Is Your IT Team Cringing at Your File Sharing Processes?

This much you know: The ability to transfer files is essential to your business’s productivity. What you may not be aware of, however, is that your current approach to file transfer is putting your company at risk -- and sending your IT team into a tailspin.

Your IT staff must control a multitude of issues surrounding the business’s file sharing processes. They’re responsible for protecting against hackers, setting access restrictions, complying with industry safeguards and preventing costly human error. Are your current file sharing processes making it difficult (or impossible) for your team to fulfill these duties?

Ask yourself the following questions to identify cringe-worthy complications with your file sharing processes. Then take our quiz to find out if you’re practicing secure procedures to protect your company’s critical information.

Are You Committing Deadly Security Sins?

Any business that is not equipped with a secure file sharing solution is vulnerable to facing serious repercussions. According to a recent article from Data Center Journal, “IT teams continue to struggle with protecting data end-to-end -- especially while ensuring proper access control, audit trails and visibility.”

If your company is transferring important documents via overly simplified or inadequate file sharing technologies, it’s essential to implement a more secure solution. For example, FTP Today’s highly secure and configurable file server ensures:

• Regulatory Compliance -- Designed to help you achieve full compliance with regulations like HIPAA, PCI-DSS or ITAR.
• In-transit Encryption -- Strong SSL ciphers based on 2048-bit encryption are in place for all file transfers.
• At-rest Encryption -- Automatic AES 256-bit encryption can be applied to files as they land on storage systems.
• Password Enforcement -- Assures user compliance with IT security policies through setup of password strength and expiration parameters.

Are Your Access Methods Limiting Your Productivity?

Sure, your people may fare just fine when sharing files within the same office location, but is that the only way you can keep business moving efficiently and safely? For many companies, this severely limits their capacity for productivity.

In today’s business environment, it’s necessary for some employees to access information from home or other remote locations. More important, this access must be secure and prevent interception by dangerous entities.

With an FTP site, all of your data is available anywhere, at any time -- supported by advanced features like at-rest and in-transit encryption that work hard to keep it protected at all costs. A full-featured Web UI enables your team to get the most from their desktop computers, and you have the ability to choose between multiple standard protocols, like FTP, HTTPS, FTPS, FTPeS, SFTP and SCP. That translates to greater options in terms of who connects to your site, how and from where.

Are Your User Access Controls Too Vast?

When it comes to user authentication and permissions, an approach that’s too broad is apt to result in visibility and security issues. If your file sharing processes aren’t governed by granular user access controls, your IT team may not have the means to manage:

• Authentication options, enabling each user or automation system to authenticate by password or by their public SSH key.
• Private and shared folders, assigning each user their own folder or setting it up any way that makes sense for your business workflow.
• Granular permissions, making it possible for each user with access to the same folder to have a different set of permissions.
• IP and country restrictions, requiring users to originate from a certain country or a specific IP address if needed.

With greater access controls, your IT team is better equipped to maintain solid visibility and manage access between multiple departments in the same business.

Are You Missing Out on Robust Branding Capabilities?

If you’re using an FTP site for file sharing, the experience should feel natural and cohesive, not like you’re logging into a third-party service. It should represent your business, not the service provider’s.

To take full advantage of branding opportunities, it’s beneficial to furnish your file sharing processes with customization options, such as:

• Logo displayed prominently throughout
• Use of colors that reflect your brand
• Customized domain and SSL certificates

Do You Suffer from Inadequate Reporting?

Does your IT team have a complete picture of your company’s file sharing practices? Without optimal auditing and analytics tools, they can’t provide actionable information for making critical business decisions.

Consider the benefits of employing a site like FTP Today to communicate and act on the finer details of FTP usage. Auto-delete rules may be set up to purge files from your FTP site based on age since upload, and on-demand reports are accessible for recent activity up to 90 days old. You’re also able to access complete CSV logs that go back to the date of initial use, as well as examine trends (in logins, disk usage, traffic, etc.) by month, day, hour or even smaller increments.

Do You Struggle with Bandwidth and Scalability?

It’s the same exasperating story: You throw major money at today’s latest innovation, and it’s rendered outdated by tomorrow. Or perhaps you’re paying for the amount of storage your IT team “thinks” the company needs, only to end up with an excess of unnecessary resources.

If either of these scenarios rings true for your business, you lack the bandwidth and scalability benefits of a hosted FTP solution. To boost your competitive advantage and reap a positive return on your investment, choose a provider that features:

• Unlimited Bandwidth & Unlimited Connections
• High Availability Failover
• Unlimited File Sizes
• Live Upgrades

Do you notice any other file sharing processes that seem to be frustrating your IT team and endangering your company? Let us know below. For a simple way to assess your organization’s file sharing situation, take FTP Today’s interactive quiz.