From its inception, FTP has made moving large volumes of bulk data between any two entities — including file servers, applications, and trading partners — possible.
Regardless of the lack of security and management capabilities, many companies have continued to transport large batches of structured and unstructured data using these protocols.
Gartner analysts agree on 4 different use cases for MFT: Core functionality also includes the ability to encrypt files in transit and at rest.
MFT applications are available as both on-premises licensed software packages and software-as-a-service ("SaaS") solutions, and can often be used in hybrid cloud setups.
MFT applications are characterized by having all or most of the following features:[6] One vendor in the description of their product identifies six issues with commercial use of FTP and even SFTP that Managed File Transfer seeks to address.