One of the interesting debates in the Managed File Transfer industry right now is how much file transformation really takes place between users and systems.

At one end of the spectrum, you have pure ad-hoc solutions (such as the modules for MOVEit DMZ and WS_FTP Server) that people often use to deliver Word documents, PDFs and engineering documents to each other for manual review.  At the other end of the spectrum you have full EDI solutions that dictate and translate specific formats (e.g., ACH, HL7, etc.).

However, there is a great deal of territory in the B2B middle-ground that overlaps both MFT and EDI.  For example:

• Word docs that need to automatically turn into PDFs.
• Messages that should be automatically retained for eDiscovery.
• Bulk sets of transactions that need to be split up and sent to a half-dozen mainframe applications.
• Text files that need to be PGP-encrypted.
• All of the above bundled into Zip files.

The truth is that most enterprise file transfer involves intelligent transformation or routing of one kind or another.   If you agree, you might also agree that defining the line between MFT and EDI, EDI and B2B and MFT and B2B is very hard to do in practice.

Fortunately, Ipswitch has solutions that span ALL of these needs, from the pure ad-hoc through pure EDI, and they can be dialed up or down to meet tactical or strategic needs.