FileCatalyst/UTech

The FileCatalyst Story - Fast File Transfers

2008-12-23T20:54:26Z

The FileCatalyst® approach to accelerating file transfers has spawned a radical new way of looking at UDP and TCP—two very traditional protocols that help form the backbone of the Internet. Our hybrid approach is based on a “best of both worlds” model that yields faster file transfers—sometimes 100x faster than traditional FTP. Both UDP and TCP are IP-based protocols, so you instantly leverage the ubiquitous nature of IP networks. Then we use the inherent characteristics behind each protocol to its advantage. As a “dialogue” protocol, TCP can self-correct errors. On the other hand UDP is a “monologue” protocol—very good for bulky one-way transfers. How can our file transfer solution leverage these protocols to accelerate files? Quite simply, we delegate tasks that each protocol is best suited for. Imagine you need to send the contents of a book to someone, and you have a phone and fax machine. The TCP approach would be to read the book over the phone—very “chatter” intensive, but you could ensure accuracy on a word-by-word basis. The UDP approach would be to fax the whole book but be unsure about what actually went through. Our approach is combining both the fax and phone together. You start faxing the book page-by-page or chapter-by-chapter, while the receiving person uses a phone to tell you which pages are missing or garbled and should be re-sent. This is exactly how we combine UDP and TCP together for file transfer. TCP is great as a communicative protocol, and we use it to let the client and server applications “talk” with each other to figure out what needs to be sent and how. We use a UDP channel to actually send the data over, because we want to send data in bulk at the fastest rate. FileCatalyst takes this even further, combining advanced algorithms such as on-the-fly compression and “delta” transfers in order to optimize the transfer. These innovative techniques result in a unique way to efficiently accelerate file transfers. Chris Bailey, cofounder of FileCatalyst, talks more about how he started the business and his vision of FileCatalyst. Contact us to get the whole story.

Seasons' Greetings from FileCatalyst

2008-12-23T19:47:13Z

We've had an impressive year with immense growth and success. This momentum will carry into the next year as we create even better file tranfer software. We appreciate your business and wish you success for the coming year.

FileCatalyst Team

FileCatalyst policy on technical and customer support issues

2008-12-15T23:08:19Z

Support and its delivery is a factor that sets any high-tech company apart. Whether it’s advice for optimizing their system, end-user error, or even a bug being reported—yes those critters do creep in somehow!—the support given to a client can make all the difference. Here at FileCatalyst we have a very simple and effective policy: we want to hear from our customers who face technical issues. Why? Because, we can not only address the issue for that particular customer but also resolve the underlying factors to prevent it from happening again. In some cases, an issue is out of the customer’s control and it’s up to us to provide the best solution. For example, if the issue comes down to understanding the product and its functions rather than an actual problem with the software, then we might recognize the need for updating technical documentation for increased clarity. If the issue turns out to be technical and the application behaves in an unexpected way, we want to know. Our dedicated staff investigates, tracks, and fixes any bugs that appear. Turnaround time can be as little as a day for minor bugs; if more time is required, the development team will work diligently toward the quickest fix possible, while keeping clients updated with progress reports. When you call FileCatalyst, you don’t get an agent with a list of canned responses. Your first contact is with someone who works directly with the product suite on a daily basis. Greg is one of those regulars at the company. He’s been with us for more than a year, providing exceptional level 1 support to our customers. We provide a 24/7 support service for our enterprise customers and are always available for priority support during regular office hours for all current customers.

The new FileCatalyst Direct Version 2.6.5 release

2008-11-20T23:15:21Z

The new FileCatalyst Direct has a number of nice features designed to support enterprise-level IT administration and management. Christian Charette, Software Development Manager explains these features in the embedded video. The first new feature is the support of Monitoring Agents through the Hotfolder application. Now status messages can be sent from the Hotfolder to the Monitoring Agent to notify of various events including incomplete, failed or successful transfers. Such notifications can help the IT administrator resolve and troubleshoot network issues before they propagate to become a major issue. The other major improvements have to do with bandwidth calculations at the start of a transfer. This is done via a bandwidth speed test button that is a new addition to the FileCatalyst Direct Interface. Other improvements include minor bug fixes in the application.

2008 Summer Olympics - Transfering files and photos

2008-08-06T18:27:56Z

The 2008 Summer Olympics are just around the corner. With over 10,000 participants in over 300 sporting events there are bound to be a number of new records set. With such a global sporting event also comes media coverage. This Olympic is the first in history to boast a complete 100% digital coverage. That’s a massive feat considering the amount of terabytes of video, audio and photographs that will be sent all over the globe. This brings up the question of how this feat would be accomplished. Being in the file transfer business, I can clearly see some challenges to overcome when transferring such large amounts of data. But the biggest challenge I see is for photojournalists as they take high quality sports photographs. You see, we’ve been spoiled by live media coverage and expect sports photographs to make their way back to news websites almost instantaneously. This means the job of a photojournalist gets even more demanding than ever before. Not only do these photographers need to snap photos at the perfect moment, but also, not lose a moment sending them back to the publishers. One sports photographer I met on a plane boasted how his photos get picked up by Reuters most of the time. But he then admitted it wasn’t because he’s an exceptionally good photographer – but rather he’s able to upload the photos sooner than others. So speed in this game counts and it counts a lot. With limited internet connectivity, this can be quite a challenge. To make matters worse network latency – such as the average 150 ms on pan-pacific connection, can cut down file transfer speeds by half. Also network congestion can induce packet loss which can further slow down the file transfer process. (See file transfer times over different connections here.) The file acceleration technology that we’ve developed at FileCatalyst® can clearly help in this case. We’ve built acceleration technology into our file transfer protocol that is immune to latency and resistant to packet loss. With other advanced features, we can ensure that files are transferred as fast as possible – sometimes resulting in 100x faster speed gains over traditional FTP. While all this helps at the background layer – what about the front-end, the user interface? To make things even simpler for the photojournalist, FileCatalyst offers highly intuitive and automated products. We provide a java applet that uses FileCatalyst acceleration technology. What’s unique about this java applet is that it can run on any web-browser. So using a third-party computer, the photographer can easily upload high quality photos back to the publisher. If the photojournalist has a laptop with an always-on connection available right from the sporting venue, he can use the hot-folder FileCatalyst desktop client. It’s a desktop client that can actively monitor a drive and detect new files. The new files can be automatically uploaded back to the publisher. Such automation takes away the mundane tasks of selecting files individually. It lets the photographer concentrate on what he’s best at – taking photographs. These are just scenarios in how our file transfer technology can be deployed to optimize the file transfer process. If our file transfer technology interests you, I recommend you have a closer look at our suite of FileCatalyst products. And as far the Summer Olympics go… I can’t wait for the opening ceremony. I expect a lot of action, passion and some new Olympic records to be set. So let the games begin!

Alternative technology that FileCatalyst Webmail replaces

2008-07-24T14:59:56Z

FileCatalyst Webmail is an enterprise-wide application that makes it easy for users to email large files. Webmail bypasses the file size restrictions of email attachments by sending a link to the file in an email, rather than the attachment itself. This is done automatically and seamless to the end user. Webmail can effectively replace traditional solutions that use alternative technologies to share files. So the question is what are these alternative technologies that FileCatalyst Webmail replaces? Well there are three technologies that come to my mind and the issues associated with each. These are listed below: Alternative #1 - Email Large Attachments: This is the most common method of sharing files with internet users. The Sender types the Recipient’s email address and attaches data files. This method is effective for small to medium sized files, but can be troublesome for large attachments (more than 10 MB). The problems associated with this alternative are:

Reliability: Email servers are configured to handle email attachments of a certain size; up to 10 MB in a typical office environment. If email attachments exceed the set limit, then emails are bounced back to the sender. This adds a question of reliability, since the sender can’t guarantee delivery of the email. The cost of a bounced email is hard to quantify, especially when the email is of a critical nature.
Cost of Archiving Email: Past emails are archived by the mail server. Large attachments add to the storage requirements of the mail server.
Poor Network utilization: Email uses SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for transferring mail and files. This protocol is not the most efficient protocol to transfer large files over a network.

Alternative #2 - Burn and Dispatch: Some businesses still burn data into a DVD and physically ship it to the recipient. This process is useful when there is either large data to transfer (terra bytes of data) or when there is poor internet connection between the two parties. But, this method has some drawbacks too, which are:

Time Consuming:This is a labor intensive process that requires human interaction from burning DVDs to printing out mailing labels and shipping the disks.
Courier Services: Depending on the urgency of the files, costs for using a courier service can easily add up.
Timely delivery: Since physical delivery is involved, the process can take 1 to 5 business days to be shipped to the recipient. This usually is an unwelcome delay and is not feasible for time-sensitive delivery of data.

Alternative #3 –FTP Server: Some IT administrators setup a FTP server to be used for large file transfers. The primary issue with this setup is the learning curve involved in bringing users up to speed with a FTP client. These issues are highlighted below:

Learning Curve: The average end-user is not familiar with FTP or FTP clients.
Firewall and Security issues: Not all IT networks allow for FTP access across the board. So some users may not be able to connect to the FTP server.
FTP Administration: IT administrators have to manage end-users on the FTP server and provide support and maintenance to the FTP server.

FileCatalyst Webmail Advantage FileCatalyst Webmail offers a solution that overcomes all the issues with the three alternatives to provide an easy-to-use file transfer system that guarantees delivery. FileCatalyst Webmail offers feature rich features to track the file delivery process, password protect downloads and encrypt the file transfers. What’s more is that FileCatalyst Webmail uses patent pending FileCatalyst acceleration technology to speed up file transfers between two nodes by 100x faster than traditional FTP. Such speed gains as well as the other advantages offered by FileCatalyst Webmail make it a strong alternative to the methods listed above. If you are looking to replace any of those methods you should have a closer look at FileCatalyst Webmail.

User types in FileCatalyst Webmail

2008-07-02T16:13:30Z

HIPAA - GLB Act Compliance and security features in FileCatalyst Webmail

2008-06-28T15:18:12Z

FileCatalyst Webmail Security Features

When we first started to develop FileCatalyst Webmail, we had "secruity" as one of the main issues to address. We wanted our solution to help IT managers provide easy file transfer application without the caveat of unauthorized access and security breaches. In specific, we wanted IT departments reach compliancy mandates such as the ones set by HIPAA and GLB Act.

This is why we’ve developed various feature sets that provide for a robust, secure and highly configurable server end. The IT administer has full control on how to set up the solution so that it fits with the security protocol of the organization without compromising ease-of-use from the end user. Some of these security features included in FileCatalyst Webmail are:

Restricting Access: FileCatalyst Webmail can be configured to restrict access and prevent unauthorized usage. These restrictions can be applied through various tools built intoFileCatalyst Webmail .

Email and IP Filtering: FileCatalyst Webmail supports rules that allow or prevent certain email addresses from receiving FileCatalyst Webmail notifications. Instead of a specific email address, domain names can also be used. The system also supports IP address filtering. A certain IP address or a range of IP addresses can be allowed to send file packages. These rules provide a powerful means to grant and restrict access to FileCatalyst Webmail.
An example of these rules is shown below where FileCatalyst Webmail can be configured to be used by Unlimi-Tech employees (email addresses that end with the domain utechsoft.com). Also these employees will be accessing FileCatalyst Webmail from the internal network, so will have IP address range from 192.168.0.1 to 255. Everyone else from the outside is only allowed to send files to Unlimi-Tech employees but to no one else. To set FileCatalyst Webmail in such a way, the following three rules need to be entered:
- Rule #1: Allow ALL to send files to *@utechsoft.com
- Rule #2: Allow 192.168.0.1 – 255 to send files to ALL
- Rule #3: Deny ALL to send files to ALL

Filter levels for different user types: FileCatalyst Webmail support three different user-types (Anonymous, Restricted User and Full-Access User). The rules can be applied at the three different user levels, giving full control over the system. For example anonymous users may have tighter restrictions, whereas Full-Access user may have no restrictions.
IP Level Blocking: FileCatalyst Webmail can block a specific IP address or a range of IP addresses from accessing the system. This feature is useful to curb abuse from a known hacker IP. Also competitors’ IP address can be listed to prevent snooping.

Open or Closed System: FileCatalyst Webmail can be configured as an open or closed system. As an open system, users can register on FileCatalyst Webmail and will be granted access automatically. The default level of access can be set to two different types (Restricted User or Full-Access User.) An open system is useful when the administrator can be confident that only authorized users are accessing the FileCatalyst Webmail logon page. This can be done using FileCatalyst Webmail IP filtering tools and using a third-party firewall. As a closed system, users are able to register on FileCatalyst Webmail but aren’t granted access until a system administrator verifies their credentials. This is a manual process and is useful when the administrator can’t use other tools to ensure only authorized users are requesting access to the FileCatalyst Webmail logon page.

Securing File Transfers: FileCatalyst Webmail provides enhanced security features that secure the file transfer process.

Encrypted File Transfers: FileCatalyst Webmail can wrap FTP over HTTPS to provide encrypted file transfer uploads. File downloads can be done on HTTPS as well. This two way encryption prevents network snoops from viewing file transfers. Files can also be stored on the FTP storage area in an encrypted manner using third-party software.
Password Protected Downloads: FileCatalyst Webmail can protect file downloads with a password. This password is specified by the sender when uploading the file package. The password needs to be communicated via a different channel (through phone, fax or another email). The password is not included in the email sent to the recipient. Without the password, the recipient can’t download the file package.
Automatic PIN: FileCatalyst Webmail supports automatic PIN generation. This PIN is an automatic password that is generated by FileCatalyst Webmail and is included in the email notification sent to the recipient. This feature is useful when emails are digitally signed to prevent unauthorized email access and acts as a further security feature to prevent URL guessing.
Account or IP Suspension: After 3 unsuccessful attempts for a login, a registered account is suspended until the administrator unlocks it. Also if the wrong password is used for file downloads, the IP is blocked for 30 seconds before the next attempt can be made.
Tracking and Auditing: With automatic tracking and logging of all transactions, FileCatlyst webmail provides an easy way to detect all transactions and their details at the fullest level. This accountability helps curb abuse and track unauthorized access to files.

So in summary, FileCatalyst Webmail with its enhanced feature sets help IT organizations reach towards stringent compliancy mandates as set by certain verticals, including HIPAA and GLB Act. If you wish to reach such compliancy standards within your organization have a closer look at Webmail.

Go Green with FileCatalyst Webmail

2008-05-23T16:08:12Z

With rising gas prices people have started to wonder what we can do to save on gas and the "green stuff" – be it money as well as our environment. I recently read how the old Geo Metro is chic again. Why? Because of Geo’s high gas mileage (approx 45 mpg). With gas prices at the pump hovering just under $4 a gallon, it’s no surprise we are looking at such alternatives. If we go through such lengths at home to save money and the environment, what are we doing at work?

This questions is the reason of this blog. I’d like to talk about how FileCatalyst® Webmail has no ecological footprint – while still allowing your enterprise to share and transfer large files with employees, partners and customers. The system can handle any file size from anywhere in the world. What's more, FileCatalyst Webmail offers file acceleration that makes file transfers 100x faster than traditional FTP.

Corporate use of FileCatalyst® Webmail reduces detrimental effects on the environment by providing a clean alternative to the sharing of large files. Content files that are physically transferred using courier services can now be digitally sent through Webmail. This means:

No paper or physical media goes to the landfill.
No useless packaging materials.
No gas/petrol wasted on physically transporting files.
No human resources spent on shipping and handling.

The system design of FileCatalyst® Webmail decreases the burden on corporate mail servers that are used in a file transfer role. This reduces the need to purchase new computer hardware. Computer hardware is known to use considerable amount of fossil fuel during manufacture. Improper disposing of old hardware adds to hazardous materials in the landfill. Webmail helps to reduce computer hardware by:

Avoiding unnecessary hardware upgrades to the email server.
No need to add Gigabytes of storage space for archiving old emails.

Use of FileCatalyst® Webmail provides a more "Green alternative" to the file transfer conundrum. Read more on FileCatalyst Webmail can do for you here.

Can you do secure large file transfers with FileCatalyst Webmail?

2008-03-22T00:33:00Z

Yes, we can! That’s what I tell my clients when they ask me that question. That is the simple answer. The long answer has to depend on many factors such as: - How secure do you want the transfer to be? - How transparent do you want this security to be? You see, security means different things to different people. To some, it can mean authentication before starting the file transfer. In other words you prove to the “door man” who you are, and once you pass that security check point, you are free to do whatever you want. The authentication idea works well as minimal security. It protects your system from “unauthorized” use. Then the second layer of security comes into play, which is with encryption. Encryption allows data flow to be protected. But a number of times, encryption provided by some vendors or protocols only allow data channel to be encrypted and not the command channel. What this means is that the client sends the password to the server in clear text, whereas then the file is transferred encrypted. This defeats the purpose of having the encryption in the first place. So systems that encrypt both the command and data channels are inherently more secure. Also the last part of the equation has to do with transparency of this security. How transparent do you want the security aspect? Sometimes you want the file transfer to be done in the easiest possible way. This means that the security is seamless and non-intrusive. How does FileCatalyst Webmail handles the security issue? FileCatalyst Webmail, the solution provided by Unlimi-Tech Software address all the issues I raised earlier. First off all, it has multiple levels of authentication. It guarantees that the sender is who he says he is. This is done through IP/domain filtering as well as password verification. What I find really cool with Webmail is that we also have LDAP and Active Directory support. This means that only one username/password is used by the sender. Makes account management a lot easier. Using a SSL certificate you as the administrator can also provide Webmail with enhanced encryption by routing all traffic over HTTPS. Not only does this make the data and command channels encrypted, it also provides for a firewall and proxy friendly transfer. Most of my clients find this as one of the best added advantages of Webmail. They don’t need to worry about clients behind stringent firewalls that have almost all ports blocked other than HTTP or HTTPS traffic. Remember the seamlessness part that I was speaking about before? Well all the things until now that are provided by Webmail are pretty much non-intrusive. The security is provided in the network without the user needing to do anything about it. But for even additional security, FileCatalyst Webmail can password protects each individual file package. This means that sensitive information can be further protected for downloads. FileCatalyst Webmail also uses a propriety system to guarantee that only the intended recipient is the one who gets to download the files. This is based on the recipients email address. Such levels of security can be layered on top of each other to provide a system that best fits with the client’s needs. As I said earlier secure file transfers mean different things to different people.

DocTera improved to become FileCatalyst Web Workflow

2008-02-29T04:01:55Z

The FileCatalyst® acceleration engine has been ported into DocTera, the online file submission and file tracking tool. The new application is renamed into FileCatalyst Web Workflow. FileCatalyst Web Workflow allows enterprises to automate their workflow and at the same time offer accelerated file transfers for file submission. There are two versions of FileCatalyst Web Workflow - Professional and Enterprise. The acceleration and compression feature will be available in the Enterprise version only. If you are an existing client of DocTera, you will continue to use the product and will be entitled to support and maintenance. And you can always upgrade to FileCatalyst Web Workflow to take advantage of the new developments – especially the accelerated file transfer component.

How to easily email large files through the enterprise?

2008-02-02T01:25:54Z

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.

Files2U merged into FileCatalyst Product Family

2008-01-30T01:20:37Z

Files2U addresses the need to upload large files. It removes the burden from email servers, and makes this process simple for the end user. This is the fundamental premise behind Files2U. With industry-grade implementations in large global enterprises including NASA, PPL Corporation and Canadian Military, Files2U has evolved into more than an alternative to email transfers. More and more, Files2U is being used to transfer large files from global locations under varying network conditions. Enterprise users from different continents, using disparate computer systems rely on Files2U to send and share files. This can lead to file transfers that suffer from latency and packet loss issues. For example, on a latent network with typical packet loss, a Customer service representative in Bangalore can spend hours trying to upload a few hundred Megs of customer account history to his counterpart in Texas. This pain in file transfers lead our product team to a unique idea – of combining Files2U engine with the FileCatalyst technology. And this makes perfect sense. You see, FileCatalyst is our technology that accelerates and compresses file transfers on latent networks. It makes it possible to send large amounts of data from global locations that have less than perfect network performance. Combining this technology with the Files2U application allows for an easy and secure file transfer to take place in almost any network condition. With this said, you may be wondering what will happen next? Well, the technical merging of the products is ongoing as we speak. The Files2U engine is being ported into FileCatalyst. The ported Files2U will offer the same existing functionality as it does now – but with the added feature of acceleration and compression. The new version of Files2U will be packaged as FileCatalyst Webmail. There are two versions of FileCatalyst Webmail - Professional and Enterprise. The acceleration and compression feature will be available in the Enterprise version only. This new development has no effect on the day to day operations of our existing customers. If you are an existing client of Files2U, you will continue to use the product and will be entitled to support and maintenance. And you can always upgrade to FileCatalyst Webmail full feature set so you can take advantage of accelerated file transfers.

Fast File Transfer: Moving beyond acceleration with data optimization

2007-08-01T01:53:18Z

If you are in the market for a fast file transfer solution, you have a couple of options. First there is the traditional FTP client software, some of which use parallel TCP streams to speed up your transfers. Then there are the UDP based transfer applications, FileCatalyst is one of them. These applications can maximize the data across your internet connection regardless of network conditions. If you have a T3, you will get exactly T3 speeds. The other approach to fast file transfer is data optimization. By reducing the data that needs to be transmitted, you can effectively transfer the file faster. Even if the actual data going across your line is not optimal, you may still get faster rates because of the data reduction ratio. Consider a database file, or large spreadsheet. Since this data is highly compressible, you can reduce transfer time significantly just by zipping it up. Another way to optimize file transfers is to send only portions of a file that have changed. Consider the database mentioned above. You need to back up this database on a daily basis to a remote location over a T1. The database file is 2 GB. If you maximize your T1, it could take almost 3 hours to transfer the file each day, even with the best acceleration on the market. But what if only 100MB had changed in the file? If you could detect and transfer only the portion that has changed you would reduce the transfer time by a factor of 20. Now the transfer only takes 9 minutes! But hold on, that database is probably compressible as well, so even with only a 2:1 compression ratio you could cut that transfer time in half again. So now it is only 4 and a half minutes, or 40 times faster than your link speed! FileCatalyst 2.0 was released earlier this year and does acceleration, as well as differencing and compression. It does it for you in the background, so there is no wait time to compress the file prior to transferring; it is all done on the fly, from one automated tool. With FileCatalyst, file transfers are as fast as your link, i.e. T1, T3, etc… The only question is how much faster it will go beyond that speed. That depends whether you have transferred the file previously and whether the data is compressible or not. The table above lists some speed gain examples. Of course there are a lot of cases that do not benefit in any way from this technology, but there are just as many that do. FileCatalyst should be considered an option in either case since it offers the best of all worlds; that is, industry leading acceleration as well as data optimization. You can always be assured you are getting the fastest possible file transfer with FileCatalyst. To read more about accelerating and optimizing file transfer with the FileCatalyst family of products visit www.filecatalyst.com Chris Bailey is co-founder and CEO of Unlimi-Tech Software Inc., makers of software solutions that are reinventing file transfer in the enterprise.

WAN optimization: How a file transfer software solution can complement your WAN appliance

2007-07-29T23:19:28Z

Over the past few years,I have encountered a lot of companies that already do WAN optimization and do not see a need to implement additional software for accelerating file transfer. The fact is, WAN optimization is great depending on what you are trying to accomplish; however, there are cases where the only requirement is file transfer. WAN optimization on its own does an OK job. But if you want real performance, combining a software solution with your WAN optimization appliance can sometimes yield staggering results. At a recent trade show we spoke with a company called Expand Networks about areas where we could complement what they do, and vise versa. They explained that they not only do acceleration, but also advanced differencing and compression at the block level. This reduces the amount of data across the network, and does a pretty good job of accelerating it. When used in conjunction with an FTP client, this can greatly improve file transfer speeds, and even surpass line speed. We decided it would be worth getting our hands on a couple of Expand boxes and see what happens when we run FileCatalyst in conjunction with them. What we found was that for pure file transfer we were able to get at least double the throughput of the Expand box alone, and much more when we increased the network latency and packet loss. There was a point where the TCP acceleration did not do as good a job as FileCatalyst with regards to keeping the link full of data. Because FileCatalyst uses UDP and can increase/decrease transmission rate depending on congestion it was able to detect the reduced traffic across the WAN appliances (due to its optimization techniques) and continue to increase the speed until the link was filled. FileCatalyst also compressed large blocks of data before transmission. Expand was then able to compress each packet even further using its advanced block level compression. When the file is modified slightly, and sent a second time, FileCatalyst will send the differences at the byte level. Expand then does the same at the block level resulting in a further reduction in data. The end result is that optimizations take place at the byte level and at the block level, and FileCatalyst’s immunity to high RTT and packet loss allowed this optimized data to flow at maximum possible speed. On a network monitoring device the actual data across the line was optimal, that is on a T1 with RTT of 350ms and 1% packet loss, roughly 1500 Kbps of data was being sent. But the actual throughput was much higher depending on the type of data, and how many times it was sent across. In some cases 10 times higher than line speed. However in all cases, the speed was faster using FileCatalyst and the WAN appliance, than just the WAN appliance on its own. In addition to the speed gains, the FileCatalyst software suite offers a host of application level features that just aren’t there when using other 3rd party file transfer applications with a WAN appliance. Features like scheduling, auto-reconnection and resume, on the fly compression, deltas, and bandwidth scheduling. Of course no other file transfer software does a better job of maximizing actual data throughput than FileCatalyst. For any company that already has a WAN optimization appliance, and wishes to add automation, reliability and further accelerate and optimize file transfers, they should strongly consider a software solution such as FileCatalyst. To read more about accelerating file transfer with the FileCatalyst family of products visit www.filecatalyst.com Chris Bailey is co-founder and CEO of Unlimi-Tech Software Inc., makers of software solutions that are reinventing file transfer in the enterprise.