System performance is impacted by high volumes of folders/files and spikes in traffic at busy times. But if EFT Server went down, would your business grind to a halt?

Given the cost of failure, high availability (HA) is essential in today’s business environment.

The ‘active-active’ configuration, meaning multiple servers operating simultaneously, allows files to be transferred across more than one server. This load balancing eliminates down-time and keeps business processes running at busy times.

We are seeing increased demand for HA in the cloud in AWS, Azure and other cloud environments. There are several benefits to this set up:

• LOAD BALANCING

Your EFT event rules can work on both servers – if a large file arriving on one EFT instance has a negative performance impact, rules (and logins) can continue to work on the alternate server.

There are various options for load balancing. Traffic can be directed according to rules you set on the load balancing device. As an example, you could select from one of the following:

Round robin – Connections are directed to each server alternately;
Least busy – Connections go to the server with the least number of active connections;
Weighted – One of the previous solutions, but without an ‘even’ spread (for example, one server receives 75% of traffic);
Dedicated purpose – All traffic for a specific purpose or protocol is directed to one node.

• MIGRATION TO A CLOUD STRATEGY

Businesses are eager to reap the benefits of a cloud-based or hybrid infrastructure, such as increased speed of response and agility. Opting to host HA for your EFT Server in the cloud is an important step in your organisation’s cloud strategy without interrupting your current infrastructure.

• EFFICIENT SOLUTION DESIGN

Many businesses have a hybrid infrastructure, combining on-premise and cloud-based applications. Set up a cloud-based EFT Server to support the cloud applications and keep your on-premise EFT solution only for on-premise exchanges. This more efficient solution design will reduce traffic. You will save money too by reducing the costs associated with moving data in or out of AWS, Azure or other cloud-based environment.

• GEO CLUSTERING

Spreading your infrastructure across geographically dispersed sites – known as geo clustering – is important for business continuity. If your on-premise solution went down, your data would be routed through your cloud-based EFT Server, allowing business operations to continue uninterrupted.

 

Pro2col is offering a 20% discount on EFT Server licences for HA if booked by 13th December 2019. Please call us on 0333 123 1240 to arrange a quote, or complete the online form. This offer is specific to Pro2col. Alternatively please get in touch if you are interested in an active-passive set up for disaster recovery (DR). Globalscape is offering a 15% discount on standby licences.