Tumbleweed - Managed File Transfers

Optimizing the way in which large files are exchanged online can have a significant impact on operational efficiencies and the bottom-line. Tumbleweed solutions enable you to consolidate disparate systems, automate and streamline applications, and comply with policies and regulations without VPNs or proprietary software.

Internet Trading Partner Networks

In the past few years, many enterprises have implemented internally managed private trading networks using Internet B2B gateways or B2B-enabled integration suites as an alternative to communicating with trading partners using traditional VPNs. These IT projects support direct point-to-point connections with trading partners over the Internet using protocols such as AS2 and Web services. In particular, Internet EDI (EDIINT) transaction volume has been increasing steadily, in large part due to Wal-Mart’s endorsement of EDIINT. Gartner puts the growth rate at 50%-60% and they expect it to continue through 2005/06.

Historically, prolific internal point-to-point connections have led to "integration spaghetti," creating internal management problems due to a lack of centralized administration and control. Now, the rapid growth of point-to-point connections between trading partners is producing "B2B integration spaghetti" with similar results. The complexity of managing these connections is compounded by an increasing number of trading partners with diverse IT environments, connection provisioning and exception handling issues, and constantly evolving B2B standards.

In many cases, companies have developed their homegrown B2B gateways by leveraging point-to-point connections that are centralized by one job-scheduling environment providing management and process control, proprietary database schemas for repository, custom applications for trading partner management, and custom scripts using FTP or SMTP for connectivity. This functionality is "good enough" for current interactions but it can rapidly become unmanageable as the number of partners and processes grows. According to Gartner, a consolidated approach of a B2B gateway is recommended to promote the reuse of connections and processes and for centralization of management for logging and reporting.

Tumbleweed SecureTransport™ is an enterprise-class managed file transfer solution for moving critical business files, large documents, XML, and EDI transactions over the Internet and private IP networks. Flexible and scalable configuration options and centralized management and control allow organizations to consolidate data transfer applications and ensure data security and reliability—without VPNs, additional infrastructure, or proprietary software.

Value Added Network (VAN) Replacement

Many enterprises use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to handle business transactions with suppliers and other business partners.  Until recently the accepted method for transmission of these transactions was over a private Value Added Network (VAN).  VANs have proven to be expensive to maintain and support.  With the development of EDI over Internet (EDIINT) standards, EDI has begun to leverage less costly internet connections for transmission.  The EDIINT standards allow user enterprises to  transmit confidential data on the open internet with full security and audit capability. 

EDIINT standards are supported by Tumbleweed Secure Transport™, along with a wide variety of other file transfer protocols.

File Transfer Consolidation

Many enterprises are finding themselves with dozens and sometimes hundreds of separate, unmanaged file-transfer applications used to communicate between departments or with business partners. These applications were often developed at the departmental level to address an immediate need, and were not coordinated with each other or aligned with IT strategy. Because they are distributed throughout the organization and need to be accessible from remote sites, random holes have been opened through the corporate firewall to allow access—presenting a security issue that many organizations don’t even realize they have. The individual applications also multiply directory issues, as they typically implement custom user management and authentication schemes rather than leveraging the corporate directory. Without a way to manage, secure, and track all of these disparate applications, organizations are at significant risk of violating industry and government regulations, including SOX, GLBA, Check 21, and HIPAA.

Tumbleweed SecureTransport ™ is a managed file transfer system that enables IT organizations to consolidate and centrally manage file transfer applications across the enterprise, reducing administration costs while improving security and simplifying regulatory compliance.

Interested in Tumbleweed solutions? Please contact us.