Today, we're seeing organisations taking a more balanced and strategic approach to managed file transfer (MFT) solutions. Rather than fully committing to either a fully on-prem or entirely SaaS-based solution, many enterprise organisations are opting to embrace hybrid models. This trend is largely driven by the need to meet strict compliance requirements, reduce pressure on internal IT teams, improve resilience, security and scalability, all while maintaining full control over file transfers.
CloudMFT combines the best of both worlds. It allows you to host your preferred MFT solution in the cloud, delivering all the advantages of a cloud-native architecture, including enterprise-grade security, flexibility, built-in disaster recovery, and predictable performance, without the trade-offs often associated with traditional SaaS or rigid hosted options.
In this blog, Head of Technical, Dave Hendley breaks down the key benefits of CloudMFT and explains why it’s quickly becoming the MFT hosting solution of choice for modern enterprise organisations.
The Core Benefits of CloudMFT
1. Security and Compliance
Ransomware groups often target systems involved in the supply chain such as file servers and databases to access valuable business data. Breaches back in 2023 and 2024 by ransomware groups shook the industry and forced a previously discreet managed file transfer (MFT) solution under the noses of C-Suite level. In several of these incidents, secure configuration of the product by IT departments that align with major regulatory standards, could have prevented unauthorised access to the system. However, meeting regulatory security standards is becoming increasingly challenging and complex. As a result, this makes securing systems feel like a box-ticking exercise, leading some to question whether the time investment is worthwhile, though as we've seen, meeting these standards is crucial.
A good example of this can be seen within the financial sector, where a flurry of compliance standards need to be met such as SWIFT and PCI DSS.
CloudMFT provides a team of experts to deploy your solution, ensuring it meets both security and compliance requirements. Pro2col can also assist in completing applications and self-assessment forms for any necessary standards. With CloudMFT, you can rest assured that your system is securely hosted, reducing both the risk of infiltration and the burden of ongoing network monitoring.
2. Flexibility
For some companies, hosting their MFT deployment is straightforward and can be set up within hours using a standard template. Others may need to integrate the MFT platform into their on-premises or private cloud infrastructure. CloudMFT allows for this flexibility. Built for purpose and to spec, the solution is incredibly flexible and allows for our consultants to work with your teams to design and build a platform meeting your requirements. With all CloudMFT deployments we can offer options such as VPN tunnels (site to site or client-based) to integrate the hosted platform seamlessly into our client infrastructure in datacentres and offices around the world.
Recently, we were tasked with creating a 'gold standard' deployment integrated into existing on-premises infrastructure, meeting security standards, and capable of instantaneous failover. Pro2col built a solution that integrated with the company's existing AD for authentication over a site-to-site VPN, utilised SQL Server Enterprise clustering across three servers in two data centres, provided near real-time data replication between data centres, and ensured high availability of all components using load balancers.
3. Disaster Recovery
It truly is a moment of panic for many IT departments when an incident occurs and the disaster recovery process is pulled into action. Sure, the team responsible for the snapshots knows the latest backup run was successful and they know the process inside and out, but there is always the concern in the back of their mind that something could go wrong.
This, coupled with the intricacies of the MFT solution and the pressure of getting the systems up and running as soon as possible, makes it an IT department’s nightmare! How long since the last SQL server snapshot? What if duplicate data gets processed when we recover the MFT server? How will the system deal with the sudden jump forward in time since the last backup? With CloudMFT we can alleviate some of that concern. With over two decades of experience in MFT, Pro2col have been there and done that, and can build a solution providing you with exactly the knowledge you need to sleep easy at night.
Across the board, industries need to show that they are able to recover from a disaster however unlikely it is. ISO 27001 demands it! We provide the facilities to meet requirements for regular DR testing and complete result reporting. CloudMFT makes use of 2 datacentres, located in London and Manchester to ensure datacentres are spaced appropriately to meet compliance requirements such as ISO 27001 and TIA-942. Pro2col can build the DR solution to meet your needs, ensuring you are appropriately covered if the unthinkable happens.
4. Control
Cloud-first. SaaS. On-prem only. Companies have their own approach to their infrastructure and IT services. For many companies the amount of control they have of the solution is a major driver behind their choice of hosting solution.
Whether you need complete control over the servers that host the solution, or wish to offload the control and responsibility to us, Pro2col can provide you with as much control as you would like. We go as far as to provide administrative accounts for the servers upon which the solution is running, allowing you to access logs, integrate external scripts into your workflows, or take backups of the databases manually.
Recently, a major financial and banking client requested the integration of the MFT syslog functionality into their own Sentinel platform. This required the use of a third-party application to act as a syslog server, and an additional application built in-house to send the syslog information to Sentinel over HTTPS. Of course this is something we facilitated, and with their administrative accounts they were able to test and deploy this functionality successfully.
5. Patching and Upgrades
A nerve-racking time for any IT department, the upgrade to a newer version of the software! As part of CloudMFT, Pro2col will take complete control of the patching of your servers, utilising an automated patching solution to keep Windows and Linux servers up to date. This is a huge win when it comes to compliance and security. Not only that, Pro2col will also cover 2 upgrades of your MFT software a year ensuring you are promptly receiving the crucial security patches and gaining access to exciting new features.
We have seen our automated patching and upgrades to the MFT software are immensely valuable, particularly within the larger deployments of our CloudMFT platform. IT departments are often incredibly busy and easily overwhelmed by patch and vulnerability management, and for many enterprises the threat of a targeted attack makes this invaluable.
6. Network Segregation
With many cloud-hosting platforms, particularly focusing on the SaaS model, companies are often utilising a shared deployment of the software built in a way that (should) prevent access to view details or data of other companies utilising the same service. With CloudMFT, we just don’t take the chance.
You can spin up your own private instance and have all the benefits of a cloud-based platform and not have to share with other users.
Similarly, with SaaS deployments you also have the benefit of running on the latest version of the software, but in some cases you may not want to be on the most up-to-date version of the software. Many of our customers run a N-1 version of their MFT software. N-1 refers to the software version previous to the most current instance and is a common adoption for organisations keen to avoid any new software bugs that may plague the most recent version of a software release.
With a pure SaaS model you don’t get this choice, other organisations are sharing your deployment, so everybody is forced to run the same version. This can be tricky when it comes to MFT as questions are raised about support for those partners running legacy and sometimes unsupported disparate systems. We also find that the needs of one company can be vastly different to the next, and when translating requirements into MFT that almost always has an impact on bandwidth. With CloudMFT there is no shared bandwidth, so that company utilising 500Mbps of bandwidth consistently has no impact on your company bandwidth.
Particularly in the financial sector we see the need to prove segregation between client company systems, and sometimes even segregation between the MFT platform and other internal systems. This is all provided as standard by CloudMFT. We can also see the massive impact of segregation in the media sector, where speed of transfers is pivotal to getting large files to the destination within deadlines, dedicated bandwidth is a must!
7. Fixed Costs
With many private-cloud providers, data ingress is often free, whilst egress can end up costing a fortune. With that in mind, budgeting for cloud infrastructure can become a time-consuming exercise and ends up becoming a “finger in the air” endeavour, trying to predict the egress and scaling costs. With CloudMFT we have no variable costs, we do not have flexible pricing for any of our services meaning you are able to predict with absolute certainty the cost of your MFT deployment.
The public sector finds this incredibly useful, where scope for overspend is extremely limited and every pound is justified. We ensure that the price quoted is the price paid, with no services being charged as a “rate”, be that by time, bandwidth, or storage.
8. Support
When I am looking for a solution to fit a requirement, one of the make-or-break factors is support. I need to know that the partners we rely upon for the service are responsive, knowledgeable, and available when we need them.
It should be understood that CloudMFT is made up of 2 components, the infrastructure and the application. When it comes to the application, Pro2col have you covered. Our file transfer support and consultancy teams are made up of industry leading experts with more combined years in the MFT industry than they would care to have me mention.
Pro2col provide support and consultancy services to companies around the world, all of them pulling on our years of experience to resolve issues with, and improve their MFT deployments. When it comes to the infrastructure, we have partnered with one of the leaders in the market, offering 24/7 responsive support for the servers and network infrastructure hosted in their datacentres. Whatever the need, we have you covered.
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