Five Ways Managed File Transfer Improves IT Agility & Productivity

In the past five years, the amount of data stored has grown hundreds of times over—meaning organizations of all sizes, across industries are challenged with safeguarding this quantum level of sensitive information and securely transferring it. While protecting data is the responsibility of everyone within an organization, IT professionals inevitably own this task and are held responsible when something goes wrong. Consider the added pressure of state and federal regulations and it’s clear that file transfer administration can stretch IT departments thin, keeping them from being more responsive to business needs.

There are many options for file transfer—email, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), physical transport via a USB drive and file sync services like Dropbox (News - Alert)—but none are as secure or cost-effective as managed file transfer (MFT). An MFT solution will support IT departments as their jobs only become more complex and demanding in the digital age.

MFT is a single system that provides secure, automated and managed file transfer of data, as well as monitoring and reporting of all activity. MFT enables IT teams to experience faster responsiveness to business needs while reducing time and resources required for file transfer operations.

Integrating MFT can improve your IT team’s performance in five key ways:

1. Secure and reliable transfers lift the burden from IT professionals. MFT provides a single-source solution with built-in security and encryption capabilities, so all file transfers—whether they are process-to-process, person-to-process or process-to-person—are guaranteed to be protected. IT teams know that with a solid MFT system, all data is protected while in transit and at rest.

2. Out-of-the-box solutions free up valuable time and space. Many vendors offer out-of-the-box MFT solutions that can easily be integrated into an existing IT infrastructure. Implementing a turn-key solution means that file transfer can be managed by less experienced IT administrators, freeing the IT team to take on more complicated and business-critical tasks. One health insurance provider estimated that its robust MFT solution saved the equivalent of two full-time employees, on top of freeing up capacity on several of its systems. 

3. Streamlined automation improves IT productivity. Because many file transfers are initiated on a recurring basis—be that quarterly, monthly or daily—IT teams can be bogged down confirming status of transfers to meet Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements and troubleshooting errors. The automation feature provided by MFT promptly pushes data to the right person at the right time, so the IT team doesn’t have to think twice and can remain focused on other tasks.

4. MFT is a budget friendly solution that eliminates errors. Enterprise technologies tend to be budget breakers, and IT departments are constantly pushed to do more with less. By incorporating admin, end-user access, analytics and reporting, and automation and workflow, MFT proves cost effective by covering many different stress points for IT professionals. It alleviates the need for IT professionals to perform tedious manual tasks, all while protecting data that if damaged, could be costly.

5. Predictable, comprehensive reporting improves visibility and offers support for IT professionals. For regulated businesses (think banks, hospitals, etc.), in-depth reporting is a critical need for file transfer systems. Many MFT systems incorporate reporting capabilities that ensure firms adhere to strict compliance regulations and are able to provide accurate data in the case of an audit—and fast. Even organizations without intricate, federally mandated regulations should have backlogs to show when file transfers happen to meet business partner SLAs and to guarantee systems are synced and running smoothly.

Businesses run on data, and the transfer of data is the heart of today’s organizations. Leaders who decide to implement MFT will gain peace of mind, save money and ultimately help their IT teams improve performance, productivity and agility. 

About the Author: Paul Castiglione is senior manager of product marketing at Ipswitch (News - Alert).