A significant benefit of using a Managed File Transfer product is to “reign in” the prevalent use of standard FTP and other unsecure protocols. Organizations cannot afford to risk the exposure of confidential and personal identifiable information, so encryption and audit trails have become a critical feature of effective Managed File Transfer solutions. This is essential for complying with PCI DSS, GLBA, HIPAA and the growing number of state privacy laws.

Listed below are some of the critical features we believe you need to look for when researching Managed File Transfer solutions:

• Allows for remote administration and monitoring (preferably through the browser)
• Runs on a variety of operating systems (e.g. Windows, Linux, IBM i, AIX, etc.)
• Has a short learning curve without the need for programming or special skills
• Supports secure FTP protocols of SFTP and FTPS
• Supports popular encryption standards such as Open PGP, SSH, SSL, TLS, S/MIME and AES
• Includes key management tools for SSH keys, Open PGP keys and SSL certificates
• Can compress data using ZIP, GZIP and TAR
• Supports HTTP and HTTPS protocols
• Can integrate with back-end database systems such as DB2, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Informix, MySQL and Sybase
• Has a built-in scheduler for running transfers at future dates and times
• Provides commands and APIs for interfacing from customer applications
• Produces comprehensive audit trails of all file transfer activity
• Sends instant email alerts when problems occur
• Does not require your trading partners to purchase the same software
• Allow unlimited users and trading partners
• Uses non-proprietary (standards-based) protocols