Sales has been working day and night putting together a response to a complex RFP for a major contract with an important customer. Now, hours before the deadline, it's finished. With a satisfied look the VP of sales attaches the file to an e-mail cover letter, checks the recipient's e-mail address twice and pushes "send."
The system seems to slow to a crawl as the big file is uploaded, but after what seems to be an hour the screen displays the legend "Your e-mail is sent." But just as he relaxes an error message hits his mailbox. The recipient's e-mail system has refused to accept the message. The reason: the file exceeds the e-mail system's size limit. It's too late to print it all and send it via overnight messenger.
A frantic hour later, after a call to the corporate help desk that pulls a senior IT technician off other urgent work to deal with the emergency, they send the document using file transfer protocol (FTP).
This was a situation that carrier-level voice over IP ( percent) system supplier Sonus Networks -- whose equipment carries 40% of all carrier-level percent traffic worldwide -- experienced frequently enough that FTP became a routine solution for its users. They are constantly exchanging software releases, manuals, bid responses, logs from switches experiencing problems and other large files with their customers, who are the largest voice/data carriers in the world.
However, said Ian Schneiderman, computing services manager at Sonus Networks, FTP has several disadvantages that sent them looking for a better solution. "FTP is a complex technology to use and to manage. Setting up a customer is a lengthy process that we didn't want to be doing constantly. Then FTP has limitations with respect to security and control once a file is sent."
Steve Goss-Baker senior systems administrator at Sonus Networks, said, "Often these files are intended to have a specific life span, but removing them from the FTP server is a manual process, requiring careful management." Mistakes are easy to make and can be difficult to rectify, particularly since the IT person managing the server has no knowledge of the contents of the file.
So in mid-2006 the company started searching for a better solution. "One name kept turning up in every Internet search we did -- Accellion," said Goss-Baker. "As we kept doing different searches and kept seeing the Accellion name among the top five results, we realized we needed to talk to them."
Working through a reseller, they arranged to install the Accellion Courier Secure File Transfer Appliance on a "try and buy" agreement. "It's an easy device to install, essentially a black box that you plug in to your network that automates management of all file transfer," Goss-Baker said. It uses the e-mail attachment metaphor with an e-mail-like Web interface that lets users attach files using Outlook.
"We gave it to some sales folks, and they used it immediately without any training. So there's a slam dunk right there," Schneiderman said.
It also simplifies management and gives users direct control over their files. They can upload their files to the Accellion server and set an expiration date, after which the file is automatically removed from the server. They can set one of four security levels for each file:
1. Only the named recipients can access the file and only after presenting their security credentials. They are not allowed to forward the file.
2. Named recipients can forward the file to other individuals in the same Internet domain. These secondary recipients can access the files after presenting their identification.
3. Named recipients can forward the file to any other individuals in any domain, who can then open the file after providing their ID.
4. Any individual can access the file without presenting an ID.
The appliance automatically extends its control of the files it manages to the recipients' domains without requiring that they also install a Accellion Appliance. And it provides a receipt to the sender showing who opened it, providing a record that the file was received by its intended user. Behind the scenes it encrypts all files and automatically manages the encryption keys. It uses SSL tunneling to protect files in transit.
Sonus Networks rolled the Accellion service out corporatewide the summer of 2006. So far, Schneiderman said, "It has been a hit with everybody. We just don't have to think about it any more."
Bert Latamore is a journalist with 10 years' experience in daily newspapers and 25 in the computer industry. He has written for several computer industry and consumer publications. He lives in Linden, Va., with his wife, two parrots and a cat.