Cross File Transfer

What is CFT?

CFT stands for (Cross File Transfer). Axway Transfer CFT takes the complexity out of integrating applications across platforms, operating systems, and locations, cutting operational costs and ensuring service quality is consistent everywhere. With CFT, you have the ability to manage all your direct application-to-application file transfers smoothly and securely across your entire ecosystem from a single MFT control center. Guarantee on-time delivery with tight security and total traceability of your file-based application integrations ^[1] Transfer CFT is an enterprise-ready, multi-platform file transfer controller that ensures consistent quality of service and a uniform interface for applications across widely distributed organizations — regardless of the underlying platforms. It is nonintrusive and reduces the design, implementation, and operations costs associated with governing the flow of data for critical multi-site business processes.

Purpose of Cross File Transfer

Transfer CFT manages all application-to-application transfers with an open-ended architecture. It securely connects to external gateways, ensuring high reliability and performant internal MFT. Leveraging Transfer CFT’s capabilities, companies can confidently migrate their applications to the cloud while ensuring secure, reliable, and efficient file transfer integration. Transfer CFT can bridge the gap between on-premises systems and cloud environments for controlling ground-to-cloud or cloud-to-cloud transfers. Organizations can ensure SLAs related to security, performance, and reliability are met and facilitate the integration with customers’ cloud storage choices.

Use

Axway’s Transfer CFT is the only internal managed file transfer (MFT) solution available today that provides the robust capabilities usually found only in external MFT solutions. It gives widely distributed organizations consistent quality of service and a uniform interface to securely transfer and track files between disparate hardware and software platforms.

Transfer CFT is nonintrusive and reduces the design, implementation, and operational costs associated with governing the flow of data for critical multi-site business processes. It helps you consolidate diverse platforms to a unified, centralized, and secure framework for better control over your internal operations.

Transfer CFT makes use of modern mesh topology, in which nodes can transfer between each other, improving speed, resiliency, and making it better suited to large and complex environments, with significant throughput requirements. [3]

Key Features and Benefits ^[2]

Reliable Performance: Transfer CFT is more dependable, manageable, and scalable than conventional, application-based file transfer approaches.

• Automate processes with guaranteed delivery and checkpoint/restart; end-to-end acknowledgment at both the transfer and application levels guarantees reliability and supports business sustainability
• Utilize multi-node (active/active) clustering to enable high availability and horizontal scalability for file transfer capabilities in support of private cloud initiatives
• Maintain consistent data for all interacting mission-critical applications and processes with just-in-time processing  (event-driven or conventional schedule-based)
• Support reliable exchange of multi-terabytes files
• Establish priority of transfer for certain files (incoming and outgoing) by controlling network bandwidth based on predefined attributes and classes of service, such as type of partner, time of transfer, or nature of transfer
• Scale up to hundreds of simultaneous transfers at the node level to perform multiple tasks in parallel
• Optimize bandwidth and accelerate transfer of large files with the Transfer CFT acceleration option, and successfully handle big-latency or large-band networks

Integration and interoperability with existing infrastructures

• Easily trigger file transfers using the REST API framework from applications, job schedulers, folder monitoring, and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Interface with applications using REST, C, Java, Cobol API
• Out-of-the-box file actions (file archiving, file deletion or renaming, character encoding conversion) in addition to pre- or post-processing actions that can be used for additional treatments (additional data validation, transformation, file organizations, etc.)
• Leverage shared disk capabilities to ensure consistent, reliable, and managed file sharing between applications
• Supports PeSIT and SFTP protocols
• Support for cloud storage (S3, Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage)

Core functionality

• Transfer CFT is more flexible, manageable, scalable, and secure, than conventional, application-based file transfer approaches. It is the only internal managed file transfer (MFT) solution available today that provides the robust capabilities usually found only in external MFT solutions, enabling organizations to securely transfer and track files between disparate hardware and software platforms without application rewrites.
• Transfer CFT works in a server mode as well as a client mode and is able to process file transfers using push, pull, broadcasting, store and forward, and peer-to-peer exchange patterns.
• With an emphasis on business flexibility, visibility, scalable governance, and reliable performance, Transfer CFT allows you  to consolidate diverse platforms to a unified, centralized, and secure framework for better control over your internal operations.
• Rich API and UI functionality, including PKI certificate management and administration for configuring file transfers (view log and catalog, create, modify, view and delete transfers).

Adapt to changing requirements: Centralized configuration  enables dynamic adaptation, and extensibility guarantees  easy solution upgrades and support for current and  future standards

• Inherent data-conversion capabilities support message exchange across 16 platforms, Linux, mainframes and IBM i.
• Apply configurable strategies for connection retries, checkpoint/restart, and backup paths.
• Submit new transfer requests through file deposit or from REST APIs, Web Services invocation, C/Cobol APIs or a command-line interface.

• Create Transfer CFT “farms” in support of data-center consolidation and private cloud requirements.
• Amazon S3, Azure, GCS, Ceph object storage capability for on-the-fly storage of transferred files in the cloud.
• Synchronize file transfer processing steps to adapt complex and global supply chain calling for JIT/JIS (Just In Time/Just In Sequence).
• Integrate Transfer CFT with third-party products to create a solution tailor-made for your specific IT environment and business requirements. Transfer CFT works in tandem with existing B2B gateways using complementary functionality.

Protect sensitive data: Data is secured at rest and in transit, within and across the firewall

• TLS-secured connections ensure the authentication of connected endpoints, as well as the integrity and confidentiality of exchanged data.
• End-to-end confidentiality and integrity when moving internal files using PGP.
• Built-in cryptographic file integrity testing, user authentication, encrypted transfer and centralized audit trails ensure non-repudiation of origin.
• Includes cipher suite completion (TLS Elliptic Curve, AES-256, SHA-256/384), and enhanced certificate support (SHA-2 types: SHA-256  to SHA-512).
• SAML 2.0 support (Windows, Unix, z/OS and  HP NonStop).
• DMZ Security using Axway Secure Relay. Axway Secure Relay is natively integrated with Transfer CFT, acting as a DMZ proxy to protect data, customers, and networks while enabling critical file-transfer services between  authorized parties.

Supported operating systems and platforms

CFT (Cross File Transfer) is supported on 16 different operating systems; is interoperable with Apache KAFKA, Azure Blobs, Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage; can be invoked by the REST API, command line, the monitoring of directories for new files or scheduling and a wide range of operating systems and platforms:^[2]

System Specifications

Delivery options:

• Subscription or Licensed software

Platforms:

• AIX-power-64
• HP-UX-ia64-64,  HP-UX-PA-RISC-64
• Linux-ia64-64,  Linux-s390-64, Linux-x86-64
• Sun-SPARC-64,  Sun-x86-64
• Win-x86-64
• z/OS (formerly MVS)
• IBM i (formerly OS/400)
• VMS-Alpha, VMS-ia64
• HP NonStop OS (formerly NSK Guardian)

Shared file systems support for multi-node

• GPFS
• NFSv4
• GFS2
• CIFS (for Windows)
• Sharing DASD across Sysplex (for z/OS)
• AWS EFS

Cloud storage

• AWS S3 Storage
• Google Cloud Storage
• Azure Blob Storage

Cloud platforms

• Amazon AWS
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud

References

1. Transfer CFT | Axway Transfer CFT | Axway - Companies succeeding with Axway Transfer CFT
2. Transfer CFT Data Sheet
3. Secure File Transfer Capabilities