The speed of business isn't slowing down any time soon. The files we send are getting larger, we're distributing them to more people, more often and over increasingly greater distances. The accomplishment of our collaborative tasks is heavily reliant on one universal tool: File Transfer Protocol (FTP). But FTP's capabilities and convenience factors are beginning to wane in the shadow of drawbacks that are increasingly apparent in the hastening digital business environment. 

We've put together a list of four of the most common ways FTP can harm your business. It might be wise to evaluate whether any of these are impacting your company:

1)    Security Vulnerabilities

You don’t have to look far to find resources online that decry the security flaws in FTP. Increased concerns over privacy, security and compliance regulations are prompting many firms to reevaluate their technology tools, and FTP should rank near the top of that list.

Every other application or program that is as commonly used and tied to as many systems as FTP is given the highest levels of security scrutiny. It is only practical that we should examine our FTP systems in a similar fashion.

2)    Permissions Management

CIO’s, system administrators and webmasters should be all too familiar with the idea of managing permissions. FTP servers are accessible via the web and there are usually multiple users accessing the same FTP site. Because of this ease of accessibility and the folder-file directory system inherent to FTP, there will always be permissions issues. This is especially true if you have a lot of users, a lot of FTP sites that serve various purposes, and/or sensitive data to protect from prying eyes.

Managing who has what level of access and which parts of the FTP server they can see can quickly sap precious time away from IT administrators. FTP seems convenient and it’s easy to use. But it’s imperative to evaluate how much time (and money) is wasted managing FTP users, sites and all their individual directories. After all, your IT department is also managing your servers, your email systems, your workstations, your networks…you get the idea.

3)    Tracking and Monitoring

This one is pretty simple – FTP simply doesn’t have the proper tracking and monitoring capability. Aside from very basic and hard-to-interpret activity logging, there is simply no way to see a visible trail of activity or any way to monitor activity on the server.

With so many users, folders and files – especially on larger FTP servers and web servers – there is too much room for error. Files can get overwritten, deleted or moved and there’s simply no way to immediately know about it, and certainly no way to track down the offender and hold them accountable.

4)    Costly Servers

Most users only see your FTP site from their side of the screen. Perhaps even your own employees are never aware of the ‘back end’. But the reality might prove more sobering, especially to those concerned with the technology budget.

All FTP sites are often based in heavy, space-hogging, high cost servers. If the servers are on-site, they represent a direct cost center to the company, including maintenance, server management, security, cooling systems and more. If the servers are off-site, you’re paying for the colocation, hosting services, monitoring, rack space and support.

March 2, 2012 -- The crackdown on shady file sharing sites and online piracy began with the digital demolition of the infamous Megaupload website and its 'sister sites' in early February, but has since spread to other potentially problematic pirates.

Torrential Troubles

Torrent websites and other similar file sharing venues with a deluge of multimedia content have been popular targets for the crackdown, some now reduced to a single page bearing an FBI Anti-Piracy Warning. Even some streaming sites offering major league sports content are getting axed.

While the felonious fraudsters are being picked off left and right, still others are taking the hint and taking action. Many have already posted public announcements regarding changes to their policies and practices. While the usual suspects scramble to clean up their acts, fearing their place in line for judgement is edging closer to the chopping block, the changes they're making have been largely off-putting to users.

Multimedia Magnetism

However, one notable torrent tycoon refuses to abandon ship, providing users with an alternative to their popular torrent provisions rather than simply doing away with them. The Pirate Bay has long been a comfortable cove of bittorrent booty on the cyberseas. But the website published an announcement this week that torrents on the Bay are getting tossed overboard.

While the change seems detrimental to their loyal followers on the surface, Pirate Bay still intends to share its treasures with the crew; in the form of "Magnet Links". Most users will see little difference between the torrent methods previously used on PB and the new Magnet Links. According to the PB Blog, the new Magnet Links prove beneficial time and space savers for them, not to mention an un-trackable alternative to torrents for users. 

Furthermore, PB notes that the strain on their servers and resources is substantially mitigated and bandwidth consumption is reduced. With censorship threats moving in from all sides, especially in the European Union, the solution allows the Swedish file swap shop to ensure their policies and practices are all on the up-and-up and still keep users happy, maintaining the busy buzz of all that media moving around.

Building Delays Are Avoidable with Preparation and Proper Tools

Almost anyone in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, in any position will agree that building projects are anything but predictably cut-and-dry.  The majority of building projects are inherently prone to delays, derailments and disasters.

Executing without issue given the sheer size and scope of most projects, combined with the complexity of so many workers, tasks, tools, resources and materials all being coordinated at once, and on a deadline, is a tall order. Here are a few of the most common setbacks that could be avoided with the proper planning and tools.

Shipping & Delivery Distress

It’s hard enough to coordinate the logistics of construction equipment and building materials. You shouldn’t have to worry about shipping and distribution for blueprints, yet so many do.  Because building plans, drawings and other crucial documents can stack up the gigabytes in digital form, it’s hard to send them electronically. As a result, many of these documents get printed out, packed up mailed to the recipient. The sacrifice is immense, turning a time frame of a few seconds into a few days, not to mention the added shipping costs.

Solution: Traditional methods of sending files electronically, such as FTP and email, won’t be able to handle huge AutoCAD drawings. But instead of settling for snail mail, use a file transfer software properly equipped for the task. Check out our FTP Alternatives page to learn more.

Insufferable Inspections

The hallmark of a successful building project is a well-built, safe and sturdy structure ready to serve its occupants with long-lasting enjoyment and utility. It is largely in the hands of the Inspectors to see that this is accomplished, and done so safely and within regulations. While inspections can often contribute to delays, we can take simple preparations to ensure we instead benefit from the Inspectors.

Solution: Don’t jump the gun, even on a deadline, and call in any inspectors too early. Ensure that you’re entirely prepared for the inspection before you order one. Use online resources; sharing files with inspectors on the web can shorten the process and ensure a timely delivery of the project documents.  Similarly, don’t schedule an inspection too late, giving yourself time to make corrections as needed.

Blundered Blueprints

If you’ve ever tried to construct a complex model, toy, or furniture piece without an instruction manual, you can understand how difficult it would be to build a structure without blueprints. That’s bad enough, but what if you had the instructions, yet they were incorrect and you didn’t know it? Your job would be even harder! Builders deal with this problem all the time, and it’s because they typically use FTP to collaborate on a shared drawing file.  With so many revisions and updates, and so many different users accessing and updating the file, changes get lost or updates aren’t tracked or they’re overwritten. It’s a nightmarish scenario for building crews, but it’s avoidable.

Solution: Don’t use FTP for collaboration on such crucial documents – it isn’t suited for that. Instead, use a collaboration software tool that is specifically designed to establish a trail of accountability and prevent overwrites while ensuring everyone has the latest version of every file. Transferring files using transmittals and submittals keeps things more tidy and gives you nice document history.

SOPA’s Last Death Rattle

While the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) endured a web-wide battering, most notably on January 18 with titans like Wikipedia and Google participating in the protest, the anti-piracy rallying rippled far enough to reach one of the biggest alleged offenders. 

On the coattails of defeat over legislation that would have threatened the very fabric of the internet, Anti-Piracy advocates celebrated a small triumph as Federal Prosecutors shut down behemoth file sharing website, Megaupload. 

Slaying the Download Dragon

Accused of costing copyright holders $500 million at the consequence of online piracy, Megaupload’s demise didn’t just coincide with the heated SOPA controversy. They were also trying to straighten up and fly right, trying to work towards cutting out the illegitimacy from the business. 

Despite putting their best foot forward, it was too little, too late for the download dragon. Upon visiting Megaupload.com, or any of its associated domains, you’ll be greeted by an FBI Anti-Piracy notice explaining the site has been seized and the responsible parties charged with crimes ranging from Money Laundering to Racketeering.  

Now What Do We Do?

The aftermath of the shutdown has left 180 million registered users without their go-to file sharing site, and many are now searching for alternatives. With the popularity of FTP, finding a new solution shouldn’t represent too many challenges, although FTP has its drawbacks.

To overcome those drawbacks, most are flocking to the growing array of FTP alternatives. When it comes to storing and sharing really big files, a Cloud-based system such as eTransmittal is much more desirable, especially considering the importance of speed, storage space and security. 

Building Momentum

As a fresh new year kicks off, full of opportunity, A/E/C companies are gearing up for a busy year. Apart from some amazing architectural exhibitions and record-setting building achievements capturing the attention of an industry recently, one big trend is picking up speed – ‘Green’ Building.

From EPA awareness efforts to green building blogs around the web, the topic of employing ‘greener’ standards in our building practices has taken center stage in a promising new initiative for the betterment of our planet.

Visions of Green

A growing number of enterprises, organizations and building firms have become enchanted by the progressive movement, yielding a promising upswing in the amount of resources and awareness on the internet and other media. Here’s a few of those we’ve noticed recently:

The U.S. Green Building Council: With its ambitious vision focusing on sustainability for buildings and communities, the USGBC anticipates it will contribute $554 billion to the U.S. GDP over a stretch from 2009 to 2013. With tons of resources and educational materials available on their website, and memberships reaching in the hundreds of thousands, USGBC remains a forerunner in the green building movement.

Construction Digital: Despite being first and foremost a construction industry magazine, the Construction Digital website offers a robust suite of resources. Among their offerings, a sub-section focused on green building standards, information and news stories offering fresh perspectives on the newest applications of eco-friendly architecture and construction practices.

GreenBuilding.com: From residential to commercial, greenbuilding.com offers a diverse, almost limitless array of tips, tools, resources and advice about green building. While energy efficiency (in both home and office) is a primary focus for the 30-year building industry veteran and website curator, David Johnston, he takes this invaluable resource above and beyond with myriad training opportunities, localized info guides (by state), and ideas that seek to carve out new frontiers in green building.

Participation Counts

Sure, we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s out there in terms of green building resources, and undoubtedly there will be more to come. The important takeaway from the trends we’re seeing in the building community is twofold:

Firstly, green standards and practices are increasingly imperative for building a sustainable community. Those employing cheaper, less eco-friendly operations are becoming the minority. Providing resources and awareness is a key implement toward progress.

Secondly, everyone must participate. Here at eTransmittal.com, we take pride in offering a software solution that provides greener alternatives for the vast array of file sharing operations that builders employ every day. We are doing our part, and we’d love to hear what you’re doing to jump on the big green bandwagon. We’ll be pointing out more outstanding places on the web as we strive to develop positive A/E/C community relationships, so contact us with your suggestions today!

Sending large files, such as CAD drawings, is a necessity especially in the architecture industry. Due to size restrictions with most email clients, finding a way to send CAD files over the internet can prove to be more problematic than it should be.

While the demand for sending large files quickly and securely continues to grow, many firms and freelancers are still employing methods that can reduce the quality of the transmittal. With all the investments of drawing software, AutoCAD tools and the hard work put into each drawing, no one should have to settle for sending lower quality versions.

The most common pitfall when searching for ways to send large files is to try to ‘beat’ the maximum file size limits by reducing the size of the drawing file being sent. Many writings on the subject exist on the web, and forums are abuzz with myriad tools and methods by which to shrink your drawing file down to a transmittable size. Upon closer inspection, most of those methods require a sacrifice of one kind or another.

Sending large files electronically will always be a requisite for anyone working with AutoCAD, so it’s easy for the wrong habits to become common practice. Therefore, it’s imperative to solve this problem the proper way – by using tools without size limitations that let you send the file you created originally, without any reduction in quality or size.

The information age has hastened the pace of many professions, and the A/E/C industry is no exception. At the same time, advances in technology have raised the bar for the standards of quality to be expected. We can no longer rely on the limitations of email and the insecurity of FTP to accomplish such a common – and crucial – task.

By using the right tool for the job, you exempt yourself from the headaches and drawbacks of squeezing your drawing files into emails and zip folders. eTransmittal software is specifically designed for architecture, engineering and construction firms to handle the simple, yet important, task of sending big files electronically. There’s no cost to try it out, and the recipients of the files you’re sending aren’t required to have the software. Don’t let a shrunken-down drawing file rob you of the impressions you can make on your colleagues and clients.

In an ideal world, transferring big files would not be a problem for business professionals.  If you are an architecture, construction, or engineering project manager and struggling to find an efficient, cost-effective way to  transfer big files, eTransmittal could be the solution you've been searching for. This SaaS (software as a service) product has features custom tailored for the exact functions you need for complete control over your documents and project collaboration.

Common Services

Etransmittal offers features that solve the problems you might encounter when trying to share large files electronically. Here are just a few of the offered services:

· Document sharing made simple

· Product and profit enhancing functions

· Tracking and security measures through email

· You can even get a free trial of the software if you just want to test it out

Plans & Pricing

FTP issues alone can prove to be a costly setback. Printing and mailing documents can easily sap away at your bottom line.  Therefore, subscribing to a file transfer software that does the job properly needs to represent value and a cost savings. eTransmittal has formulated plans that fit into business budgets with flexibility. The pricing is just right for the functions needed:

· Standard Plan: Unlimited Guest Accounts, 2GB of online storage, a contact management system and basic online support, starting at $29 per month (per user)

· Pro Plan—All the features of the Standard Plan, plus another 8GB of storage, branded transmittals and available discounts. Only $49 a month (per user)

· Premium Plan—This is an enterprise-level plan with all the features of Standard and Pro, a full 20GB of storage and custom features. Starts at $79 a month (per user)

How It Works

So how does eTransmittal work?  The web-based software leverages the Cloud to help you send, receive and track files faster than email, FTP, and certainly 'snail mail'... none of which are efficient means of sharing big files over the internet.

You get automated alerts upon submission of your transmittals to let you know the status of your document, and if there is a security issue, etransmittal.com will tell you about it.  You are made completely aware of everything going on with your document so it is searchable, trackable, secure and private.