Globalscape Modernizes Managed File Transfer With a Cloud-Based Platform for Secure Data Movement

TL; DR: With more than 20 years in the managed file transfer (MFT) industry, Globalscape^® is a respected leader and pioneer in seamlessly securing and automating the movement and integration of data among applications, people and places, and in and out of the cloud. The company’s signature product, Enhanced File Transfer (EFT™), replaces insecure, legacy FTP servers and homegrown file transfer systems. With a customer base increasingly looking to the cloud for business agility, Globalscape added cloud-based offerings to its EFT platform so organizations can streamline their business processes, reduce operational costs, and dramatically increase efficiencies in data transfers and integration. Two of Globalscape’s leaders — Vice President of Marketing Gary Mullen and Director of Product Marketing Alison Turner — described some recent changes at the company and how Globalscape continues to innovate to meet customers’ biggest challenges.

To meet customer demand and differentiate from the competition in a mature managed file transfer market, industry leader Globalscape leveraged the company’s significant expertise and experience to evolve its product lineup.

The company’s Enhanced File Transfer (EFT™) securely moves files among systems and people, in businesses of all sizes. Whether serving financial institutions, government offices, healthcare organizations, or others, the platform increases operational efficiency while ensuring security and compliance.

During its 20-year history, Globalscape garnered a reputation for offering traditional MFT solutions, according to Vice President of Marketing Gary Mullen. With recent additions to the company’s product portfolio and branding, however, the company is expanding its footprint in the MFT industry and adjacent markets.

Globalscape’s four-pillar strategy entails fostering organic growth for their core EFT product, building partnerships across the MFT industry, moving into adjacent technology markets, and pushing further into the cloud.

In addition to keeping the company’s signature platform thriving, Globalscape has undertaken the same digital transformation as many of its customers — creating cloud-based services that maximize efficiency, stability, security, and simplicity. EFT Arcus, the company’s new, enterprise-class cloud file transfer solution, provides scalable, SaaS-driven MFT services on a usage-based pricing model, while Globalscape’s Kenetix Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) supports application connectivity to seamlessly synchronize data across systems.

“We have been characterized at times as a sleepy little MFT company. We are working very hard to change that perception,” Gary said. “We are quickly becoming a fast-growth, multi-platform, cloud-first company, with our feet firmly rooted in EFT. We believe EFT Arcus and Kenetix substantially increase our value to our customer base.”

Globalscape is the only MFT vendor that offers a full range of cloud solutions, including a managed service, hybrid platform, bring-your-own license configurations, and an hourly metered option, giving users the flexible tools they need to manage and scale their MFT environment.

“Our new strategy has dramatically changed our product portfolio,” Gary said. “EFT Arcus and Kenetix clearly differentiate us from our competition and move us from a mature MFT provider to a cloud-first solutions provider. More exciting enhancements are planned for this year, which will further differentiate Globalscape in the marketplace.”

In addition to launching EFT Arcus and Kenetix, the company also rolled out a new brand identity, signifying the bold moves Globalscape is making.

“Our new strategy has evolved our product portfolio, and we wanted our brand to reflect Globalscape’s evolution to a cloud-first company,” Gary said. “Change is good and necessary, and so we’ve bid farewell to the blue and gray logo of the past and have embraced a new identity that signifies growth and change, along with embodying our goal of making business flow brilliantly.”

As Director of Product Marketing Alison Turner told us, new customers often approach Globalscape when a legacy or homegrown file transfer system can no longer serve the organization’s efficiency and security goals.

“Those systems were built for a specific purpose, at a particular point in time,” she said. “As you can imagine, organizational goals change, a merger or acquisition occurs, or organizations may be required to comply with new industry regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). That results in new demands that tax existing systems. In cases like these, organizations usually take a rip-and-replace approach.”

Globalscape’s MFT platform shines by providing scalable solutions that give users clarity and confidence in their data transfers, according to Alison. Customers report the company’s EFT solutions provide them with the critical visibility into their data transfers, along with the confidence that their data arrived securely and where it needs to be.

“If you have a company that needs to transfer files to and from business partners, vendors, or customers, or from one system to another, it’s vital to have security and visibility,” Alison said.”With the level of complexity of these systems, along with the repercussions organizations face from SLAs or from violating industry regulations, users need the assurance that those files securely reached their destination.”

Witnessing the company’s MFT customer base increasingly rely on cloud services in part inspired Globalscape’s development of EFT Arcus, the company’s enterprise-class cloud file transfer solution.

“A lot of customers have come to us facing C-suite mandates to move to the cloud,” Alison said. “A very different skill set is needed to be able to do this, and it can be somewhat daunting to those tasked with the migration.”

To ease the burden, many organizations opt to move to a SaaS platform, rather than maintain on-premise or private cloud infrastructure — making EFT Arcus the perfect solution to meet cloud mandates without having to hire new talent, she said.

With an underlying elastic infrastructure, the platform automatically scales up or down depending on usage, so customers need not stress about seasonal increases in traffic; EFT Arcus is built on a usage-based pricing model that supports an organization’s financial goals.

“EFT Arcus eliminates the need for already heavily tasked personnel to spend time maintaining the underlying hardware and software, and performing updates,” Alison said. “It precludes the need to depreciate hardware and software, which organizations typically have to contend with when maintaining their own datacenters.”

In addition to the SaaS approach to MFT with the recent launch of EFT Arcus, Globalscape earlier expanded into the integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) market with Kenetix. Correlating with the company’s expertise with data transfers, Globalscape’s Kenetix platform provides simple, cloud-based application integrations to make data more available across an organization.

“We see that enterprises have, on average, more than 1,400 cloud applications across the different lines of business that IT has to support,” Alison said. “That means they have data all over the place.”

The problem for IT teams, she said, then becomes providing users with access to relevant data in real time — not just to get the job done, but also to increase business momentum.

“Our Kenetix platform gives businesses the ability to integrate data, to access data across any cloud application, and to merge it with legacy system data,” Alison said. “They have the information they need at their fingertips to improve agility and drive operational efficiency to grow the business. Combining iPaaS with our MFT technology, from a governance, visibility, and automation perspective, is hot on our radar. We see a lot of movement, a lot of interest, and a lot of conversations in these two spaces.”

According to Alison, Globalscape customers typically have two things on their minds when it comes to MFT: security and compliance. The operational efficiency that cloud-based services offer is a big draw, but the company concentrates its business and development strategies around protecting customers’ data to the most stringent of regulations.

In addition to tracking data transfers, the company’s security measures aim to give customers confidence and peace of mind when moving their data.

“Compliance is obviously not a checkbox activity,” Alison said. “It’s multi-faceted. I wouldn’t make the case that by acquiring and implementing EFT that an organization will automatically be compliant, but it can definitely help companies take the critical steps necessary to secure their data and ensure that processes and policies are adhered to and reinforced. As we moved our EFT platform to the cloud, security was paramount. In all of our platforms, we’ve addressed security concerns extraordinarily well to give our customers full confidence that their data is truly secure in transit and at rest, and that business flows brilliantly.”