File sharing is one of the best techniques that businesses have to not only create the most collaborative environment possible, but also to make sure that everyone has access to mission critical information at a moment's notice. With a high-speed Internet connection and the right file sharing service, employees are no longer encumbered by geography. They can be just as productive at home or on vacation as they can be in the office. A heavy reliance on file sharing technology, however, will also usually create three common challenges for an organization. Luckily, FTP file sharing services essentially address all three of these challenges in one fell swoop.
File Transfer Challenges:
Security
Many people are under the incorrect assumption that, so long as a digital file is password protected, it is completely safe from virtual harm. In reality, the reverse is true: the password system, in general, is no longer sufficient enough to prevent data loss, data theft and other types of calamities moving forward. In fact, password-cracking by brute force attacks are among the easiest ways to get at someone’s “protected” files.
The way that some FTP file transfer services address this issue, however, helps to relieve many of these concerns regardless of the industry that you're operating in. Better enterprise FTP file transfer services allow administrators to enforce password length, password strength, and password expiration. This forces users to change their password often and requires them to use multiple types of characters so that brute force attacks have little to no chance of succeeding.
File Size
File size has long been one of the most significant challenges that businesses have to overcome with regards to file transfer. Remember when email attachments were limited to 1 or 2 megabytes? Even as recently as five years ago, transferring a file of a few gigabytes in size could take several hours on even the fastest connection. FTP, on the other hand, is a file sharing protocol that is naturally built with larger file transfers in mind. Businesses (and their productivity levels) will no longer be tied to a necessity for the smallest file possible.
Access Restrictions
FTP also naturally includes a number of file management services that make it easier than ever to organize your business in the digital space. Once files are uploaded to the server, administrators can easily specify who can or cannot access any particular piece of data at a moment's notice. This allows you to have a digital copy of the file on the server without needing to worry about nonessential employees having access to that information.
Though it is true that file sharing naturally presents a number of significant challenges, its benefits far outweigh any potential downsides. Thanks to the way that FTP file transfer services address the challenges of security, file size, and even management, it is a wonder how businesses are able to operate in the digital age without it.
Key Takeaways:
- By and large, the three biggest and most common challenges of file transfer are file size, security and management.
- FTP file sharing services can be a solution to all of these, thanks to the significant level of control that users are granted by way of the technology.