How do most organizations move files today?
FTP
Typically File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is combined with writing and maintaining homegrown code to address its limitations
Limited Reliability
Limited Security
Limited Flexibility
Limited visibility and traceability
Why is FTP use so widespread?
FTP is widely available – Lowest common denominator
Promises a quick fix – repent at leisure
Simple concepts – low technical skills needed to get started
FTP products seem “free”, simple, intuitive and ubiquitous
Legacy File Transfer products
A combination of products often used to provide silo solutions
Often based on proprietary versions of FTP protocol
Can’t transport other forms of data besides files
Developments to leverage MQ
People
From IT Staff to Business staff and even Security Personnel
Using a combination of email, fax, phone, mail, memory keys…
Most organizations rely on a mix of homegrown code,
several legacy products and different technologies
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TOWARD AN INTEGRATED AND MANAGED FILE
TRANSFER SOLUTION
Client Pains
• Avoid restrictions of internal developments - Limited Flexibility (File Size, File Naming, etc.) - High and time consuming maintenance costs • Improve file transfer reliability
• Improve file transfer visibility and traceability • Integration with the ESB
MQ based Solution replaces FTP and other file systems • Reusing the existing MQ
network => Leading to operational savings and simplification
• Reduces time and speeds up the delivery of the information to business processes
• Full control of file transfer from the MQ admins
Internal File Transfer Scenario
• Evolved along with IT infrastructures • Driven by specific business scenarios • Many protocols and technologies in use • Home-grown developments
IT scenario
• Long Time MQ customer
• MQ expertise and skills already available
Automated Transfers
•Transfers can be scheduled to repeat at predetermined intervals
•Transfers can be triggered by range of file system events e.g. new files, updated file, etc.
Auditable
•Audit logs of transfers at source and target
•Audit data persisted to MQ queues and/or relational database.
•Captures time-stamped log at source and target
Ease-of-Use
•Remote console for transfer initiation, unattended operation, scripting, scheduling, restart policies, status display
•Integrated with MQ Explorer configuration tooling
Security
•Access to individual files subject to file system permissions
•Link level security (inheriting MQ SSL security)
Breadth
•Support WebSphere MQ V6 and V7 for transfers
•Core Platform support (z/OS, Linux (32 Bit), Solaris, AIX, HP, Windows)
•Good file type support (ASCII/EBCDIC, CR/LF, Flat files, z/OS)
Simplicity
•Small footprint, fast install
•No need to write code or use API to configure transfers – Enabled via GUI
•Leverages WebSphere MQ – no other technology pre-reqs
© 2011 IBM Corporation
WebSphere MQ providing a consolidated transport
for both files and messages
Traditional approaches to file transfer result in parallel infrastructures
One for files – typically built on FTP
One for application messaging – based on
WebSphere MQ, or similar
High degree of duplication in creating and maintaining the two infrastructures
File Transfer Edition reuses the MQ network for managed file transfer and yields:
Operational savings and simplification
Reduced administration effort
Reduce cost of on-boarding, system
maintenance, and customer support
Reduced skills requirements and maintenance
File Transfers Application Messaging
Consolidated Transport for Messages & Files
Managed File Transfer provides secure, cost effective transport while
providing scalability over most platforms regardless of protocol.
A B C X Y Z
Adds managed file transfer services to WebSphere MQ
Enables reliable, secure and traceable file transfers
File transfer capabilities
Any file size (Kb, Mb, Gb, Tb…)
Powerful graphical tooling
Reliable delivery leveraging MQ Full logging for tracking and audit
……
WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer
XML scripting for distributed job automation Supports many platforms (including zOS
and iSeries)
Character set conversion between platforms
WebSphere Managed File Transfer
Monitoring deployed agents from WMQ Explorer
Agent status is displayed using a traffic light colour
scheme that highlights agents which may require attention
Context menu allows the user to test the connectivity to a particular agent New ‘Agents’ entry in the navigation view
Creating File Transfers
List of sources and targets is built automatically
Specify directory and file name
Choose mode (Binary or Text with automatic conversion) Add each individual transfer to
a group of transfers Choose priority of transfer Choose advanced options
End-to-end encryption using WebSphere MQ Advanced
Message Security
WMQ MFT already supports transport level encryption using SSL
Data is encrypted before it is sent over a channel and
decrypted when it is received
FTE Agent WebSphere MQ Queue Manager WebSphere MQ Queue Manager FTE Agent svrconn channel sndr/rcvr channels FTE Agent WebSphere MQ Queue Manager WebSphere MQ Queue Manager FTE Agent svrconn channel sndr/rcvr channels WMQ-MFT combined with WMQ AMS allows file data to be encrypted at the source system & decrypted when it reaches the destination system
Reduces encryption costs
Data is secure even when at rest on a queue A M S A M S
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Web based File Transfers using the Web Gateway
Web-based File Transfer
A RESTful API for sending files into and receiving files from a WMQ
FTE network
Reliable and secure file transfer option for Web users
Auditable transfer and large file support
Zero-footprint file transfer support without the need to provision and
install code
Interfaces for embedding into third party and custom user applications
WMQ FTE Network
WMQ FTE Server
Not only moving files…
Handle the data in the files
Ability to parse and transform files and process into messages, files, events,
service requests etc
WMQ FT Network
WebSphere Message Broker
Files Messages Files
MQ, FTE, FTP, HTTP, SOAP…
Enrich, Mediate, Transform…
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Batch Modernization
Convert payloads between files and messages
Enables simple conversion of payload between files and messages
Helps modernize batch-oriented architectures into micro-batches and
ultimately messaging
Readily and rapidly connect file-based and message enabled
applications
Options for converting data between files & messages
One file to one message
One file to a group of messages
One message to one file
A group of messages (or all messages on the queue) to one file
The file can be split based on:
Size
Binary delimiter Regular expression
One message becomes one file
Optionally, a delimiter can be inserted between each
message used to build the file
One file becomes one message
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Interacting with other File Transfer networks
Support for transferring files located on FTP or SFTP servers
Enables incremental modernization of FTP-based home-grown solutions
Provides auditability and reliability (checkpoint restart) FTP/SFTP
