New PremierPoint Solutions White Paper Evaluates Using FTP vs. SharePoint Extranet for External File Sharing

Nashville, TN, July 15, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ​PremierPoint Solutions has released a new white paper that evaluates the choice of using file transfer protocol (FTP) vs. a SharePoint extranet for external file sharing via the Internet. The FTP white paper can be downloaded at PremierPoint Solutions’ website and is free.

Titled “Choosing an External File Sharing Approach: FTP vs. SharePoint Extranet,” the paper examines the dangers inherent in using FTP for transferring business documents with external parties. These dangers include security and scalability issues; reliability problems; and lack of control over documents.

Using FTP for file sharing and collaboration over the Internet is simply too risky. The possibility of compromised data, hacker attacks, performance issues and regulatory compliance violations make it a dangerous option.

Jeff Cate, President of PremierPoint Solutions

While the alternative—using SharePoint as an external file sharing platform—has a number of advantages, out of the box it is missing some key features that most organizations need to efficiently manage their extranet sites and users.

These important missing features are easily added by installing PremierPoint Solutions’ Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint Server and Foundation (ExCM), a SharePoint add-on that makes extranet use and collaboration easy and secure. The product also simplifies extranet administration.

“While SharePoint provides the capability of extranet collaboration, ExCM provides the tools to make it simple and practical to use and manage – turning extranet possibility into reality,” said Jeff Cate, president of PremierPoint Solutions.

SharePoint with ExCM is highly reliable and makes security bulletproof for users because the SharePoint farm administrator has complete control over where files are stored and how they are accessed.

In addition, SharePoint makes it feasible to create/edit/correct/add to a document without ever having to download it. All of this can be done while the document is stored in SharePoint, and it never has to leave the server.

With the appropriate infrastructure in place, SharePoint can be scaled to store and manage hundreds of millions of documents. Files can be accessed concurrently, and carefully designed architecture employing load balancing can mitigate performance problems. And, when used in combination with ExCM, SharePoint offers a plethora of auditing features, so that the administrator can know exactly what is going on with the company’s files.

“Using FTP for file sharing and collaboration over the Internet is simply too risky,” Cate cautioned. “The possibility of compromised data, hacker attacks, performance issues and regulatory compliance violations make it a dangerous option.”

Based in Nashville, Tenn., PremierPoint Solutions is a Microsoft Certified Partner and a nationwide leader in expert-led, in-person and online public classes on SharePoint products and technologies. The company’s software division offers professionally developed high-quality commercial add-ons for SharePoint.