File transfer solutions by Axway are secure, safe, and critical growth. In this video you will learn about Axway's solution to move files between internal applications at high speed, high security and a robust protocol that guarantees file delivery and payload integrity - regardless of source and target platforms.
Hello, I'm Jose Villanova, Solutions Architect at Axway. In this video, we'll discuss Axway's approach to internal file transfer.
Our internal file transfer capabilities are a key pillar of our overall Managed File Transfer (MFT) platform offering. Please refer to some of our other videos that cover B2B external file transfer, self-service concepts, central governance of MFT deployments, as well as monitoring and operational visibility components.
Let's understand why a peer-to-peer solution is a critical part of your MFT strategy. Axway views managed file transfer from three key perspectives:
-
External B2B File Transfer: This involves secure file exchange between your internal departments, file shares, servers, applications, and your external partners, clients, banks, regulatory agencies, and more.
-
Internal Peer-to-Peer File Transfer: This addresses the need to exchange files between internal users, servers, and applications without routing through a B2B gateway.
-
Ad Hoc or Human Dynamics File Transfer: This pertains to secure file sharing and collaboration, often in non-standard, non-automated formats.
Many organizations with a file transmission gateway but lacking a peer-to-peer solution for internal file transfer often ask two key questions:
- If our current file exchange gateway handles both internal and external file transfers, why do we need an internal file transfer solution?
- What additional value does a peer-to-peer solution provide over our investment in a file transmission gateway?
I will address these questions shortly. Let's start with a high-level view.
Currently, you rely on your file transmission gateway for file exchanges with external business partners and likely use it for many internal transfers as well. Many transfers involve small or medium-sized files between 5 and 20 Megabytes. However, companies across various industries are seeing an increase in internal file transfer volumes, which puts a necessary load on the gateway. This gateway must always be available and efficient to process files quickly and adhere to your SLAs.
So, what happens if your file transmission gateway goes down? Here are a few scenarios:
- You can't exchange files with your partners, risking costly SLA breaches if the gateway isn't restored promptly.
- Your internal operations and business processes that depend on the gateway for internal file transfers would be paralyzed.
A connection is made from an internal server to the file transmission gateway (whether on-premises or in the cloud). The file is transferred, undergoes necessary processing like virus scanning, consumes storage and network bandwidth, and if encrypted, goes through decryption and re-encryption processes. Finally, a new connection is established to the target system. Some protocols, like SFTP or SSH, are resource-intensive, consuming valuable processing power.
Imagine this process occurring hundreds, thousands, or even several million times per month. To handle this, some scale their gateway, even if inconsistently, due to the critical files being exchanged. This inefficiency undermines the expected ROI from moving to the cloud.
Without an internal peer-to-peer file transfer solution, your business processes reliant on the gateway may face risks. A bottleneck in the gateway can be detrimental, especially for large internal file transfers. When performance suffers, SLAs are breached, and profitability is impacted. Transfers between disparate operating systems add complexity, and maintaining access to source and target servers can become cumbersome for your MFT team.
Security is crucial when transferring files between servers and applications, particularly with a hybrid cloud strategy and when handling large files. Traditional methods like SFTP and HTTPS may fall short.
Therefore, it’s wise not to rely solely on the file transmission gateway for all file transfers. Let me introduce Transfer CFT.
Transfer CFT is Axway's peer-to-peer solution for internal file transfer. With lightweight agents deployed on your servers, applications, and file shares, you can exchange files internally quickly, securely, and with minimal resource usage. This keeps your gateway deployment agile and efficient, safeguarding ROI and reducing SLA and performance risks.
Transfer CFT is OS-agnostic yet OS-aware. You can deploy agents on servers running Unix, Windows, zOS, IBM iSeries, OpenVMS, HP Non-Stop Mainframe, and more, facilitating efficient file exchange between them without conversion concerns.
Transfer CFT can also connect to cloud storage like AWS S3 for seamless file push and pull operations. At its core, Transfer CFT uses Axway's PESIT protocol, guaranteeing file delivery and integrity through acceleration features like UDP and parallel TCP. Checkpoint restart ensures file transfers resume seamlessly if the network connection is interrupted.
You can enhance file transfer operations with pre- and post-processing capabilities using built-in features or scripts. For example, you can trigger emails, copy files, or perform specific actions once a file transfer completes. This flexibility extends to both the source and target CFT agents, meeting diverse business requirements.
Internal file transfer with Transfer CFT is straightforward. It operates within your firewall, ensuring security, and maintains internal file transfers efficiently, optimizing your gateway for cost-effectiveness and expected cloud ROI.
You might wonder how to manage multiple Transfer CFT agents across numerous servers effectively. Axway addresses this challenge with Flow Manager, our central governance component. In the next video of this series, we'll delve deeper into Flow Manager, discussing its role in centralized governance and self-service capabilities.
Let's dive into a demonstration. First, I'll install a Transfer CFT agent in a Linux environment, upgrade it remotely using Flow Manager, and deploy a file transfer job between two Transfer CFTs from Flow Manager.
Before starting the installation, let me log in as an MFT admin to Flow Manager to show you the existing CFT agents registered.
In summary, you've seen how easy it is to configure, install, and manage Transfer CFT agents, ensuring robust internal file transfer capabilities across your infrastructure.
Stay tuned for our next video where we explore Flow Manager's central governance and self-service capabilities in greater detail.
Thank you for watching.
