4 keys to effectively monitor &
control secure file transfer

As more critical business information is digitized, you’re spending more time than ever managing that information and its movement within your enterprise and with your partners and customers.

Can your file transfer infrastructure handle the implications of different data privacy regulations? Is your network and the data that travels across it secure enough? Can your file transfer operations process the rapidly increasing volumes of digital data across disparate systems, platforms and protocols? How effectively does your file transfer infrastructure enable you to meet and proactively manage service level agreements (SLAs)?

Leading businesses have discovered that ensuring compliance, enabling successful, secure data transfers and managing high volumes of data to meet SLAs all have one thing in common: data must be visible across the organization. After all, you have to know where the data is, and how it got there, to effectively manage it.

When you apply this key learning, and the three others described in this paper, to effectively manage and monitor the flow of business data, you can dramatically improve the security, auditability, service delivery and scalability of your file transfer operations to deliver on the promise of exceptional customer experiences.

Key #1 – Make your data visible wherever it is in the network

The right file transfer system combines speed, security and reliability with end-to-end data visibility

In today’s business environment, how we deliver is as important as what we deliver. Increasing regulations, like BCBS 239 and HIPAA, require auditing and visibility of file transfers – and the cost of non-compliance is high. In addition, ever demanding SLAs can have a dramatic impact on both business performance and the customer experience.

To deliver on changing customer and market demands, you need visibility into your data from the beginning of a file transfer to the very end. After all, you can’t manage what you can’t see. A secure file transfer system that moves data quickly and reliably from one application or server to another allows you to comply with increasingly stringent information-security requirements and proactively manage service.

You also need to effectively monitor B2B processes. Look for solutions that align server views with operational logic and identify schedules, processes, file names, user roles and security capabilities.

Key #2 – Reduce or eliminate ad hoc use of FTP

Data security should protect the network and the data traveling on it, while simplifying manageability

Many companies move data via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). For those companies, FTP may even be the standard file transfer solution. But using FTP puts data and the network it travels across at risk.

For example, with FTP, client IDs and passwords are transmitted in clear text. Worse, standard FTP commands can be used to create denial-of-service attacks or exploit other network vulnera