Johannesburg, 27 May 2003
Sterling Commerce`s new Connect:Direct Satellite and Connect:Direct FTP+, available in SA through Datacentrix, provide companies with two affordable alternatives to using FTP in their organisations, whether communicating among internal departments or with other companies.
"Increasing numbers of businesses are finding that although they want to automate and secure data delivery, the operation isn`t large enough for a major league enterprise server system," explains Jan Potgieter, business unit manager at Datacentrix. "This could be attributed to the fact that they might only be swapping files once a day with a small retail outlet or franchisee, trying to automate a small, limited-budget department within the company or users insist on using FTP, resulting in a need to corral these activities.
"Some companies, such as those in the retail industry, need simple, cost-effective ways to collect daily sales information from outlets or franchisees and bring them into headquarters` systems. Retail companies may also have occasional requirements to push updates, such as new pricing, out to its stores," he notes.
"Other companies require a similar solution for use among internal groups that are moving data only infrequently. While FTP is perceived as free to end-users, there is a cost in the unreliability and inability to secure the data that`s important to their business."
The new solutions provide many of the same features as a complete Connect:Direct server, including assured data delivery, checkpoint/restart, cryptographic suite for authentication, encryption and data integrity, firewall navigation and data compression.
Designed specifically for small businesses, small projects or occasional users, Connect:Direct Satellite delivers many of the values of Connect:Direct in a lightweight, low-cost package. It can be deployed anywhere that a simple solution for data movement is needed, with the assurance that information will arrive safely and reliably where it`s needed, when it`s needed, and without the need for human intervention.
With Satellite, automation is triggered by dropping a file into a designated directory or by sending an e-mail with an attachment to a designated e-mail address. Additional processing can be handled through the definition of simple rules. A key difference between Connect:Direct Satellite and its "industrial strength" parent is that Satellite has a one-to-one relationship with a single server whereas a Connect:Direct server may exchange data with many internal or external sites.
Many businesses are concerned about security and assured data delivery, yet struggle with cost and administrative concerns and have to accept any form of data transfer, such as FTP. Connect:Direct FTP+ provides IT managers the ability to gain control over the usage of FTP within their organisations while allowing existing FTP scripts to run unchanged.
"With Connect:Direct FTP+, structure and management capability can be found at the IT level without the predictable side effects of introducing major change into production operations," Potgieter concludes.
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