Sanctuary Data Systems

Attaching files in emails

Regardless of organisation, this will be the by far most popular way of sending files around. Everyone knows how it works and what to do, both on the sending and the receiving side.

What you will gain by enabling your users to use a File Transfer Appliance solution over attaching files in emails includes:

• Sending large files: Most email systems will typically be limited to a maximum attachment size of between 10 and 20 Mb and even a decent size PowerPoint presentation can be larger than that.
• Getting confirmation: A really nice feature of the File Transfer Appliance is that you will receive confirmation when the recipient has downloaded the file. This can be critical, especially when sending contracts and other legally binding documents. With the File Transfer Appliance, you can prove that the recipient got the message, and if you send the file to multiple recipients, you know which one has downloaded it and which one hasn’t.
• Reduced cost: That’s right – email is not free. If you start taking in to account all the backup requirements for all the attachments that are being sent around your organisation, it will add up to a sizeable amount. With the File Transfer Appliance, the only thing to store is the download receipts that takes up next to no space. This will save you a lot of money over time.
• Security: All emails are sent in the clear and if you have a requirement to send contracts, human resources documents and other sensitive files. Email may be the first choice to send these with, and it’s not the wisest choice. By using a Secure File Transfer Appliance, all these documents can now be sent using SSL encryption. This will greatly enhance the security over attaching these files in emails.

Using temporary FTP storage

Using a FTP server as a temporary storage, often combined with sending FTP username and passwords in emails, is also a very popular way of transferring files.

What you will gain by enabling your users to use a File Transfer Appliance solution instead of using a FTP server to send files include:

• Getting confirmation: With a FTP server alone. There’s no way of knowing who downloaded what and when. Yes, server logs will reveal this but server logs are typically not available to end users, and how many end users wants to browse through FTP transfer logs in order to get confirmation if their file has been downloaded or not.
• Zero touch administration: One of the most annoying problems with using FTP as a temporary storage solution is that each user needs to have their own username and password. In order for an average user, they will need to have assistance from the it-department in order to setup an account for their client so that they can drop a file and send an email to the client that they file is available and using the provided username, password, ip address or hostname, they will be able to download the file. And can they please email back when they have downloaded the file so that the file can be removed. With a File Transfer Appliance, none of this is required. Any (local) user can send a file to anyone without any involvement from the it staff. This will save you a lot of money in administration.
• Security: A lot of attempts has been made to make FTP secure, including the FTPS extension to FTP and the replacement protocol SFTP. FTPS has never really taken off and it would require the end recipient to have a FTPS enabled client, which almost no one does. SFTP can be used with almost all SSH enabled servers, but requires accounts and a special client to be installed. In reality, when sending files externally using any FTP or FTP like protocol, the good old standard unsecured cleartext FTP is what’s being used. The File Transfer Appliance will allow you to easily, without any special clients being installed, send files securely to anyone so it will greatly enhance the security.

Uploading files to a Web server

When sending large files, this is also a very popular method. Uploading a file to your web server in to a “secret” directory. The link to this secret directory can then be send to the recipient to download the files.

What you will gain by enabling your users to use a File Transfer Appliance solution instead of using your web server server to send files include:

• Getting confirmation: This has the same problems is with the FTP example above. Yes, it’s possible to examine web server logs to determine if your file has been downloaded or not. And in reality this will never happen and the system will rely on the recipient responding with a confirmation that they have downloaded the file and it’s safe to remove it. Having a File Transfer Appliance will automatically do this for you without any extra steps needed.
• Zero touch administration: Hopefully, most users does not have access to the corporate web server to upload files as they see fit. In order to have any type of security with this method, it would require an it administrator uploading the file on behalf of the end user and sending the link to the file so that the end user can forward to file to the recipient. This procedure will then be reversed when the recipient has confirmed that they have downloaded the file from the server. The File Transfer Appliance will remove all of these steps down to a Zero touch administration and still enable your users to send files to anyone they need.
• Security: Depending if your web server has been setup with a signed certificate, and the download link has been created in a way that cannot be easily guessed, all files transmitted using this method may well be transmitted in the clear, and completely unsecured.

Conclusion

Fortune favours the prepared, and users follows the path of least resistance. By installing a File Transfer Appliance in your organisation, all of your users can now “do the right thing” since doing the right thing is no longer difficult or require the assistance of someone else.