Managed File Transfer is a term that documents the high performance of openFT products. Such high demands on corporate file transfer result, on the one hand, from the variety of hardware and software commonly installed today and, on the other, from the different needs your company has with respect to file transfer itself. A further important aspect of enterprise file transfer is provided by the options for automation and the security functions offered by openFT. In addition, central administration of an openFT network and presentation of the operating states make openFT a managed file transfer system.
Fujitsu Technology Solutions offers a comprehensive openFT product range for Managed File Transfer, which can be used to operate heterogeneous computer systems (hardware and software) of many manufacturers ranging from mainframe systems to the PC. openFT products can be used in various operating systems such as Windows, Unix systems, BS2000 systems, z/OS and others.
Even heterogeneous networks such as TCP/IP, ISO-FTAM, X.21/X.25, ISDN and GSM mobile telephony or MODACOM pose no problem for openFT. The continual integration of new platforms and network types guarantees high availability of the openFT products, also in the future. Not all networks are supported on all platforms.
The integration of the ISO 8571 FTAM standard (File Transfer, Access and Management) guarantees uniform interfaces for requests to openFT partners and any FTAM partners (not available under z/OS).
Support for the FTP protocol makes it possible to connect to FTP servers and FTP clients on any required platform.
Functions such as request storage, automatic restart, job and file management, follow-up processing, resource management, program interfaces, encryption and authentication indicate the wide range of services offered by openFT products, thus making them truly suitable for Managed FIle Transfer.
Request storage makes it possible to start asynchronous file transfer at any desired time, e.g., to save charges or to wait for the occurrence of specific events. The automatic restart feature ensures a consistent continuation of file transfer after the correction of a fault, e.g., a network or processor failure.
Automation is achieved, among other things, via facilities for preprocessing and follow-up processing:
Local or remote preprocessing enables data to be created within a send or receive request by starting a job, for example, and then transferring it then to the local or remote system.
Local or remote postprocessing enables the data transferred to be processed further within a send or receive request.
Preprocessing as well as postprocessing can be executed within a request.
Follow-up processing permits any job to be started just after file transfer. You can make the start of follow-up processing dependent on the success of the file transfer.
The program interfaces permit the implementation of openFT functions in programs.
File management in the remote and local systems allows you to modify file attributes, for example.
The resource control allows you to store file transfer requests at any time and have them issued automatically when the partner system is available. The use of Monitor Job Variables in BS2000 systems is also possible.
In the case of synchronous file transfer, you have to wait until data transfer has been completed and you can then react immediately to the result.
Protection of the data inventory is becoming a priority issue in companies in view of the open nature of today’s networks. The FTAC functionality (optional in openFT (BS2000) and openFT (z/OS)) integrated in openFT products offers comprehensive and individually scalable protection functions:
decoupling of transfer admissions and login authorization
access rights dependent on the partner systems
user-specific access rights
flexible access right levels
recording of every authorization check
The logging of data transfer requests and authorization checks permits evaluation of previous request and access, thus providing a further security feature.
The encryption of request description and transfer data is another protection level provided by openFT. Request description data include the authorization data for the transfer of and access to data (e.g. transfer admission, file password). In addition, it is possible to connect to system security functions such as SECOS on BS2000, RACF and ACF2 on z/OS.
Expanded identity checking (i.e. authentication) of the communications partner is offered for requests involving openFT partners. It is based on addressing network-wide, unique IDs for openFT instances and the exchange of partner-specific key information.
In the case of very large numbers of files (e.g. entire directory trees), the openFT-Script interface supports restartable transfer, i.e. if the network or the computer crashes on the 258th file, openFT-Script resumes the transfer at precisely this point following the restart. The openFT-Script interface is available on Unix systems and Windows systems.