Today, many organizations are faced with the task of transferring large data files because file sizes, security concerns and compliance requirements prevent most from using the tried and true method of attaching data files to email messages.

That has forced many businesses to turn to third party file hosting solutions to deliver large files across the web. Luckily, a large ecosystem of file hosting services has emerged to meet the demands of moving large amounts of data. However, the solutions available suffer from some key problems, namely performance and reliability. Those problems are a direct result of the hosting vendors choosing to use file transfer technologies that favor simplicity over reliability. Nonetheless, those issues are often hidden from the end user and do not become apparent until important data is lost or fails to make it to the final destination.

Why consider FTP?

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a tried and true technology that employs several techniques to maintain file integrity and to optimize performance. Those benefits come from the design of FTP, which uses a client-server architecture and separate control and data connections between the client and server. Those design elements are primarily responsible for giving FTP a performance and resiliency edge over competing technologies, however there are other reasons that also make FTP a better choice.

For example, FTP servers can support anonymous connections, making one time file downloads much simpler. FTP works with VPN, NAT, SSL and other security technologies, with a minimal impact on performance. FTP works with many operating systems a multitude of FTP clients exist that sport simple to use graphical user interfaces (GUI), there are some GUI clients that allow FTP servers to be used like a remote hard drive, further simplifying file transfer and removing barriers for neophyte users. The list of benefits goes on, however that brings up a question – why doesn’t everyone just use FTP? The answer to that question comes from the perceived lack of simplicity – FTP usually requires that a client application must be installed on the client PC and lacks the ease of drag and drop simplicity.

Other technologies claim to offer that level of simplicity by using drag and drop browser-integrated tools, however, those tools usually do not work with files larger than 25 Mbytes, eliminating any advantages for large file transfers. Nevertheless, FTP still offers the biggest advantage when it comes to performance. File transfers using the FTP protocol are significantly faster than using integrated file transfer technologies. That performance advantage increases with the size of the file, simply because FTP is capable of higher sustained throughput rates.

How we tested:

We created four compressed files using Windows 7’s native compressed file (zipped) storage utility. Each Zip file created contained a mixture of video, audio, text, application and other various file types. Each file (4 in total) was uploaded to each service four times and the average time of each file upload was used to determine upload times.

Upload tests show that FTP offers a significant performance advantage over other native technologies

Test Conclusions:

For file transfers over the Internet, FTP offers significant advantages including speed, efficiency, large file transmission and reliability. Those elements make FTP the best choice for sharing large files as well as backing up critical data files. What’s more, most file sharing services will not support files larger than 2Gbytes, while FTP is not hindered by a file size limit.

Most file sharing services are easier to use than a FTP client, however that advantage disappears with files are larger than 25 Mbytes, the size limitation of Java/HTML based drag and drop file transmission tools. What’s more, FTP client applications exist that integrate with Windows Explorer or associate a traditional drive letter with an FTP store, allowing files to be uploaded and downloaded with relative ease.

An additional advantage offered by FTP is cross platform support – FTP client applications are available for all major operating systems, eliminating the incompatibilities associated with other file transmission technologies and allowing different system types to share data files.

The above tests and inherent advantages show that FTP is still a viable technology and should be first considered when dealing with files of most any size.