Accellion blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.accellion.com/blog/
and update your bookmarks.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Buy One and Get Eight Free - Let External Guest Users Use Accellion for Free

Summary: Inviting external guest users onto your Accellion Secure File Transfer solution costs nothing. There's no wait for the business users who need to exchange large files. No more midnight phone calls for emergency FTP access. Accellion makes the world a better place.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget to go to the bottom to see what Accellion has been up to
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


As I talk with Accellion customers, I am finding that they really like that external people also can access most of the capabilities on the Accellion Secure File Transfer solution. This makes it very easy for employees to work with clients, colleagues and partners outside of their own organization. In fact, employees of most professional firms – like advertising agencies and law firms – interact mostly with external contacts. Accellion makes it as easy and inexpensive to receive large files from external people as it is to send to them.

Often to IT administrators' surprise, field usage has shown that many fully deployed sites have eight or more external guest users for every one internal user of the Accellion system. Accellion is happy because it shows that these users are taking full advantage of the capabilities, and their business processes really need the ability to easily share data with external partners. IT administrators are happy because there’s no cost for allowing external guest users to access the Accellion file transfer capabilities.

When it comes to external guest users, it’s like a permanent “Buy One, Get Eight Free” sale with Accellion. When you purchase an appliance or a network of appliances for your company’s use, you can extend the service to all the external guest users at no additional cost. Better still, there’s nothing to add to the infrastructure, and no software for the user to download. If a guest user has access to an internet browser, he can use the file transfer service.

I’ve mentioned before how easy it is to provision service to an external guest user. (See “Let External Users Send Large Files Back Securely Without Harassing IT.”) Any authorized user within the organization can invite an external participant to have an account on the appliance. No one needs to request IT to set it up, or beg for permission to allow the access. A simple email invitation is enough to allow the external user to register for an account and begin using the service.

Compare that simple process to using an FTP server to transfer files. First of all, FTP servers are typically administered by IT personnel. Anyone who wants to use them (including internal employees) has to ask and wait for IT to provision access, even for a one-time use. There may be a company policy against giving external access. Even if there isn’t, IT needs to get involved in giving the outsider access.

Even worse than the administrative hassles of FTP are the security concerns. A typical FTP server is basically a large hard drive. Usually, people can access files that are not meant for them in the same directory. What’s more, transmissions – including passwords – are in clear text, making them vulnerable to interception. Secure FTP service adds encryption, but it requires everyone to install additional client software. This is often impossible with outside users because, increasingly, IT administrators do not allow users to install such software.

FTP invites so many complications that help desk support can be inundated on a busy day. Worst yet, when it comes to external users, do you want your scarce and expensive help desk resources to go toward supporting people who don’t even work for your company?

Relieving the burden on the IT team from chores like supporting FTP and allowing as many external users to exchange data with internal users as business processes dictate -- maybe there is still free lunch to be had after all! That is, if you use the Accellion secure file transfer system.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Network World: Accellion updates secure file transfer appliance
Accellion updates secure file transfer appliance - user interface now available in six languages



Healthcare IT News: Clarian Health finds quick way to transfer filesClarian Health finds quick way to transfer files
: Clarian Health Partners’ telemedicine program... has found a way to save time, money – and aggravation – by getting done in two hours what might have taken two weeks in the past.


Press Releases
Microsystems Selects Accellion’s Secure File Transfer Solution for its Large File Transfer Needs

Accellion Makes Global Collaboration Easier With Internationalization of Secure File Transfer Solution

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Global Product Excellence Award for Secure File Transfer Appliance: Winner - Accellion

Summary: Accellion customers have spoken - Accellion has won the 2007 Global Product Excellence Award. It is about security, ease of deployment and administration, ease of use, and happy users.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget to go to the bottom to see what Accellion has been up to
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m pleased to tell you that Accellion has received a 2007 Global Product Excellence Award -- Customer Trust from the Info Security Products Guide. Accellion’s award comes in the category of “secure file transfer appliance.”

While it’s always nice to garner a recognition, what makes this one especially gratifying is that it is customers and end users that cast the votes. In other words, we have won the American Idol for secure file transfer appliance all thanks to our legion of fans – the people who trust and depend on the Accellion Secure File Transfer Solution day after day.

Sweet!

As I talk with Accellion customers, I hear their stories of how our secure file transfer solution transforms and enhances their organizational processes. Most of our customers cite ease of use for end users as a main driving factor that led them to look for a secure file transfer solution in the first place. But once they looked a little closer at the Accellion solution, they found the robust security features we’ve built in. And while other file transfer products might have elements of these features, taken as a whole, no enterprise file transfer solution can even come close to the total package of security and ease of use that Accellion delivers.

For security features, here are some of the popular ones:

Information storage and transmission encryption – files can be encrypted during transmission, sending and receiving, and storage using the appliance. This protects the file while it is “waiting for delivery.”

Integration with enterprise directory systems -- For enterprise deployments, companies can link the Accellion appliance(s) to the network directory (e.g., LDAP and Active Directory) that controls all end user access to network resources. This ensures security while making it easy for the IT administrators.

Virus checking – The system administrator can set the appliance such that all files placed on it are screened for viruses and malware.

Automated file lifecycle management – The appliance has automated processes to remove files that have reached their “expiration date” on the appliance without administrator intervention while giving the senders control over the exact file lifecycle. This also helps to satisfy requirements under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, rule 37.

Audit features – Audit trails list who has been sending and receiving files, which helps organizations to comply with security and privacy mandates in legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley, the Graham Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

Aside from the security features mentioned above, customers also tell me they like the appliance form factor that just plugs into a company’s network. Everything is owned and administered by the company. There is no concern about someone else hosting your files, or about pieces of files being transferred via peer-to-peer networks.

In other words, the solution is enterprise-grade in security and administration but easy to use like a consumer product. The best of all possible worlds.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Network World: Accellion updates secure file transfer applinace
Accellion updates secure file transfer appliance - user interface now available in six languages



Healthcare IT News: Clarian Health finds quick way to transfer filesClarian Health finds quick way to transfer files
: Clarian Health Partners’ telemedicine program... has found a way to save time, money – and aggravation – by getting done in two hours what might have taken two weeks in the past.


Press Releases
Microsystems Selects Accellion’s Secure File Transfer Solution for its Large File Transfer Needs

Accellion Makes Global Collaboration Easier With Internationalization of Secure File Transfer Solution

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Think Globally but Act (and Send Files) Locally with Accellion Release 6.0

Summary: English is the “lingua franca” of the global business world, but many users still prefer to operate in more familiar languages such as German, French, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Accellion lets you do that.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget to go to the bottom to see what Accellion has been up to
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Do you have customers, partners, or clients who prefer to operate in French, German, Japanese, Chinese, or Korean? All of these languages are important tools of the business world in our global economy. With colleagues, business partners or customers in other parts of the world, chances are they prefer to transact business in a language they feel comfortable with, and this isn’t always English. What’s more, some markets, like France and Quebec, require that you use the native language.

We recognize that fact, and thus we have internationalized the Accellion Secure File Transfer solution. Release 6.0 of our product, announced in early June and now available, has user interfaces localized for six languages: English, French, German, Korean, Japanese and simplified Chinese. Our customers who need to send and receive large files with people all around the world appreciate being able to use a language that is familiar to them.

Look at Millward Brown, one of the world’s leading research companies. This company has a diverse staff located in 75 offices spread across 43 countries. As a research leader, collaboration within the company is critical. Sometimes ideas, designs and plans are shooting back and forth among colleagues and clients as fast as the workers can push “send” on their Accellion file transfer application. We’ve now made it even easier for these workers to collaborate in a friendly and familiar language.

And now consider China, a powerhouse in the world of business. With its economy expanding at a rate above 9 percent yearly since the turn of the century, this country is not a force to ignore. China’s growth comes not only from soaring sales oversees, but also from tremendous domestic demand. Accellion took this into consideration as we developed our Secure File Transfer Solution with the simplified Chinese user interface. Business colleagues all around China can use a familiar language in their business transactions that require sending and receiving large files.

I once had a colleague who kept a plaque on his wall that said Think globally. Act locally. That’s the exact principle we have in mind as we launch multi-language support in our product.

The new native-language user interfaces of release 6.0 of the Accellion solution are important, but that’s not all that’s new in our product. We’ve added increased auditing capabilities, device clustering for increased availability, support for Outlook 2007, additional user access security settings, and more. Read more about release 6.0 on the Accellion site.


ACA Guy


Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Healthcare IT News: Clarian Health finds quick way to transfer filesClarian Health finds quick way to transfer files
: Clarian Health Partners’ telemedicine program... has found a way to save time, money – and aggravation – by getting done in two hours what might have taken two weeks in the past.


Law Technology News Done Deals: Accellion & Keker & Van Nest
LTN Done Deals: Accellion & Keker & Van Nest
: Litigation firm Keker & Van Nest has purchased Accellion Inc.'s file transfer system.



Press Releases
Accellion Makes Global Collaboration Easier With Internationalization of Secure File Transfer Solution

Barkley Selects Accellion to Solve Inadequacy of Email File Transfer

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Ubiquity or Commodity - What a Secure File Transfer Solution Is and Isn't

Summary: In the IT world, we often (mistakenly) use words like "ubiquitous" and "commodity" interchangeably. Secure file transfer is a ubiquitous process but the solutions are not a commodity. Remember that and you are already ahead of the game in your selection process.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget to go to the bottom to see what Accellion has been up to
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


In a recent conversation with a friend who runs an enterprise-class email company, I was yakking about how hosted email has become a "commodity" where everyone seems to have several email addresses from the likes of Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail. My friend corrected me on email as a commodity, however. Yes, email is everywhere and everyone uses it, which makes email ubiquitous. But:

A true commodity product is highly standardized and interchangeable with like products. In IT hardware, DRAM cards would be an example of a commodity. In IT software, a standard FTP package is an example.

In the enterprise solution world, however, the fact that something – like email – is common (a.k.a. ubiquitous) and often has similar functionality from many different vendors does not make it a commodity. To wit, everyone uses hosted email, but it’s extremely difficult to build and maintain an email system on an enterprise or carrier scale to support millions of users. Even for the end users, there are myriad considerations such as protocols, security features, user interfaces, administration, etc. that distinguish one solution from another.

(As the saying goes, to plagiarize is to pay the ultimate compliment.)

In the secure file transfer business that Accellion is in, I would make the same argument. The act of transferring files may be ubiquitous and common to most business processes, but the method of transferring files securely is certainly not a commodity.

In fact, if we look at how Accellion has architected the process of securely transferring files, it is a rarity compared to the alternative methods such as a homegrown FTP solution, CD/FedEx, or email attachments. We find there are very few directly competitive products because building an “on demand” file transfer solution like Accellion’s is not easy. In other words, end users and the IT team often had to compromise security for usability until they found Accellion.

I regularly hear from customers and prospects about how Accellion's features in security, availability, ease of use, ease of administration, auditability, and so on make it an ideal file transfer solution for an enterprise-class deployment.

So, let's make a distinction between ubiquity and commodity. Secure file transfer is a ubiquitous process for most enterprise activities. But secure file transfer solution is not a commodity. As a matter of a fact, by recognizing the fact that secure file transfer is not a commodity, you are already ahead of the game in selecting the right secure file transfer solution for your organization.

ACA Guy

Accellion in the News
Media Coverage

Healthcare IT News: Clarian Health finds quick way to transfer filesClarian Health finds quick way to transfer files
: Clarian Health Partners’ telemedicine program... has found a way to save time, money – and aggravation – by getting done in two hours what might have taken two weeks in the past.


Law Technology News Done Deals: Accellion & Keker & Van Nest
LTN Done Deals: Accellion & Keker & Van Nest
: Litigation firm Keker & Van Nest has purchased Accellion Inc.'s file transfer system.



Press Releases
Accellion Makes Global Collaboration Easier With Internationalization of Secure File Transfer Solution

Barkley Selects Accellion to Solve Inadequacy of Email File Transfer