9 Reasons Video File Transfers Can Be Nightmares

Many companies have experienced file transfer horror stories, mostly when trying to transfer high-resolution video using File Transfer Protocol, or FTP.

The original protocol still used to transfer files across most enterprises today was written in the 1970s when everyday people didn’t use computers, so there was no user-experience design built in. While FTP has been updated over the years to include new features and functions, it’s still legacy technology that is difficult to use and requires a lot of IT maintenance and management.

Most standard FTP systems don’t have checkpoint restart. So if your power goes out or you you’re your Internet connection, you have to completely start over with sending a video file, rather than having a system that can automatically pick up where it left off.

If you use an insecure file-sharing tool, it’s very possible for your valuable video to be stolen by a cyber-villain and leaked elsewhere on the Internet. Internet piracy costs companies an enormous amount of time and money.

With most standard FTP technology, email notifications aren’t built-in, and they need to be added as a separate feature. This means that you may never know if your file reached its final destination.

If you work in media in any capacity, you live by deadlines, whether you’re sending a video marketing file to your regional offices or delivering an asset to a client. If you miss a deadline, it may damage your reputation and frustrate your clients. And most media professionals want to spend all the time they have perfecting their work, not waiting for a file to transfer.

It’s commonly assumed that purchasing more bandwidth will automatically make large files move faster without slowing the whole network. But if you’re still using FTP, more bandwidth will not help with large file transfers. FTP can only utilize a limited amount of bandwidth to begin with, while other large file transfer solutions will steal all the bandwidth and not play nicely with other network traffic.

With FTP, you often have to babysit file transfers to make sure they go through without being interrupted, even if it’s in the middle of the night. And this makes it especially difficult to collaborate across time zones. With FTP, you can’t just send a file at the end of your workday to a colleague across the ocean and know that it will be ready when they arrive in the office.

To upgrade basic FTP, many companies hire software designers to write custom scripts or purchase additional applications for things like email notifications, security, automation, visibility, and user and storage management. They end up with a heavy, clunky, pieced-together solution that is difficult to use and manage.

If you can believe it, most companies today are still shipping hard drives to colleagues and clients for collaboration, which takes days and breaks an otherwise fully digital workflow. And to meet tighter timelines, they race to catch the “do or die” 7 p.m. overnight shipping deadline. Either way, it’s like sending your file into an abyss, and keeping your fingers crossed that it will get there in time and not get lost.