Introduction to EFT Managed File Transfer

More than just a managed file transfer (MFT) solution, Globalscape's Enhanced File Transfer (EFT) extends beyond standard MFT to allow you to connect with any industry-standard file-transfer client. With powerful security for meeting business and regulatory requirements, EFT ensures that encrypted transactions occur only with the appropriate entities, and that data confidentiality and integrity are preserved during transport and storage. EFT modular form makes it affordable by allowing you to purchase just the functionality you need, and add advanced features as your business needs change. That is, all module features are available during the trial.

EFT managed file transfer is available for the large enterprise and for small-to-medium businesses EFT Arcus is our cloud implementation. You can also deploy EFT in a hybrid environment (both on premises and in the cloud), and deploy EFT on an Amazon EC2 instance (virtual server in the cloud).

Refer to the Feature Availability table to view features available in EFT and EFT Arcus.

Available Modules (licenses required)

  • Advanced Authentication Modes Module (AAMM) - The Advanced Authentication Modes Module protects data in transit by enforcing the use of secure protocols, strong ciphers and encryption keys, and maintaining strict password policies, and enables organizations to centralize their user access controls, improve productivity, and increase adherence to security policies, and provides administrators with the ability to easily maintain password security in one location to quickly commission and decommission user provisions in one central location. The module also provides SAML (WebSSO), RSA SecurID, RADIUS, and CAC support, which allows EFT to fit in seamlessly with existing authentication measures.

  • Advanced Workflow Module (AWM) - Adds additional automation capabilities, allowing you to add scripting and variables to Workflow Tasks, then add these reusable Workflows to Event Rules. A Workflow is a series of steps that can perform file transfers, batch data processing, application testing, and so on, and are defined to run automatically when started by some event.

  • AS2 Protocol Module (AS2) - Supports the exchange of structured business data securely on top of the HTTP or HTTP/S protocol.

  • Auditing and Reporting Module (ARM) - Captures all of the transactions passing through EFT. You can query the data and create/view reports from within the EFT administration interface.

  • DMZ Gateway® - used in combination with EFT to create a multi-tier security solution for data storage and retrieval. The DMZ Gateway resides at the edge of the network, brokering data between EFT residing behind your corporate firewall and your clients in the outside world.

  • Cloud Connector Module (CCM) - Enables you to transfer files to/from cloud services such as AWS and Azure.

  • Enterprise Actions Module (EAM) - Enables automation features (event rules) such as executing scripts, performing folder and file operations, compressing and decompressing files, and so on.
  • File Transfer Client (FTC) - Enables you to define copy, move, and download actions in Event Rules. For example, you could define a rule to trigger when a file is downloaded, so that EFT moves it to another folder.

  • Folder Monitor Module (FMM) - Creates an Event Rule trigger used to detect the creation, deletion, and renaming of files in a monitored folder and to perform Actions based on these triggers. For example, perhaps a weekly report is uploaded to a specific folder. You can define an Event Rule so that when EFT detects that a file has been added to the folder, an email is sent to notify one or more users that the report is available for download. In v8.0.7 and later, this module is no longer part of core EFT and requires a license to use the Upload/Download/Synchronize actions in event rules.

  • FTPS module - Allows you to use FTP over SSL/TLS to for more secure transfers. (Plain FTP is included.)

  • HTTPS module - Allows you to set up a secure connection to anyone in minutes using any Web browser. The HTTPS module adds the HTTP and HTTPS protocols to EFT, enabling you to support browser-based transfers without having to install a Web server. HTTPS encrypts the session data using the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol, which provides protection from eavesdroppers and man-in-the-middle attacks. The Web Transfer Client (WTC) can deploy automatically upon client connection to EFT and can be used by any trading partner using virtually any Web browser.

  • OpenPGP module (PGP) - Safeguards data at rest. The OpenPGP data encryption or decryption process is directed by Event Rules that specify how data files are treated in a particular context. EFT uses OpenPGP to encrypt uploaded data and the off-load capabilities of EFT to move the file to another location. (industry-standard, RFC 4880 compliant)  

  • Regulatory Compliance Module (RCM) - Supports PCI DSS, GDPR, and other compliance-related features to achieve or exceed security practices mandated by government and industry standards such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and Sarbanes-Oxley for data transfer, access, and storage. This module is also needed, along with the ARM, to run administrator activity reports and privacy reports.

  • Remote Agent module (RAM) - Provides centralized control for automating transactions from distributed systems. RAM enables automatic interactions between branch offices, point-of-sale terminals, business partners, field agent laptops, or other remote systems and your EFT server (over HTTPS port 443) residing in a central location.

  • Secure Forms Module (SFM) - Provides "upload forms," custom web forms that you create to capture metadata during file uploads when using the web clients. Metadata gathered by the upload form can be used in downstream event rules (that is, subsequent Actions) for conditional post processing.

  • SFTP Module - Subset of the popular SSH protocol and is a platform independent, secure transfer protocol. SFTP provides a single connection port for easy firewall navigation, password and public key authentication, and strong data encryption, to prevent login, data, and session information from being intercepted and/or modified in transit. The SFTP module enables EFT to authenticate and transfer data securely with SFTP-ready FTP clients, such as CuteFTP®.
  • Timer Event Module (TEM) - Allows you to execute a specified Action only one time or repeatedly at specified intervals. For example, you could schedule an Action (for example, generate and send a report) to occur on July 8 at midnight, or every Monday morning, or on the last Friday of every month at 2 a.m.

  • Workspaces - Allows you to share folders and their files with internal and external users.

Additional tools (license required):

  • Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is a web-based dashboard tool that uses data from the Auditing and Reporting module to provide full visibility into the flow of data through your EFT system. Evaluate data trends over time and gain instantaneous knowledge about the current state of your system.