Many large companies with high-volume transactions, especially those involved in e-commerce, manufacturing and retail supply chains, have long migrated from manual processes to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI, which enables the automated exchange of business documents in a standard format, has significantly improved the accuracy, efficiency and timeliness of business processes. 

Once your organization embarks on a digital transformation journey, there’s no turning back. Your leaders will now be on a never-ending mission to further improve and streamline business processes. As enablers of digital transformation, IT teams are expected to turn ambitious visions into reality. Well, I’m sure you’re up to the challenge. Why else would you be here? 

Most Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) hosting services can handle basic file transfer tasks, but not all are suitable for advanced workflows. For instance, if you just want the ability to upload files from a local system to a remote server or download files from that server, almost any SFTP hosting service should suffice. However, if you also need robust automation, integration and regulatory compliance capabilities, you have to be more selective in picking the right service. 

Following major corporate scandals, most notably the high-profile cases of Enron, WorldCom and Tyco, the United States Congress responded by enacting the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The rationale for this federal law, which introduces provisions for stringent financial reporting, internal controls and corporate governance, was to restore investor confidence in the capital markets and prevent corporate fraud. Today, publicly traded companies must ensure the accuracy of their financial statements to avoid regulatory penalties, reputational damage and legal repercussions.

In the highly regulated financial services industry, it's crucial to maintain compliance with information security standards. Doing so establishes trustworthiness, mitigates data security risks and prevents costly fines and penalties stemming from non-compliance. One of the most important standards in this sector is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which lays out an extensive framework of requirements to safeguard the storage, processing and transmission of payment card data.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) has very few advantages over Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). However, if you measure the transfer speed between an FTP client and an FTP server and compare that with the speed between an SFTP client and an SFTP server in exactly the same network conditions, the FTP transfer usually comes out faster. 

When we use Transport Layer Security (TLS), we typically do so to protect our data while transmitting it over the network and to ensure that our users are connecting to the right server. These two operations, i.e., data-in-transit encryption and server authentication, rely on a TLS artifact known as the server certificate. That being said, TLS also supports another operation that uses a different type of digital certificate. It's called client certificate authentication, and it relies on client certificates.

Banking institutions, including commercial, retail and investment banks, frequently exchange files with various trading partners, which typically include customers, clearinghouses, corporate clients, other financial institutions, regulatory authorities and other organizations. Many of these files are crucial to time-sensitive business processes. Most also contain sensitive information, making them subject to governance and data privacy/protection laws and regulations, such as:

Banks store, process and transfer vast amounts of sensitive consumer data. This may include financial information, credit card data, personally identifiable information (PII), loan details and transaction data. Since these types of sensitive data are critical to business processes or subject to regulatory compliance mandates, they need to be protected. 

Advanced secure file transfer solutions, like managed file transfer (MFT) servers, are no doubt more expensive than run-of-the-mill file transfer software. In fact, you can get a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server or even a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) server for free. Many operating systems already have SFTP servers built-in, so they’re readily available at no additional cost.