Modernize enterprise file transfer systems using AWS Transfer Family

A blog post by Jay Joshi, manager, Cloud Engineering, Deloitte Consulting LLP; Tony Witherspoon, principal, Cloud Architecture Talent Group lead, Deloitte Consulting LLP; Najeeb Danish, specialist leader, Cloud Engineering, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Storage management in the cloud can be challenging; many organizations operate in a hybrid cloud environment that presents challenges and complications in areas like file transfer between applications/partners, data sharing, and asset storage. Even if clients are effective in addressing the challenges of engineering the right on-premises solution, there are operational and licensing cost challenges that need to be dealt with throughout the life cycle. With Amazon Web Services (AWS) Transfer Family, you can leverage the power of cloud to set up a sophisticated enterprise file management system.

What are the challenges of a conventional file transfer setup?

1. Management of a large number of servers: As the number of file transfer servers increases, it becomes difficult to effectively manage them and increases the operational effort.
2. Extensive custom development: Development of on-premise data processing and management capabilities can be difficult and involves a high level of engineering and development effort. It also requires mechanisms and governance for data handling and management, which adds complexity and operations overhead.
3. Upfront costs: Conventional file transfer servers require upfront licenses, which means heavy investment for setting up a sophisticated file transfer system.
4. Lack of governance: With multiple servers and application setup, there could be an inconsistency in the implementation of user accounts, configuration, and authentication mechanisms. Such a system needs lot of custom development and engineering to make it compliant.
5. Resiliency setup: Users need to set up resiliency for each of their servers to ensure that the services are available all the time. This may not be available or possible in an organization’s current environment, or additional development is needed to support.

What is AWS Transfer Family? 

AWS Transfer Family is a fully managed AWS service that you can leverage to transfer files into and out of Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) or Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) over the following protocols:

• Secure Shell (SSH) File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
• File Transfer Protocol Secure (FTPS)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Applicability Statement 2 (AS2)

What are some of the benefits of using AWS Transfer Family? 

1. Fully managed service: Transfer Family is a fully managed AWS service that helps reduce the operational efforts for running a large-scale file transfer system. It supports the transfer of files over SFTP, AS2, FTPS, and FTP directly into and out of Amazon S3 or Amazon EFS. It is also simple to use as provisioning of AWS Transfer Family can be done via the console or AWS CLI. No prior knowledge is required to get started.
2. Native integration with AWS services: Transfer Family can be easily integrated with other AWS services like API Gateway, Secrets Manager, Lambda functions, etc. Users can also add a layer of security by setting up authentication using credentials in Secrets Manager or Active Directory setup. This enables customization of the setup and further processing of any data if required.
3. Cost-efficient: It has a pay-as-you-go model with no upfront licensing required to get started.
4. Compliance and security: AWS Transfer Family is compliant with SOC, HIPAA, PCI, and other standards. It allows users to leverage AWS security features to establish security and compliance. Developers can control end-user access using IAM, and leverage AWS, SSE, or KMS for encryption.
5. High resiliency: AWS Transfer Family is a regional service that gets deployed across multiple availability zones. This provides high availability and keeps service running during availability zone failure. Users can also leverage features like autoscaling to increase and decrease the number of servers based on demand.

How can Deloitte help? 

Deloitte has extensive experience with implementation of AWS Transfer Family and has helped many clients to modernize their enterprise file transfer systems leveraging industry-leading practices. Deloitte has teamed with AWS on Transfer Family service to build sophisticated file exchange solutions.

As an AWS Partner Network (APN) Premier Consulting Partner, Deloitte provides specialization in a host of AWS-enabled business solutions, each of which can be efficiently integrated to meet clients’ needs when and where they need it most.

No matter where you are on your cloud transformation journey, Deloitte can help you discover and accelerate toward what’s truly possible for your people, customers, and business.