Most data security professionals would say the most critical aspects of a managed file transfer (MFT) solution are reliability and uptime, high levels of security, and data flows that are speedy and efficient. However, I believe that reporting functionality—i.e., giving visibility into data flows, files, and other aspects of the system–are of equal importance. In this blog, we will take a brief look at this under-valued functionality using bTrade’s TDXchange as a representative MFT example.
TDXchange contains a thorough and extensive set of reporting tools which cover virtually every aspect of the application. These capabilities extend beyond what other MFT solutions offer, which typically provide only basic reports, if any at all. The various types of reports we provide are all conveniently located within the dashboard menu item and broken out into seven sub-menu items.
Additionally, these reports are not limited to a visual representation within the graphical interface of the application. Many reports may be exported to comma-separated files, Microsoft Excel, as well as Adobe PDF formats. The data may be exported and viewed in text format or as graphical representations such as pie charts and/or bar graphs. This makes it much easier to get the data where you want it, and how you want it, in as few steps as possible. Below is a brief outline of each report.
Messages – This dashboard displays metrics on the number of successful, failed, pending and total messages. These metrics are further summarized both by protocol (e.g. AS2, SFTP, SSH, etc.) and the specific adapter (e.g. Directory Monitor, AS2 Server 1, SFTP Server 3, etc.). The report is generated for the timeframe specified.
Transactions – This dashboard displays a graphical representation (bar graph or pie chart) of the messages count for the given timeframe. The graphical representation may be separated by days, weeks, months, or years.
Participants – This dashboard displays metrics on the number of inbound and outbound messages for each participant in a given timeframe. This is further summarized by successful, failed, or pending messages, if the file was inbound, outbound, and total count, as well as which protocol was used for each.
Mailboxes – This dashboard displays metrics on the number of mailbox messages received or sent for each participant and their mailbox(es). It is further summarized by the Participant Name, Mailbox Name, In/Out, Pending, Total Size, Last Logged In, and Status.
Certificates – This dashboard displays certificates which will be expiring within a given timeframe. It is further summarized by the Participant, Certificate Name, Type, Created Date, Expiration Date, Serial Number, Issuer, and Details.
Services – This dashboard displays the status of all services (e.g. FTP, SFTP, AS2, etc) that have been created. Each service may also be started or stopped directly from this dashboard. You can see the number of connected users for each service and may view the detailed logs for each as well.
Connections – This dashboard displays the details on the number of connections to other systems.
If you would like to see screenshots of various types of reports described above which are outlined in the TDXchange User Guide, or would like to see a live demo of this functionality, please contact us any time.