Right now, we’re seeing a trend in the marketplace. Large enterprise customers want some sort of middleware to allow them to secure and streamline the connection between their internal systems and their vast external ones (think cloud-based resources and third-party services). In fact, the global managed file transfer market was valued at USD 2 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to USD 4.9 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate of 10.47% from 2024 to 2032.
This only makes sense, and the timing is about on target for how digitization has progressed on the enterprise stage.
There is a necessary flow of information between these different entities, and large companies need this information to be centralized and secure. While this sounds simple enough, no solution on the market quite fits the bill. The answer is not necessarily ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), nor is it necessarily ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), nor EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) and the solution is not even necessarily MFT (Managed File Transfer) alone, as it is traditionally seen in the marketplace. The solution needs to be comprised of a mixture of all three.
And that’s where Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT comes in. GoAnywhere MFT is not your traditional MFT solution. It operates as a lightweight ETL, a functional ESB, and obviously as an efficient MFT platform, and yet, it does more. What sets it apart from those other solutions is the focus placed on security while streamlining file transfer between the many moving parts of today’s disparate enterprises. GoAnywhere is one of the only tools on the market today that can do a job that enterprises are only now waking up to the fact that they need.
An Enterprise Problem – Integration Without Security
In enterprises today, there is a need to interconnect internal and external systems, applications and services. Data is the new oil and as a highly sensitive asset, it must be transported securely. Data needs to be processed and put in a common warehouse internally, which is what ETL solutions do. An ESB also plays a role in managing data between an enterprise’s various applications and the ones from trading partners, acting as a hub and providing overall visibility and control over the flow of data and services across different applications. These tools are great, but they do not specialize particularly in security, which is especially critical when dealing with third parties. GoAnywhere MFT does focus on security, and it tackles the management and integration aspects as well.
Integration for MFT Can Streamline and Automate Processes
As security and integration are where current solutions fall flat or fail to provide the answer in a single platform, enterprises are left to look for new models to bridge the gap. As noted above, GoAnywhere provides many of the same automation and integration features as ETL, ESB, or EAI solutions, allowing enterprises to connect their internal resources with cloud resources and third parties like:
- Banks and credit card providers
- Financial data providers
- Foreign exchange markets
- Retirement and pension systems
As Fortra’s Eduard Seseras, a Lead Solutions Engineer, explains, “At a high level, enterprises are looking for solutions that interconnect internal and external systems to streamline and automate their file transfer duties, and they’re not necessarily expecting [GoAnywhere] to process the data, although it certainly can. In some cases, they want us to integrate with an ETL solution and act as a managing solution that connects the systems, secures communications, and brings it all together. That’s the middleware part.”
Enterprise-level Security Requires Robust MFT
But even if enterprises already have their own dedicated solutions in place to transform, load, and extract data, MFT fits right in as an integrated piece to specifically boost the security of those data file transfers once information needs to move back and forth – and it does.
Seseras expounds on some of those added security benefits available to enterprises via GoAnywhere, “GoAnywhere MFT provides a full range of security layers and controls to protect the exchanged data that no other integration solution can offer. A secure architecture is deployed thanks to a multi-tier solution, including the GoAnywhere Gateway as a reverse proxy on the DMZ to isolate the exchanged data from threats on the internet. The Secure ICAP Gateway is a deep content inspection engine that is also built in, a security tier that will prevent malicious content from being infiltrated through third-party interfaces. We have recently enhanced the proactive security of GoAnywhere with the addition of an integration with the Fortra Threat Brain, a massive threat intelligence database that continuously identifies and blocks incoming IPs with bad reputations or malicious intent before those threats enter the organization.”
Connect Cloud and On-Prem Applications
A final differentiator that makes GoAnywhere a standout in the enterprise middleware space is its ability to connect both on-premises systems and cloud-based applications.
As Seseras notes, “GoAnywhere goes beyond what a typical SaaS middleware application can do. For instance, if you offer a middleware platform as a SaaS solution, a lot of organizations still have different on-prem applications in addition to their legacy systems, segmented networks, private and public cloud-based systems and external interfaces with their trading partners. So having yet another SaaS platform makes it challenging to interconnect all these on-prem and cloud data points. GoAnywhere can secure file transfers and centralize them across cloud, on-premises, hybrid, or SaaS environments, it isn’t confined to one or the other. Not every solution out there can do that.”
Using MFT as Middleware Requires Flexibility and Performance
As enterprises look to consolidate, down-shift, simplify, and streamline, the right middleware will make all the difference. GoAnywhere MFT is more than just a typical managed file transfer solution. With GoAnywhere, enterprises can rely on a flexible, scalable, high-performance middleware platform that lets them securely:
Yes, You Can Use Robust MFT as Middleware
The recipient of numerous accolades, including the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, and a leader on industry-review sites, GoAnywhere MFT is known for its robust security features, flexibility, and ability to work where and how you need it. For enterprises, that’s becoming the space between all the moving parts more than ever. Try this enterprise-level MFT solution for yourself.
