Five Reasons to Say Goodbye to FTP

Do you wait hours for your large files to be shared with colleagues and clients? Have you ever struggled to use an FTP client? Do you worry about what has happened to your files after sending them? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then chances are that you’ve had to deal with an outdated FTP system.

Here are 5 reasons why you should say goodbye to your outdated FTP system:

1. Creating and Managing an FTP System is a Nightmare

FTP is a transfer protocol and not a file transfer application. Because of that, there is a large amount of custom work that needs to be done in order to setup a working FTP based file transfer application. Your company will have to invest a number of developers, a lot of time and several machines in order to set up a usable system, running on thousands of lines of scripts that only one person understands. If that person leaves or is unavailable, then your file transfer system becomes even more difficult to manage!

 2. FTP is Risky

An FTP-based system is inherently risky. The costs associated with any one of these vulnerabilities are immense:

• User credentials are in plain text and user management is a manual, or at best scripted, process.
• You have little control over who has access to your files. FTP does not have monitoring in place to make sure that only those who have the right privileges are able to access your valuable data.
• FTP servers are placed in the DMZ where anyone can get access to your valuable data.
• It is very difficult to track files sent using FTP. Once you send a file, there is no automated way to determine if the file arrived, it was picked up and if your SLA will be affected.

• FTP lacks the type of security that is required by any organization to ensure the protection of its data in movement and at rest.

• No checkpoint restart. If a file transfer fails, FTP does not automatically try the transfer again from the point of failure. In an era of shrinking delivery windows, this has a big impact on your business.

3. FTP is Far from User Friendly

This one doesn’t need much explanation. Anyone who has tried to use FTP to send a file has been forced to use a console or a very outdated UI. Your clients and partners don’t want to have a terrible user experience. In an era of beautiful and responsive Web/mobile applications, there has to be a better way.

4. FTP Doesn’t Work for Extreme File Movement

If you’ve ever tried to send a large file using FTP, then you know that it just can’t be done. FTP servers are not able to handle large files, and as a result critical transmissions will fail. With Media Shuttle, you not only have the ability to send files with sizes in the gigabytes, you will also be able to send those files in minutes, not hours or days.

5. Your Brand is Your Most Valuable Asset. You Need to Protect It

Your business may depend on file sharing but you are likely not in the business of setting up and maintaining a file sharing system. With FTP, you must spend valuable resources to keep the system up and running so that your business is not interrupted and your brand takes a hit. With Media Shuttle, you can focus all of your resources on your core business and grow your brand.

Signiant is the leader in extreme file transfers, with a customer base that includes BBC, ESPN, Schlumberger and others that rely on our software for sending large, valuable assets in a fast and reliable way.