How to Send Large Files Securely: Acronis Mass Transit

Communication and collaboration are key to modern business success. Without them, you risk slowed business growth and reduced productivity. That’s why it’s such a shock when you try to send large files, vital presentations, and last-minute project updates to your colleagues only to receive an error message from your email service.

Unfortunately, even the most popular email services limit the size of files users can send and receive – Gmail allows up to 50MB emails to be received, 25MB to be sent; Outlook allows up to 20MB; Exchange only allows up to 10MB.

These limits were put in place with the best of intentions. If users were allowed to attach and send large files without any restrictions, email service providers would open themselves to a wide variety of security and service continuity risks. The trouble is that email attachment size limitations haven’t grown to account for the increasing complexity and sophistication of modern business.

These limits were put in place with the best of intentions. If users were allowed to attach and send large files without any restrictions, email service providers would open themselves to a wide variety of security and service continuity risks. The trouble is that email attachment size limitations haven’t grown to account for the increasing complexity and sophistication of modern business.

Organizations now generate, store, and rely on more data than ever before. At the same time, important, valuable files are now much denser – 85% of businesses are actively using video in their marketing efforts, for example. As a result, employees are constantly looking for ways to send large video files and submitting tickets to complain that they can’t send large files in Outlook and, more troublingly, finding solutions on their own.

There are a wide variety of guides designed to show your colleagues how to send large files via email or online using workarounds. There’s also a growing market of managed file transfer (MFT) solutions that enable file sharing regardless of size or media type. Unfortunately, many of these tools sacrifice data quality or data security – two vitally important considerations for a successful, modern business.

Only by balancing convenience and efficiency with privacy and security will your MFT solution enable you to send large files via email and over the internet while keeping your business productive and safe throughout the entire process.

Insecure MFT solutions are incredibly popular for two major reasons:

• Tools that can send large files are highly available
• Many of them are free to use (at least to a point)

Today, all an employee needs to do is Google “how to send large files over the internet” to find literally 395,000,000 suggestions. It’s easy to imagine why people would follow one of the first options that comes up, send the large files that they need to send, and get back to what they were doing – particularly if doing so can be done for free.

Unfortunately, using some of these easily found, commonly used tools to send large files can cost your business much more than lost productivity. Between technology unreliability, data quality compromises, and the rise of the EU’s GDPR and the data protection regulations that are following in its wake, these workarounds can cause much more trouble than they’re worth. In fact, Forrester predicts that class action lawsuits following data privacy violations will increase by 300% in 2020.

Even some of the most recognized and highly regarded tools for sending large files fail to meet the data quality and privacy requirements your business faces. Consider some of these options and the disadvantages that come with them:

Leading examples: Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox

Maximum file size: Ranges from 50 MB to 50 GB

How it works: Cloud storage services don’t exactly send large files. Instead, they store files and provide you with links and sharing options that can be transferred easily. For Google and Microsoft, these options are even more streamlined with integrations built into Gmail and Outlook, respectively – users can send large-file links in just a couple of clicks.>

How it doesn’t: Despite the convenience of these services, nearly all public cloud storage options suffer from data security gaps – unless they’re augmented by a separate cyber protection service like Acronis True Image 2020, Acronis Cyber Protect (formerly Acronis Cyber Backup), and Acronis Cyber Backup Cloud. Alone these services leave stored data open to cybersecurity threats and potential fees for regulation incompliance.

Leading example: 7-Zip

Maximum file size: 16,000,000 TB

How it works: File compressions services like 7-Zip make it easy to send large video files, dense folders, and more through a variety of compression algorithms. These methods significantly reduce the size of files to make them fit within email file size limits, encrypt the resulting .zip file, and allow the recipient to decompress the file when they receive it.

How it doesn’t: Unfortunately, the compression and decompression process can result in decreased video and audio quality, slower file sharing, and false flags from anti-virus systems, which often mark .zip files as potential threats.

Leading examples: Jumpshare, WeTransfer, TransferNow

Maximum file size: Varies between services and account types

How it works: File transfer services are designed to send large files over the internet, often for free. To accomplish this, services use a number of methods: some similar to cloud storage, others using third-party email tools to send large files online, still others offering apps and platforms to sync, share, and collaborate on a wide variety of file types and sizes.

How it doesn’t: With such a diverse field of file transfer services comes the risk of many downsides. These can include restrictive file size limits, unclear data retention and protection policies, and the issues that arise from having a purely online solution.

For modern businesses looking to stay both productive and secure, the downsides of these file transfer options pose a serious threat that often tends to outweigh the benefits gained by sending large files through them. As a result, many businesses search for an equally robust managed file transfer solution that doesn’t leave gaps in data protection strategies or data privacy compliance efforts.

Leading example: FileZilla, Cyberduck

Maximum file size: Varies depending on the hosting this.$isServer

How it works: File transfer protocol (FTP) services were traditionally one of the most popular ways for businesses to send large files. FTP uses a simple server and client connection to transfer files over the internet. These servers can be run publically or exist privately within your organization’s network – for many organizations, they still serve as the go-to way to store data on a separate server and send large files to colleagues.

How it doesn’t: To ensure easy, efficient file identification all files in standard FTP exchanges are insecure and vulnerable to modification, deletion, and criminal acts like theft and extortion. Some vendors now offer upgraded, secure versions of FTP clients and servers. Finding one that accounts for data regulation compliance, data encryption, transfer monitoring, and more can be a challenge, however.

Acronis Mass Transit enables your organization to send large video files, audio files, images, folders, and more through an industry-leading, enterprise-level MFT solution that balances performance, reliability, security, and ease of use.

Acronis’ solution is designed for the needs of modern businesses – those who can’t afford to waste time or resources on delayed, incomplete, or insecure file sharing. With it, any member of your team can send large files (from 5 MB to 100 GB) at speeds that are up to 20-times faster than traditional FTP tools. Throughout the entire process, your organization can rely on complete adherence to industry-specific compliance requirements, including HIPAA, SOX, and GLBA.

Acronis Mass Transit delivers the efficiency, security, and reliability your business needs to stay productive. Meanwhile, the solution saves valuable time and money that was traditionally spent trying to reliably send large files from one side of the office to the other.

See these benefits for yourself with a free trial of Acronis Mass Transit.