FileCatalyst/UTech

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.

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.

Can you do secure large file transfers with FileCatalyst Webmail?

2008-02-09T01:33:00Z

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.

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. 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.

Accelerated file transfer process: It’s not as costly or difficult as it once was.

2007-07-15T02:07:22Z

Have you considered accelerating your file transfer process across your enterprise, but due to the complexities and costs involved, decided against it? It is a fact that until recently, in order to get accelerated file transfer across your WAN you either had to upgrade your connections to reduce latency, or install expensive hardware on each node of your network. Both solutions can end up costing thousands of dollars per month, and additional overhead for installation and support at multiple locations. It used to be the case that accelerated file transfer was an option only for large companies with deep pockets. In the last few years, a host of software solutions have emerged to address to the specific problem of large file transfer over WAN, satellite, or links that otherwise suffer from impairments. However the problem remains that most of these software solution require a PhD. to configure and “tweak” them for optimal performance. Certainly this is not something you can expect end users to do for a one time download. In addition, the per concurrent client license model employed by some vendors is not flexible Our FileCatalyst line of products offers the best of all worlds. That is, it provides you with blazing fast file transfer speeds, but can be installed and configured within 20 minutes on any platform. With the recent release of FileCatalyst Web, end users require no installation to get fast file transfer speeds, and can send files to anyone in the world using only an email address. FileCatalyst is licensed by the server with no additional costs for each client. With FileCatalyst, you get the fastest file transfer available, the easiest solution to deploy, and your costs do not explode when you have more than a few locations. 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.

When traditional FTP isn’t good enough: Making the case for a new file transfer solution

2007-05-26T03:25:25Z

“My file transfer process isn’t broken, so why fix it?” This is the rationale of many IT professionals when it comes to file transfer. But often file transfer isn’t as efficient as it could be and is costing more money than it should. Unless you recognize issues with your current file transfer process and know the alternatives, why would you change anything? If you knew how that change could improve satisfaction, cut costs and ensure files are transferred efficiently and securely, you might be in a better position to make that call. So, how can you recognize issues with your file transfers? The most obvious answer is that if you are shipping hard drives or physical storage devices because your files are too large to transfer over the Internet in a timely manner, then you’ve got something to fix. Even if file transfers generally do work, there’s often an easy ROI case to make for savings on bandwidth costs. Let’s take it a step further. Do you know the Internet link speed between the two or more locations involved in your file transfers? If you know this, you can determine how fast a transfer “should” be, and if you know how much data you have to move, you can even see how long it “should” take. Transfers between geographically distant points are slower than local transfers. The reason is that FTP transfers use a mechanism similar to a conversation to transfer files. That is, send some information, and then wait for a reply before continuing to send more data. The longer it takes to get the reply, the longer FTP transfers sit idle without sending more data. The further away two points are the longer this delay will be, and subsequently less data gets sent over time. This imposes a virtual speed limit on how fast a transfer can go, regardless of how fast your connection is. Lets say you need to move 2 Gigabytes of data on a daily basis, and you have a T3 (45 Mbps) link from LA to Tokyo. How long should that take? With a T3 link, this would take only 6 – 7 minutes if you made optimum use of your connection. But if you are currently using FTP this could take over 2 hours! No joke! The gains are even higher on faster connections. So how does fixing this issue save you money? For starters, if you can’t maximize your connection, you are wasting cash on bandwidth you aren’t using. You might as well have a slower connection. But what if for a fraction of the money you are already wasting, you can maximize what you already have? The 20X or more time savings in the example above could allow you to compress two weeks of work into one day. What’s that worth to you across multiple divisions of your whole company? FileCatalyst, our software-based file transfer solution, uses patent pending technology to maximize your transfer speeds regardless of geographic location. You can watch an online demo or read more about how our customers have achieved significant ROI with the product at 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.