Sooner or later, most IT architects find themselves grappling with a proliferation of file transfer systems used to exchange critical information with customers, suppliers, partners and the internal workforce. Businesses are demanding greater security, collaboration, scalability, reliability and service-level agreement (SLA) compliance at a lower cost. But the expense and complexity of maintaining multiple file transfer products deployed over time for projects, lines of business and departments stand in the way. And accelerating digitization across an ever-growing ecosystem of trading partners amplifies the management challenge, as enterprises conduct increasingly large volumes of internet-based transactions.
Enterprise managed file transfer (MFT) is now the solution of choice to modernize legacy file transfer environments for many organizations. Whether deployed on-premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid cloud model, the right MFT solution can address the key pain points and weaknesses of outdated file transfer systems, while reducing IT’s burden in managing and troubleshooting complex legacy file transfer systems.
As enterprises transition workloads to the cloud, MFT solutions built on a cloud-native, microservices architecture enable further modernization. And hybrid cloud models based on open platforms that avoid vendor lock-in, along with container technology and simplified orchestration, provide even greater flexibility to move at your pace. You gain an efficient way to deploy, manage and scale enterprise-grade secure file transfer across multiple environments. For organizations that have already begun their cloud journey, or are actively considering MFT modernization, this paper outlines five key characteristics IT architects should look for in an enterprise file gateway solution:
- Secure edge-based file transfers
- Integration across a diverse technology stack
- Enterprise scale and performance
- High availability, failover and disaster recovery
- Operational visibility, monitoring and reporting
By no means exhaustive, this list reflects priority capabilities identified by IT architects and business-to-business (B2B) professionals who rely on the IBM Sterling File Gateway solution as the foundation for MFT-based file transfer modernization. File Gateway consolidates your file exchange into a single solution to simplify operations, reduce cost and support expanding requirements amid rapid growth in file volumes, number of users and endpoints.
With these capabilities, you can modernize your current implementations, while helping build operational efficiencies and reduce infrastructure costs in the process. Not to mention win new revenue and drive higher productivity levels. Ultimately, it’s about freeing up valuable IT resources to drive innovation that moves the business forward.