TGIF! Friday afternoon and I’m finally done with my last question from a prospective client. The last few days I’ve been answering a number of questions on the issue of emailing large files. Some of the typical questions that I've been asked are:

• How can I email large files?
• Why can’t I email large file attachments?
• How can I email large files without using FTP?
• Can you help us email large files easily?

You see, most of the prospects here are looking for an easy, simple solution to email large files to employees, customers and external partners. Simply put, they want something similar to an email application, but without the bottleneck of mail-size. And it doesn’t surprise me at all that the demand for “email like” solution is so prevalent. Especially since email is so ubiquitous, users have become accustomed in using it.

But most mail servers have “server restrictions” on the size of files that can be successfully transferred through the server. When file attachments exceed this size limit, then the email is bounced back to the sender. So this is the simple need that my clients are trying to solve: “The issue of easily sharing large files across the enterprise.”

Why do servers have such file-size restrictions?
The reasons why such file size restrictions exist have little to do with “technical limitations” of email, and everything to do with the cost of doing business. What I mean is that technically it’s possible to send Gigs of file attachment in a single email. Even though it’s technologically possible, it is not viable from a practical and business sense. That is because email is an inefficient protocol for file transfers. This inefficiency translates to huge overhead on the mail servers when more than a few megs of email attachments are transferred.

To make matters more complicated, by law some corporations have to archive all emails for a few months to years. This means that attachments would also need to be archived. So just Imagine the amount of Tera bytes that would be archived on a monthly basis if corporations allow users to email large files. So the impracticality of transferring large files through email is the reason for this restriction.

How can you over come the issue of simple large file transfer?
A few years ago, we stumbled on this issue as well. After scratching our heads for a while, we rolled out a new product called FileCatalyst Webmail (originally called Filess2U.) FileCatalyst Webmail, addressed the problem of sharing large files by not sending the attachment, but just a mere link to the attachment in the email. This meant that large files could now be easily shared through email without having to worry about mail server restrictions.

From the sender’s point of view, the file transfer process is very simple. The sender visits Webmail using a web-browser, then types in the recipient’s email address and a short note to the recipient. The sender then uploads the large file(s) using a web-browser. A web-browser add-on component written in java can also be used during the upload process. The uploaded file is stored in a separate file server and only a “http reference link” is emailed to the recipient.

Recipients of Webmail still get an email with a note attached from the sender. There is also an automatically generated link in the email. The recipient can click on the link and start to download the file. Once the download is complete, the sender can be notified of successful delivery.

All of these processes are automated, so that a administrator doesn’t have to generate emails or manage accounts on a daily basis. FileCatalyst Webmail manages all of this based on the global policy. This policy need only be set once by the administrator.

This “zero-maintenance” feature of FileCatalyst Webmail is what most of my clients love. Because people like to do a bit of work, and then kick back most of the time. Webmail lets you do exactly that. This explains why it’s so successful with installs in NASA, Canadian Defense, BE Aerospace, FujiFilms and FilesToday.