SEEBURGER Expands Managed File Transfer Offerings with New SEE MFT Suite

ATLANTA, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Global business integration solution provider SEEBURGER today announced a major expansion of its flagship integration platform with the release of SEEBURGER Managed File Transfer (SEE MFT), a comprehensive solution suite for exchanging large and/or sensitive files with full security, visibility, governance and regulatory compliance protections. With the addition of SEE MFT as an integrated component of the widely adopted SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite, SEEBURGER now offers the industry's only one-platform, one-GUI solution for all supply chain and non-supply chain data exchange both inside and outside the corporate firewall.

Building on SEEBURGER's 25 years of business-to-business integration experience, SEE MFT addresses the need for improved control and centralized governance over file transfers that exceed email attachment limits or contain information that is not adequately safeguarded and monitored by alternative strategies such as FTP, YouSendIt or Dropbox. Industry analysts have noted increasing pressure on enterprises to streamline and strengthen file transfer management because of market factors such as expanding file sizes, escalating file transfer demand, poor FTP scalability causing high administrative overhead, and compliance-related auditability requirements.

"The proliferation of file transfers and repositories presents new challenges for governance and compliance. At the same time, organizations are seeking to lower the cost of staffing and administration for file transfers," according to a report by Gartner analyst Thomas Skybakmoen. "MFT aids governance efforts by enabling file transfers to be monitored and managed. Traditional file transfer solutions, such as scripts and FTP, often lack visibility features, and don't have integrated solutions for internal and external file transfer requirements."(1)

Reducing Risk, Costs & Complexity

Extending established MFT capabilities already in use by hundreds of SEEBURGER customers, SEE MFT provides centralized control over both structured and unstructured human-to-human, system-to-human and system-to-system file transfers that are too large for email or too sensitive for conventional alternatives.  A wide range of everyday business data falls into one or both of these categories, including CAD and multimedia files, large Power Points, and smaller confidential or regulated files containing information such as financial data, price lists, customer databases, medical records or credit card data.

With SEE MFT, organizations can:

• Ensure end-to-end security with encryption and authentication of both ad hoc and scheduled data transfers, minimizing the threat of data leakage or file receipt by unauthorized users.
• Reduce the risk of critical data loss as well as file transmission to the wrong person, both through data and access protections as well as through rules-based routing and workflow that enable enforcement of corporate and regulatory policies regarding the exchange of sensitive or confidential information.
• Reduce FTP-related costs and administrative inefficiencies by eliminating multiple FTP servers and replacing them with one centrally managed and governed system.
• Facilitate compliance with government, industry and customer privacy and security mandates, with a complete audit trail providing real-time visibility of all data exchange activity as well as auditability of messages, files and transactions between systems, applications and databases.
• Guarantee file delivery with checkpoint and restart capabilities as well as notification of transmission failures.

Single View for All File Transfer Types

In a key advantage that dramatically simplifies both IT administration and file traceability, the SEEBURGER platform is the first solution that consolidates management and reporting of all internal and external file transfer activity under one GUI. That includes human-to-human, human-to-system and system-to-system information exchange routed through the new SEE MFT modules of the SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite, as well as B2B and EDI supply chain messages exchanged through the same gateway – whether the data is transmitted within the company or between the enterprise and its external trading or business partners.  

This unified strategy is unique to SEEBURGER because all components have been developed in-house rather than acquired from multiple vendors and added as plug-ins.  Centralizing the transmittal, transformation, integration and tracking of all structured and unstructured business communications within the SEEBURGER hub simplifies the IT infrastructure, reduces the total cost of ownership, provides single-vendor accountability, and streamlines corporate and regulatory compliance efforts.

Industry-Exclusive Features

In addition, SEE MFT delivers an advanced feature set that automates more functions, reduces IT overhead, accelerates file delivery, and eliminates the need for end user training. Highlights include:

• Support for unlimited file sizes, overcoming the 2GB limit of other managed file transfer solutions as well as email file limitations.
• Built-in business process management (BPM) support, a SEEBURGER exclusive that eliminates the need to use a third-party BPM solution to establish routing and workflow on issues ranging from authorized senders and recipients to automatic placement of transmitted files in any number of destination folders based on factors such as criteria, size, name and/or sender. The suite's BPEL support also provides the option to use an already-deployed BPM engine.
• Unique peer-to-peer file transfer for system-to-system data exchange, eliminating the bottlenecks and scalability problems associated with typical client/server MFT solutions. SEE MFT's peer-to-peer capabilities enable files to flow directly from end point to end point, eliminating the need for the payload to go through an MFT server.  
• Automated content filtering to block files with sensitive information where policy requires, via ICAP-based integration with leading content-aware data loss protection (DLP) solutions.
• Automated end point/trading partner provisioning and management, including the ability to check the heartbeats of thousands of SEEBURGER end points, detect temporary outages, and delay file transfer until the problem is resolved.
• Built-in end point translation engine, enabling transmitted data to be converted to the appropriate ERP or other format after it has been decrypted and decompressed rather than requiring separate transfer agents that can trigger outside processes.  
• Support for all major platforms, operating systems, and data and communication protocols to ensure use by any enterprise and interoperability with all business and trading partners.

"For years, companies have turned to strategies like FTP for transferring large and business-critical files, and now they find themselves without important security, governance and compliance controls such as encryption, role-based access, policy management, central visibility and integrated internal and external file transfer oversight. That leaves organizations at risk for intellectual property loss, regulatory violations and unnecessary overhead," said Rohit Khanna, EVP, Global Strategy and Corporate Development, for SEEBURGER. "SEE MFT closes these loopholes with a robust feature set that also provides single-view management for EDI/B2B supply chain communications from the same administrative console. This approach – the industry's first unified communication gateway – marks a new and highly cost-effective milestone in efficient, cost-effective file transfer."

Availability

SEE MFT is available immediately as a cloud service offering hosted by SEEBURGER for a low monthly fee, or as a cloud-enabled product that can be purchased as traditional license and hosted either in a private cloud or inside an enterprise network. More information is available at www.seeburger.com/mft  or by emailing [email protected].

(1) Gartner Inc., What MFT Is, and How It Applies to You, Thomas Skybakmoen, June 14, 2011

About SEEBURGER

SEEBURGER is a global provider of business integration and secure managed file transfer (MFT) solutions that streamline business processes, reduce operational costs, facilitate governance and compliance, and provide visibility to the farthest edges of the supply chain to maximize ERP effectiveness and drive new efficiencies. All solutions are delivered on a unified, 100% SEEBURGER-engineered platform that lowers the total cost of ownership and reduces implementation time. With more than 25 years in the industry, SEEBURGER today is ranked among the top business integration providers by industry analysts, serves thousands of customers in more than 50 countries and 15 industries, and has offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. For more information, visit www.seeburger.com.  

SOURCE SEEBURGER