Sterling Enhances Managed File Transfer Products

September 23, 2008 Alex Woodie

Sterling Commerce last week unveiled two new solutions aimed at easing the transfer of business information among trading partners. The first is File Gateway, a new component of Sterling’s Managed File Transfer (MFT) suite designed to consolidate the various methods of managing file transfers within the context of a service oriented architecture (SOA), and File Accelerator, another new MFT component that provides a UDP-based alternative to traditional FTP.

Many AS/400 shops are familiar with Sterling for its Gentran suite of EDI and B2B integration products. In recent years, the AT&T subsidiary has been looking to broaden its offerings, which it has accomplished through the introduction of a Java-based warehouse management system (WMS). Closer to its traditional core competency are the new MFT family of products, which were originally part of Gentran.

Now standing on its own (but with integration hooks for Gentran), the MFT suite is designed to help organizations safely manage high volumes of file transfers, and the transfer of large files. The suite originally was based on FTP, and surrounded that TCP-based protocol with tools for managing, monitoring, and securing the file transfers.

With the introduction of Sterling’s new File Gateway, the company is delivering a way for users to consolidate the management of file transfers and provide a single interface for executing file transfers, without regard to which applications, workflows, security mechanisms, or transfer protocols are being used. The software, which is based on the Sterling Integrator B2B platform, integrates with existing Sterling Connect solutions, and allows users to build connections to other partners with a template-based approach, and then monitor the execution of the transfers in real time from the management console.

The company also launched its Sterling File Accelerator (SFA), which is based on the existing Connect:Direct component of the MFT suite, but which uses the application-level protocol UDT instead of regular TCP, which makes SFA superior for transmitting larger files.

Sterling says standard TCP-based transfers often suffer from higher latency, which can have an especially big impact when large files are involved. By basing the SFA solution on UDP, Sterling is able to implement flow-control algorithms, which allows it to regulate network traffic more efficiently and therefore increase the speed compared to traditional file transfer methods.

“Trends such as globalization and outsourcing have increased file sizes and the distances they have to travel,” says Geoff Baird, a vice president in Sterling’s MFT business. “As these demands continue to grow, Sterling Commerce is in a unique position to add the speed of the UDT protocol to our . . . MFT offerings.”

The market for managed file transfer software is growing quickly. According to Gartner (which ranked Sterling in the leaders portion of a recent “Magic Quadrant”), the market for managed file transfer software and services is worth about $450 million per year, and is growing at a rate of 21 percent to 26 percent per year.

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Do the Math When Looking at IBM i Hosting for Cost Savings

COVID-19 has accelerated certain business trends that were already gaining strength prior to the start of the pandemic. E-commerce, telehealth, and video conferencing are some of the most obvious examples. One example that may not be as obvious to the general public but has a profound impact on business is the shift in strategy of IBM i infrastructure from traditional, on-premises environments to some form of remote configuration. These remote configurations and all of their variations are broadly referred to in the community as IBM i hosting.

“Hosting” in this context can mean different things to different people, and in general, hosting refers to one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, hosting can refer to a client owned machine that is housed in a co-location facility (commonly called a co-lo for short) where the data center provides traditional system administrator services, relieving the client of administrative and operational responsibilities. In the second scenario, hosting can refer to an MSP owned machine in which partition resources are provided to the client in an on-demand capacity. This scenario allows the client to completely outsource all aspects of Power Systems hardware and the IBM i operating system and database.

The scenario that is best for each business depends on a number of factors and is largely up for debate. In most cases, pursuing hosting purely as a cost saving strategy is a dead end. Furthermore, when you consider all of the costs associated with maintaining and IBM i environment, it is typically not a cost-effective option for the small to midsize market. The most cost-effective approach for these organizations is often a combination of a client owned and maintained system (either on-prem or in a co-lo) with cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service. Only in some cases of larger enterprise companies can a hosting strategy start to become a potentially cost-effective option.

However, cost savings is just one part of the story. As IBM i expertise becomes scarce and IT resources run tight, the only option for some firms may be to pursue hosting in some capacity. Whatever the driving force for pursing hosting may be, the key point is that it is not just simply an option for running your workload in a different location. There are many details to consider and it is to the best interest of the client to work with an experienced MSP in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. As COVID-19 rolls on, time will tell if IBM i hosting strategies will follow the other strong business trends of the pandemic.

When we say do the math in the title above, it literally means that you need to do the math for your particular scenario. It is not about us doing the math for you, making a case for either staying on premises or for moving to the cloud. There is not one answer, but just different levels of cost to be reckoned which yield different answers. Most IBM i shops have fairly static workloads, at least measured against the larger mix of stuff on the public clouds of the world. How do you measure the value of controlling your own IT fate? That will only be fully recognized at the moment when it is sorely missed the most.

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