Linoma Goes ‘Virtual’ with GoAnywhere Services 3.0

September 18, 2012 Alex Woodie

The managed file transfer (MFT) features are coming fast and furiously for Linoma Software these days. Just a few weeks after releasing GoAnywhere Services version 2.8, the company this week is expected to announce the general availability of version 3.0, which adds new features such as support for virtual folders, network file shares, and sending invitations to other users to use the product. Linoma also announced that the entire GoAnywhere suite has been certified for Windows Server 2012.

Linoma is making significant changes in how users interact with the GoAnywhere Services product with version 3.0–and, perhaps more importantly, how administrators can control their users and what resources they have access to. It’s almost impossible to have too much visibility into user activities, and the power to control them, when the topic is enabling the free and efficient flow of large amounts of corporate data. Documents need to move in business, but only in a secure context, and that is what Linoma is tackling.

The biggest change with GoAnywhere Services version 3 relates to the new virtual folders and virtual files feature, which will deliver more fine-grained control over the types of file transfer activities that administrators grant to users, and also give individual users the capability to access multiple data sources.

As part of the new virtual folder and virtual files feature, Linoma has added support for accessing remote file shares using the SMB/CIFS (Server Message Block, or Common Internet File System) protocol. As Linoma mentions in its release notes, many servers support SMB/CIFS, including IBM i, Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, and other Unix operating systems.

While users get access to a more diverse array of data stores with this release, GoAnywhere administrators gain more visibility and control over their users. First, the administrator can now see a list of all the folders and files that individual users are permitted to access. “This allows Web user managers to see exactly what the Web user will see when they log into GoAnywhere Services,” the company says in its release notes.

Administrators also have the capability to easily turn individual folder and file permissions on or off for users, using the new “select all” and “deselect all” links within the administrative interface for GoAnywhere Services. This release also gives administrators an easy way to grant users “overwrite” and “append” permissions. (Append is used when a file transfer is restarted after it failed on the first try).

This release gives administrators new routines for setting up users with their new virtual folders or virtual files features, and specifying the permissions. The new virtual folders or virtual files function can be hooked into network shares via SMB/CIFS resources, or they refer to a traditional physical path, Linoma says. These functions can be set for multiple users using a template, while still allowing those settings to be changed at the individual user level.

Linoma says that, due to the flexibility of new virtual folders feature, it will no longer provide a way to create physical inbound and outbound folders for customers to use. While it doesn’t promote this feature anymore, it will still support it for customers who were already using it.

Version 3.0 also brings a new way for users to share GoAnywhere Services with others. The key element here is a new “send invitation” function that allows end users to send an invitation via email. When invitees click on the link, they are brought to a GoAnywhere Services registration page (hosted on the customer’s network). An administrator then will approve or deny each new user for clearance to use the MFT product. Users are also provided with ways to track the state of the invites they send out.

Various other enhancements have been added with the aim of smoothing the day-to-day operations of GoAnywhere, including: new XML files for importing and exporting individual user settings; promoting users from a test version of GoAnywhere Services to a production version; a new API for adding and deleting users remotely; new XML files for importing and exporting triggers; new email test functions; and adapting the AS2 feature to use permissions defined within the new virtual folders. Linoma also fixed several issues with the software.

Meanwhile, the entire suite of GoAnywhere products is now certified to run on the latest release of the Microsoft server OS, Windows Server 2012. The certification gives customers verification that the product will run on Windows Server, as well as Microsoft’s HyperV hypervisor.

“Making our application compatible with Microsoft Server 2012 helps us offer our customers compelling benefits, including improved security and reliability features, tools to keep them securely connected to data stored on their networks, and sophisticated management features,” Linoma’s chief software architect Bob Luebbe said in a press release.

The GoAnywhere suite includes three products. GoAnywhere Director is the most full-functioned product designed that requires a full installation on all computers sharing files, while GoAnywhere Services was developed to be a “data storefront” that eased file transfers among partners over the Web, and does not require installation on client PCs. GoAnywhere Gateway, meanwhile, functions as a forward and reverse proxy that masks internal network servers.

The Ashland, Nebraska, company also recently announced the hiring of new employees–a good sign of growth for any company. The new hires include Brad Medinger, a Java developer; Jon Simmons, who will work on GoAnywhere and managing the Linoma website; and Rick Elliott, an IBM i programmer and longtime customer of Linoma Software who Luebbe calls “a power user” of the product.