by Greg Shields

Andy and Bob are working on a project together. Neither Andy nor Bob are IT professionals. In fact, both of them need to call in their favorite “tech guy” when their needs grow beyond Microsoft Office and reading their emails. In working on this project together, Andy and Bob talk on the phone a lot. They meet regularly to discuss project details, and email each other several times a day.

Yet Andy and Bob’s project is slightly different than the usual “corporate engagement” because Andy and Bob work for different companies. They work on different networks, and both are members of different Windows domains.

One day, about midway through their project, Andy and Bob realize that they need to begin regularly transferring files back and forth with each other. Starting in a few days, Andy will need to send a daily spreadsheet to Bob. Bob will work on the spreadsheet and send it back to Andy. Bob’s transfer requirements are a bit larger. Bob has a number of .AVI files, video recordings of the project they’re collectively working on, that he must transfer to Andy about twice per week. As video files, Bob’s .AVI files range in size from very large to enormous.

Figure 1: Andy and Bob have a file transfer problem.

These two individuals, both exceptionally non-technical, have a real problem. How are they to transfer their files to each other? How are they to do so in a way that’s easy enough to fit their non-technical experience? Further, how are they to do so in a way that ensures the security, authenticity, and integrity of their files?

The answer to their problem starts with a call to their IT professional…you.

Problems like Andy and Bob’s happen all the time in the world of business. Although business computing infrastructures are typically well designed for intra-office file sharing, the situation grows murkier once those files need to leave the protected confines of the Windows domain. The problem is disturbingly multi-faceted:

• Non-technical users don’t typically transfer files outside their domain, which means that they’re unfamiliar with how to do it.
• Data that leaves a Windows domain enters a world without protections. There, it can potentially be lost, compromised, or even stolen.
• Multiple avenues for transfer exist, each with their own promise and peril. Some options that seem appropriate for the untrained individual can actually violate security practices.
• Most businesses don’t have an in-place solution for outside-the-office file transfer, requiring point solution implementations on an as-needed basis. Lacking a uniform approach, the administration, security, and governance of each point solution is likely poor.
• Security and compliance regulations require specific protections for data, both in rest and during transfer, that are usually not well understood by IT.

Each of these characteristics of the problem aggregates to make file transfer one of the biggest and yet quietest problems facing IT today. Exacerbating the problem is the ever-changing nature of work itself. Businesses today find themselves working more and more with other organizations outside the LAN. Small businesses interoperate with others constantly outside the brick-and-mortar. Enterprises join together to collaborate on ever-larger projects, with ever-larger requirements for data security.

Notwithstanding these changes to the world of work, file transfers outside the LAN remain today an unresolved problem in most organizations. Lacking a comprehensive approach to solving this problem, you probably know how this story continues. Perhaps one of the following endings:

• Chris and Dave, the IT technicians at each business, download and install a freeware FTP application at each site. Andy and Bob aren’t technical people, so Chris and Dave find themselves constantly re-visiting the situation when the slightest problems go wrong.
• Chris and Dave realize that basic FTP services don’t provide the security they’re required to implement. They return back to their IT organizations and spend the next 6 months attempting to design a solution. Andy and Bob, in the mean time, find themselves emailing documents back and forth or sending USB keys through the mail while they wait.
• Andy and Bob realize that Chris and Dave won’t get a solution built for them in a reasonable amount of time. Andy starts looking around the Internet and finds a (potentially shady) Internet-based “free” service for file transfer. Advertisements built-in to the “free” service eventually drop malware onto both systems, corrupting data and stalling the project.

Figure 2: There are multiple obvious ways to transfer files, but all are poor solutions that lack management and security.

You should immediately notice the central theme in each of these stopgap solutions: There is no “management” to the file transfer process. Rather than managing the solution, IT and the project team instead attempt to find one-off solutions that fit this single need. Further, lacking a centralized approach, each of these options also lacks the security and assurance features that most organizations require.

Managed file transfer refers to a set of software solutions that ease the transfer of files outside the corporate network. These solutions create a centralized and manageable mechanism for facilitating file transfers of any size, while assuring the security, authenticity, and integrity of files. These solutions are superior to each of the other mechanisms previously discussed because above all they return the governance of file transfers back to the IT organization.

About the Author

Greg Shields is an independent author, speaker, and IT consultant, as well as a Partner and Principal Technologist with Concentrated Technology. With 15 years in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft OS, remote application, systems management, and virtualization technologies. He is a Contributing Editor and columnist for TechNet Magazine and Redmond Magazine, and serves as the Series Editor for Realtime Publishers, the world’s leading provider of high-quality content for the IT market. Greg is a highly sought-after and top-ranked speaker for both live and recorded events, and is seen regularly at conferences like TechMentor Events, Microsoft Tech Ed, VMworld, and more. He is a multiple recipient of Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional” award.