The Ziff Davis survey on Managed File Transfer did a nice job amplifying the aspects of currently deployed file transfer methods people think need the most improvement.

Checking in at #1 and #2 on the “improvements needed to my existing file transfer methods” list are SPEED and SECURITY.  This only fuels the age-old debate of productivity versus security… But that’s a topic for another day!  Needless to say, it’s not surprising that about half of survey respondents say that they need faster file transfers and roughly the same amount say they require stronger security.

Other items on the “improvements” wish list include:  reliability, capacity, scalability, central management, workflow integration, IT infrastructure integration and compliance.

It’s validating to see in the graphic that areas where MFT solutions excel today closely map to those aspects of existing file transfer methods that people say require the most improvement — Reliability, speed, security, up-time and capacity round out the top five.  Efficiency is a common theme with all these items, driven largely by time-sensitive business-critical processes and even SLAs depending on fast and highly available file transfer processes and workflows.

The last point I want to make about the “needs improvement” survey results is that no solution (MFT or other) will magically make a company compliant.  There is no holy grail to achieving regulatory, regional, industry or corporate compliance.  Rather, compliance is the end result of a strategically implemented, documented and monitored initiative that encompasses the entire arsenal of company-sanctioned policies, tools, and of course processes and employee actions.

Coming soon:  I’ve got a few more musings about the survey that focus on deployment challenges as well as the business benefits of MFT.

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