Hazards of a High-Maintenance MFT Platform

If your company is currently using an overly complicated managed file transfer (MFT) platform, you should consider making a switch. System complexity in a data transfer platform causes more than just a little staff annoyance. It could be costing your business precious time and resources, while setting you up for damaging security risks and downtimes. Not sure if your MFT is right for you? We can walk you through some of the warning signs here.
 

Harmfully High Maintenance

The problems caused by a high-maintenance MFT can threaten to damage your bottom line as well as your business’s reputation. Possible effects include:

• Resource Gluttony

A high-maintenance data transfer platform is complicated to customize and configure. That also means it’s challenging to fix when something goes wrong. If your business needs to have specialized resources allocated to the management and troubleshooting of your MFT platform, then you are wasting time and money. Your IT dollars could be better spent doing more worthwhile tasks. You need a data transfer platform that doesn’t require specialized skills to operate and manage.

• Frustration + Workarounds = Security Risks

If your data transfer platform is a handful for IT, it could also be challenging for your non-technical staff to use. Most business users will only tolerate frustration for so long before they find a way around the problem. Your team could be using workarounds like FTP or other file transfer tools that they’ve downloaded without IT’s knowledge. That might not seem like a big deal, but this form of Shadow IT can compromise your company’s data transfer security, leaving you vulnerable to breaches and compliance violations.

• Downtime Potential

Platform complexity can cause unnecessary bugs, downtime, and development delays. If you have had custom coding built on top of an original, bare bones data transfer system, then issues that arise could be complicated to fix. Additionally, you will need the original developer of this customization to resolve the issue quickly. If that developer is no longer with the company, then it will take additional time for a new developer to adjust the system. The resulting downtime can delay crucial data transfers and possibly cause service level agreement (SLA) violations.

Do Your Business a Favor

Consider looking into a managed file transfer platform that is both secure and simple. Globalscape’s Enhanced File Transfer^TM (EFT^TM) allows easy configuration and transfer automation, without complicated scripts or programming. While it is simple to operate, the platform is sophisticated enough to handle intricate data transfers and detailed enough to provide you with necessary levels of control. EFT can include high availability architecture and active-active clustering to maximize system uptime, keeping your business’s data transfers running smoothly.

Related Reading: What is Managed File Transfer (MFT)?

Learn more about the tell-tale signs that it's time to switch your Managed File Transfer platform in this whitepaper: The Thrill is Gone: 4 Signs it’s Time to Switch MFT Platforms .