentations. For other data sharing, they typically relied on custom systems. Today, presentations and spreadsheets are much bigger and are used much more broadly. In addition, application files and sometimes even whole databases are regularly shared as part of new business processes. Examples of large files that are routinely sent today range from closing documents for complex financial transactions, design documents for engineering firms, research databases for pharmaceutical companies, and video files for advertising and media firms. Many of these files are so big that e-mail cannot be used to deliver them.
Finally, many business processes have changed so rapidly that the supporting IT systems are out of sync with the businesses they support. While people used to rely on corporate systems to integrate a company, we are now seeing much more data being shared outside the formal IT systems, using alternative or non-standard solutions. While some organizations have resorted to more cumbersome and costly solutions, such as CD burning and overnight mail, most companies need to move at electronic speed and have turned to a very unlikely tool to send their data: FTP.
Why FTP Falls Short For Today's Business Requirements
FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, was one of the first protocols generated by the early Internet back in 1973. FTP was developed so that people could share files between computers on the Internet. It was designed by programmers to share files with other programmers with the usage metaphor of manually copying files through a command line
FTP falls short as a interface. It rapidly became a ubiquitous programmer tool but it is very unlikely that it scalable business would ever have become a business tool had there existed reasonable alternatives. application in several other areas that are When FTP is used in a business environment it is typically implemented as follows: An more serious and FTP administrator creates one or more FTP directories where files that need to be shared costly than are put. People who want access to some or all of these files are granted access to one or inconvenienced all of these directories. Recipients (or down-loaders) download files through a browser business users. from the directories they have access to.
For business collaboration, FTP is often unfamiliar, inconvenient, and difficult to fit into the normal work flow. However, FTP falls short as a scalable business application in several other areas that are more serious and costly than inconvenienced business users.
Lack of security is the most dangerous shortcoming of FTP
When FTP was designed, the security environment was much more benign. Now, with the need for greater controls and tracking digital assets, FTP represents a security risk for most companies. Security and control have become the responsibility of the over taxed IT administrator who must minimize file exposure to the wrong parties, delete files, setup and manage accounts, maintain complex file directories, and securely distribute passwords. Frequently, the system breaks: passwords are shared amongst multiple users, files are left for months in the FTP directories, and confidential documents may be exposed. Many of the security vulnerabilities have been alleviated with new flavors of FTP (e.g. SFTP, FTPS, EFTP) which typically require that special client programs be
installed on user's computers. However, requiring ad-hoc recipients to install a program is time consuming for IT assets. Apart from administration overhead, this causes further security issues because users start sharing accounts and passwords and outside recipients have login access to a computer behind the corporate firewall.
File management on FTP servers is an administrative burden
Over time, FTP directories tend to fill up as people upload more files. The problem is that people who up-load files rarely remove them. The result is directories of hundreds of large files and little knowledge as to when one should be deleted. The FTP administrator will likely guess based on file name, type and date with somewhat unpredictable results and potentially upset users. Because of the lack of automatic cleanup of files in FTP, valuable digital assets are frequently left unprotected in an FTP directory for extended periods.
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