Linoma Bolsters GoAnywhere MFT Tool with New Features

Published: January 19, 2010

by Alex Woodie

Linoma Software last week announced a new version of GoAnywhere Director, its enterprise-strength managed file transfer (MFT) solution that runs on i/OS and other major operating systems. With version 3.0, the vendor has expanded its support for secure transfer protocols and digital signatures, and delivered new ways that customers can use the tool to automate recurring business processes that involve secure file transfer.

GoAnywhere Director debuted nearly two years ago as the platform-independent, browser-based replacement for Transfer Anywhere, which Linoma debuted in 2002, and which ran only on OS/400 and Windows. About four months ago Linoma split the GoAnywhere product into two parts, and the core GoAnywhere product became GoAnywhere Director, while a new offering, called GoAnywhere Services, was aimed at allowing external trading partners to initiate secure file transfers through a newly designed Web client.

One of the most important new features in GoAnywhere Director 3.0 is support for Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (S/MIME), a data security standard for encrypting the contents of e- mail using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) cryptography and providing non-repudiation of origin through the use of digital signatures.

The new release also adds support for Secure Copy Protocol (SCP), a data security protocol that combines Secure Shell (SSH) encryption and the Remote Copy (RCP) data transmission protocol to protect the contents of file transfers and the identity of senders.

SCP is an older protocol, and has largely been replaced by SSH-based FTP (or sFTP) protocol, sources say. But there is likely lingering demand for SCP among Linoma's customer base, so the company added it to its fairly comprehensive list of supported data transmission protocols (which includes FTP, SSL-based FTP (FTPs), SSH-based FTP (sFTP), HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP) and encryption methods (which includes OpenPGP, SSL/TLS, SSH, ZIP/AES, and, now, S/MIME).

Secure file transfer is only half of the MFT equation, with the other half being the capability to automate and schedule file transfer and related activities on the servers sending and receiving files.

To that end, Linoma has added new automation features with version 3.0, including the capability to automate the processing of inbound e-mail. The product also gains support for more complex business process controls, such as the capability to use multi-part conditional statements, loops, delay operations, and complex variables in GoAnywhere schedules. This release also brings more advanced error-handling logic, Linoma says.

These new features allow customers to drive manual and script-based processing out of their shops, Linoma says. For example, a customer could define a GoAnywhere project to continually scan for files on an FTP server, retrieve and decrypt those files, then parse and import their contents into a database.

Other new features in GoAnywhere Director 3.0 include enhanced logging and version controls, support for Excel 2007 translation, and the capability to read and write Excel 2003, CSV, XML, and fixed-width text documents, thereby eliminating the need for additional file translation software.

GoAnywhere Director 3.0 is available now. The product runs on i/OS, Windows, Unix, Linux, z/OS, and Mac OS, and supports DB2/400, DB2 LUW, Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, PostgreSQL, Sybase, and MySQL databases. Pricing was not provided, but previously the software started at $3,495 for a P05 box.

Executives with Nebraska-based Linoma Software will discuss GoAnywhere Director 3.0 during a Webinar Thursday at 11 a.m. CST. To sign up for the free event, see https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/143528929.

For more information, see Linoma's GoAnywhere Web site at www.goanywheremft.com.

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