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Transitioning from FTP: Why today’s B2B solutions are SaaS

A screenshot of the FileZilla program with a menu open for an image to add it to a queue.

Announcing Media Shuttle Enterprise

There was nothing “user friendly” about the early Internet. By today’s standards — where most people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load — the early Internet moved at a glacial pace. And, it was so technically esoteric, few people aside from computer experts and scientists understood how to use it.

FTP, the Internet’s basic protocol for transferring files between systems, was invented in 1971 with its base specifications standardized during the 1980s. Even though FTP is still used today, its speed and user experience betray its legacy protocol status.

But we really can’t fault FTP. The emphasis in those days was on accuracy, not speed, and FTP was never designed to handle the multi-gig transfers over long distances that are common in many organizations today. FTP is constantly checking and verifying that each packet of data in a file was received before sending more, increasing latency and the rate of failure with larger files and longer distances.

So, especially for the media industry —  with its enormous files needing to be transferred to multiple locations around the world throughout the production, post production and distribution process — why does FTP persist despite the fact that more advanced file transfer software has been available for over a decade?

In a recent webinar with Creative Cow, Rick Clarkson, Signiant VP of Product Management, discusses the changing landscape of large file transfer and how the introduction of SaaS to the large file transfer picture is paving the way for media organizations of all sizes to let go of their outdated FTP systems and utilize advanced large file transfer software. The webinar covers:

•  Why sending large files over distance is so difficult with legacy Internet protocols

•  The risks and hidden costs of FTP

•  Why today’s B2B solutions are true SaaS, not “cloud washed”

•  How SaaS solutions like Media Shuttle are scalable and cost effective to any size business

•  The easy to use, brandable and secure web portals of Media Shuttle

Get the full webinar recording here. It includes a demo of Media Shuttle and some great questions from webinar participants.

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