What’s driving the resurgence of Managed File Transfer / B2B Gateways?

Gary Palgon
Vice President, Product Management
nuBridges

While the trend for businesses to connect electronically with trading partners has grown steadily over the past two decades – first via point-to-point connections followed by a single B2B Gateway or central hub, little or no effort was focused on creating similar exchanges within enterprises.  Yes, application integration was taking place, but control or centralization of file transfers wasn’t even close to being on the radar screen.

But that’s definitely been changing over the last eighteen months, much in part to security as a driver.

Companies of all sizes are revisiting their B2B file transfers to make sure that their external connections are secure, and centralizing them into a single gateway to allow for control and visibility.  This helps with compliance to security mandates as well.  Gartner recently released their Magic Quadrant for B2B Gateway Providers (link to: http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol3/article3/article3.html) outlining key requirements and vendors to consider when addressing this.

And on the internal front, the same is taking place to secure file transfers within the four walls of the enterprise, often to lock-down credit card information, other personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive business data.  Gartner also recently released their Magic Quadrant for Managed File Transfer (link to: http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=703819) outlining the same for the internal view. 

And while there are definitely differences between the two, there are many areas of overlap as well. 

Let’s start talking about this – is a centralized managed file transfer gateway on the radar screen at your company?  Is the primary focus internal or external?  Is security the main driver behind the initiative?