As mentioned a short time ago, we have some material from our old blog that we are slowly migrating to the new one. Being that we are in the business of fast file transfer, it made since to bring back one of our more popular articles on the subject. Although written around the time of FileCatalyst 2.0 (2.7.x is the current generation), the information is still relevant, and the article continues to be widely read by visitors to the main site. Here it is, for readers of the new blog.

Original article written by Chris Bailey on July 31, 2007 9:53 PM

Fast File Transfer: Moving beyond acceleration with data optimization

If you are in the market for a fast file transfer solution, you have a couple of options. First there is the traditional FTP client software, some of which use parallel TCP streams to speed up your transfers. Then there are the UDP based transfer applications, FileCatalyst is one of them. These applications can maximize the data across your internet connection regardless of network conditions. If you have a T3, you will get exactly T3 speeds. The other approach to fast file transfer is data optimization.

By reducing the data that needs to be transmitted, you can effectively transfer the file faster. Even if the actual data going across your line is not optimal, you may still get faster rates because of the data reduction ratio. Consider a database file, or large spreadsheet. Since this data is highly compressible, you can reduce transfer time significantly just by zipping it up.

Another way to optimize file transfers is to send only portions of a file that have changed. Consider the database mentioned above. You need to back up this database on a daily basis to a remote location over a T1. The database file is 2 GB. If you maximize your T1, it could take almost 3 hours to transfer the file each day, even with the best acceleration on the market. But what if only 100MB had changed in the file? If you could detect and transfer only the portion that has changed you would reduce the transfer time by a factor of 20. Now the transfer only takes 9 minutes!

But hold on, that database is probably compressible as well, so even with only a 2:1 compression ratio you could cut that transfer time in half again. So now it is only 4 and a half minutes, or 40 times faster than your link speed!

FileCatalyst 2.0 was released earlier this year and does acceleration, as well as differencing and compression. It does it for you in the background, so there is no wait time to compress the file prior to transferring; it is all done on the fly, from one automated tool. With FileCatalyst, file transfers are as fast as your link, i.e. T1, T3, etc… The only question is how much faster it will go beyond that speed. That depends whether you have transferred the file previously and whether the data is compressible or not.

Fast File Transfer

The table above lists some speed gain examples. Of course there are a lot of cases that do not benefit in any way from this technology, but there are just as many that do. FileCatalyst should be considered an option in either case since it offers the best of all worlds; that is, industry leading acceleration as well as data optimization. You can always be assured you are getting the fastest possible file transfer with FileCatalyst.

To read more about accelerating and optimizing file transfer with the FileCatalyst family of products visit www.filecatalyst.com

Yes, it is a cliché but seriously, you need FileCatalyst and you probably don’t even know it. I am obviously biased since I wrote a lot of the back end to FileCatalyst and have been “drinking my own kool-aid” for a while now. But haven’t you ever bought something and then a few months later you think back and wonder how you ever lived without it? Now I am not saying this will be the case for everyone with FileCatalyst, but I can certainly tell you in which scenarios FileCatalyst would make you ask that very question:

First scenario: You are an IT person, and you maintain the company’s file transfer system. The company is a multi-national, with branches all around the world. You have to make sure mission critical files make it from A to B, and make sure it happens as quickly as possible. You have a lot of issues with network interruptions, and then you need to resend the files. Or even worse, the interruptions leave you with corrupt files.

Second scenario: you are once again… an IT person, but you only have to move a few files between locations. However, your files are several GB in size—maybe even hundreds of GB. Your company has spent a lot on a high speed internet link, but for some reason the transfers are still slow. Not only that, but you still experience the odd disconnect here and there, and lose several hours of time because you need to start the transfer over again.

If this sounds like you, you have to try FileCatalyst because you could save yourself and your company a lot of time and a lot of money. First of all, FileCatalyst’s speed is second to none. If you want to maximize that high-speed link your company is paying for (or considering purchasing) you need a product like FileCatalyst to get the full return. Trying to use FTP as a transfer solution will never let you use the full bandwidth the way FileCatalyst will.

When it comes to reliability, FileCatalyst also leads the way with its robust retry and checksum features. It will hammer those files across the network in the minimum possible time, even with a ridiculous number of dropped connections.

Usually, you have to realize you have a problem first before even looking for a product like FileCatalyst. Maybe you’re resigned to the mistaken idea that your current solution is the only one out there. If I’ve helped you see that you might need an alternative like FileCatalyst, why not take it for a spin? Download our entry-level offering to jump right in, or better yet contact us to start a trial of any FileCatalyst product.

Chris