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There are many options for FTP services out there, but not all of them are compatible with the needs of your organization, including important requirements like security, accessibility, storage and support. When it’s time to decide on a service provider, you may be struggling to figure out which one will be the best fit.
To help you make an informed decision, there are some key questions you should be asking about the compatibility of any FTP service you’re considering. Use the answers to these questions to compare your choices and weigh the pros and cons of each. This is the smartest way to select a provider that fulfills your highest priorities and meets your most vital requirements.
Why does this matter? Well, for a number of reasons. First of all, knowing what kind of data your organization will be sharing helps you choose an FTP service provider that can live up to your bandwidth and storage needs. Some providers have rigid restrictions on these elements, while others offer unlimited plans. Be sure to understand what kind of information -- and how much of it -- each FTP service is able to accommodate.
Second, it’s important to determine the sensitivity of the information you’ll be sharing. When dealing with customers’ personal information, financial and medical data or other highly valuable and private assets, it’s critical to opt for an FTP service that ensures the utmost in security.
These are just a couple of reasons why you need to detail the types of files and information to be shared. Doing so will help you weed out the FTP services that are unable to adequately protect your data and meet your transfer and storage requirements.
This question addresses two essential factors in your search for the ideal FTP service: 1) ease of use, and 2) accessibility parameters.
Let’s expand on the first one. Often, employees find the technology systems available to them both difficult to use and inefficient. If they’re unsatisfied with the solution you’ve opted for, they may look for workarounds that are unauthorized by your IT department and unsafe for your organization. So it’s important to understand who will be using the FTP service you decide on, what their needs are and how technically savvy they need to be in order to make the service work for them.
As for the second factor, you’ll need some insight into the types of permissions required to manage who will be accessing the service. If this is an organization-wide solution and/or one that extends to outside clients or partners, you can’t work with an FTP service that only allows universal permissions. You need granular user access controls that enable individual authentication by password or SSH key, private and shared folders to maintain clear visibility and distinct permissions for specific directories to govern access between multiple departments.
Whether it’s through unintentional action or malicious threat, any security breach or compliance violation that results from your file sharing process is a serious danger to your entire organization. Depending on what industry you’re operating in, there may be government regulations that must be followed to the letter. And no matter what sector you belong to, security of your data should be a top priority.
You want to be absolutely certain that you’re going with an FTP service that allows you to achieve full compliance with regulations like ITAR, HIPAA and PCI-DSS, and that offers advanced security features like at-rest encryption, in-transit encryption, strict password enforcement and more. All of this ensures that you and your team can work efficiently AND safely in the digital space -- without putting the organization at risk of any penalties, data losses or reputational damage.
Innovation in connectivity has made it possible for the world to work faster, smarter and with more advanced capabilities. But as these benefits evolve, so do opportunities for hackers to attack. Statistics on the costs and damage caused by cyber attacks are staggering -- and they can’t be ignored as you look for an FTP service that meets the needs of your organization.
It is necessary to take a proactive approach to file sharing security by opting for a service with features that are designed to protect users from criminal activity. One of the most important steps an FTP provider should take to safeguard your organization is offer intrusion detection and prevention. The provider should be able to actively monitor connections, detect suspicious activity and instantly blacklist offending IP addresses. Without these defenses in place, you’re opening up your digital assets to the technological prowess of today’s hackers.
Even when you have all the proper precautions in place, there are some things that cannot be controlled and may leave you in a precarious situation regarding valuable files and information. If you find yourself in one of these unfortunate scenarios, it’s crucial to have a solid disaster recovery plan in place.
Most FTP providers do not provide any backup or disaster recovery. But, this is paramount to preserving operational continuity - both for the FTP provider and for you, their customer. Anything from accidental deletion by a user to a complete data center failure has the potential to cripple your productivity, so you need to choose an FTP provider that can get things back up and running as quickly and smoothly as possible. Ensure that the following key elements are part of the recovery plan:
Around-the-clock support for functionality is less of a necessity when you choose an FTP service that’s easy to use. Nonetheless, the provider you settle on should have an effective way for you and users to engage in direct communication with support staff. Be wary of any FTP provider that outsources its technical support to an overseas operation, as you’re apt to experience gaps in knowledge and service.
It’s important to have experienced support staff available every work day during hours that adequately cover your time zone. And for emergencies like outages, there should be a way to contact a support technician regardless of the time or day.
This is the question that most often plagues those who are charged with finding an FTP service for the organization. In addition to securing a solution that fosters a competitive advantage, you must be able to find one that does so safely so that you don't incur additional expenses. It’s essential to make the most of the money you've been allotted.
Pursue any and all avenues that require less hardware and that support consolidation. Increase visibility, knowing where your external and internal threats are. Instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all solution, take a niche approach to address your specific situation.
Work hard to embrace automation, but not at the expense of overall security (as that is apt to cost you much more in the long run). Opt for an FTP solution that allows you to get mission-critical files into the hands of users without having to worry about accidentally sending information to the wrong person, experiencing a catastrophic data breach or landing in any other situation that will blow your budget and/or risk the organization’s bottom line.
Are there other questions you have found to be helpful in the search for an FTP service? Add your comments below, and take the next step in the process by reading A Comparison Guide of the Top 7 File Sharing Softwares.
