Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT Reviews

We selected GoAnywhere to replace an on-prem custom-built C# ASP.net solution that we had inherited as a part of an acquisition of another company. We didn't want to maintain that solution in-house, so we searched for third-party providers that might offer some MFT solutions with EDI as a bonus. GoAnywhere checked all of our boxes. It was an easy choice in terms of costs, features, and support. 

Right now, I have three teams working with it: analytics developers, data engineers, and software developers. We're a pretty small house. There are four people in software development. The analytics team is supposed to have six, but we're currently at four. We should have two data engineers, but we now have one.

We have not yet implemented their FTP server. We own it but haven't installed it yet. We purchased the FTP portion of the software about six months ago because we were looking to replace our internal FTP solution. It was a project that we put on the back burner. After seeing the MFT product and how it performed, we felt pretty confident that we could migrate to their FTP platform as well. We were pleased with their support and performance on MFT, so it made sense for us to consolidate FTP into GoAnywhere.

One of the ways it has improved how we function is centralization, but that was somewhat of an unintended consequence. The initial purchase was intended to replace a specific application, but at least three other teams are currently using the application to move data internally within our network or to external providers. 

It has provided a layer of transparency across the business, particularly for our IT staff, allowing teams to see what others are working on. Even though I may not have worked on a package that interfaces with our buying software, I can see the packets out there. I can see who built the packet and what's in it. If they're not there and something goes wrong, we can troubleshoot across teams. It also creates opportunities for cross-training and cross-team support. 

I can't say that GoAnywhere's workflow features have eliminated any manual processes because the solution it replaced was already automated, so there weren't necessarily manual processes there. However, it has also allowed us to onboard other projects because the automation method is easy. 

It's hard to quantify the direct impact GoAnywhere has had on our operations because so much of it is behind the scenes. Our end-users just know that the data is flowing, so that reliability is something they won't notice. I also wouldn't say that it eliminated workloads per se because we merely moved from one system to another. But if we were starting with no automated solution in place, it would significantly reduce the workload. Of course, it would depend on the workload you're attempting to replace. From a monitoring and design perspective, it could potentially cut your workload in half. GoAnywhere hasn't helped us shift staff members to other tasks because we're a pretty lean shop, to begin with. Our plates are full regardless.

The user interface is highly intuitive, which has streamlined migration from our old solution. I say that with the caveat that we're a pretty technical house, so we have a reasonably strong skill set. When we were doing the demo, we took one project from the old system and got it running in GoAnywhere in less than 30 minutes. That says a lot. I've written queries and understand code, so I'm not a novice. I still think that's pretty impressive for a software product to be able to deliver a functional use case in half an hour.

GoAnywhere's workflow features eliminate the need for custom programs and scripts for file transfers, which was pretty critical, given the software we were replacing. While it was an internally built application, a custom script was written for each interface that had to be maintained long-term. So to convert those to a system that could build, maintain, and scale those functions out of the box was pretty critical for us.

There have been a few things that GoAnywhere couldn't handle. We discovered one recently that was beyond the scope of our original requirements. API functionality wasn't part of our initial unit testing because it wasn't necessary then. However, shortly after implementing GoAnywhere, two different vendors approached us to do API transactions. We checked to see if GoAnywhere could do this and found that it was supposed to have that capability, but it broke down. It completed the transaction, but it didn't correctly parse the JSON. Specifically, heavily nested JSON files break down when it attempts to parse the data.

There's a workaround. You have to reorganize the JSON file, and then GoAnywhere can read it. We went in a different direction since we didn't want to be hacking our solution. Their JSON readers aren't fully developed. When we implemented it, their EDI was in its infancy. We've been very successful with the EDI implementation, but there are a few pieces in their EDI implementation that are a little bit clunky. 

We had a meeting with them a couple of weeks ago because they're looking to advance that side of the product and wanted our input on what we would change in the EDI section. We gave it to them. It's an area they are looking to develop. I would recommend they continue to build in that space.

We purchased GoAnywhere about a year and a half ago, but we've only been actively using it for the last nine months. After buying it, we put off implementation because we were in the middle of a massive integration. We had about 67 different applications undergoing migration, so GoAnywhere just had to wait its turn.

So far, GoAnywhere has been highly stable. We've had minimal downtime, and the downtime we've had has been due to other system upgrades. For example, we upgraded our internal FTP server but neglected to open the firewall ports after the upgrade back to the GoAnywhere server. That's more of a systems issue rather than a problem with GoAnywhere. I can confidently say GoAnywhere has been up 99.9 percent of the time since we first installed it.

GoAnywhere allows us to continue expanding our data integrations because we already had a pretty robust integration across the board before we implemented it, and it continues to scale well. When a new vendor comes on board with new specs or a new type of connection, 99 percent of the time we can say that GoAnywhere can do that, and we start building out the implementation and the automation process.

We continue to grow, and we haven't seen any performance issues yet. We had a few problems with logs, but that was resolved in 20 minutes with a call to support about where we store our logs and how we make them more efficient. At this point, we probably have roughly 200 jobs running daily. Some of them monitor files, a folder, or an FTP site every five minutes 24 hours, seven days a week without any significant performance degrades.

The individuals who provide support are very knowledgeable about their product, and we don't go through multiple layers of support. We get answers fairly quickly, and it escalates to the right person quickly as well if needed. I would rate HelpSytems support nine out of 10.

Positive

The setup was very straightforward. Of course, we paid for training, but it's an intuitive application. The time-to-value was closer to a month. It took us about a month before we had value-producing projects running. 

Regarding maintenance, we maintain it in a hybrid sense. Because we're such a small shop, I and someone from the software development team have admin access to the servers, and so does our systems administration team. It's more like cross-training. The solution requires minimal maintenance. It is a solidly performing application, so we don't see a lot of issues or downtime.

The updates all go smoothly. When there's an update, we're relatively confident that we can apply this. We've gone through enough release cycles that we know a new release won't break stuff. We'll roll it out, and our software's back up 30 minutes later.

A lot of our data streams are revenue-related. We're sending invoices to customers so that they can automate payments. Often, that's contractually based but roughly 30 percent of our customer-facing business involves data integrations. Without GoAnywhere, we would potentially lose business if we couldn't meet the contractual obligations of data transfers.

We looked at four different products about a year and a half ago, and GoAnywhere came out on top. One of the solutions we looked at was Microsoft SSRS. We are a Microsoft shop, so that's one we looked at, and we checked out Azure Logic Apps. We also got estimates from a third-party software development company to develop a custom solution.

To make the final decision, we looked at a few factors. The cost was a big one for us. We weren't willing to spend a ton of money replacing this particular product. But the other one was what we call "feature completeness." Specifically, we needed to do managed file transfers with our vendor partners. We wanted to custom-build our queries using SQL and DB2, connect to various sources to generate files, and then transfer those files via FTP, SFTP, or any number of different connection mechanisms.

We also had some EDI that was a part of a different software implementation but super expensive. That ended up being a bonus of GoAnywhere. They had recently started implementing some EDI functionality at a much lower cost.

In its class, I'd give GoAnywhere MFT a nine out of 10. It does what it does exceedingly well. If you're implementing GoAnywhere, I recommend taking advantage of their support and training. It's excellent. Even if you already have a solid technical background, you'll have some "aha" moments just learning how they built the application. From my perspective, the cost of training is minuscule compared to the return. It gives you a good understanding of how the software works as well as how to build and troubleshoot workflows.

We use Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT solution to achieve file standardization through automated workflows. In this process, when a file is sent, it's first routed to an ICAP server. Think of a file transfer as simply moving a file from one location to another. However, in this case, instead of transferring the file directly, we connect it to the ICAP server first. This intermediary step allows the file to be scanned and sanitized before it's delivered to its final destination.

We implemented Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT to securely transfer and share files, as well as automate file transfers and processes.

GoAnywhere has significantly improved our data exchange security. It's now faster, easier to use, and more convenient than before. It has improved automation, visibility, and security.

GoAnywhere offers good visibility through its file transfer logs. This allows me to track changes within my organization, including who made them, what changes were made, and when they occurred.

GoAnywhere's automation feature has streamlined our workflows by eliminating the need for extensive coding, programming, or scripting knowledge. Its user-friendly interface allows us to create workflows simply by dragging and dropping components. Additionally, GoAnywhere offers a library of pre-defined workflows readily available for use. These pre-built workflows can be easily integrated into our workspace with a single click. While some workflows may require minor adjustments, such as specifying a CTPS certificate, link, or IP address, GoAnywhere significantly reduces the need for manual configuration.

GoAnywhere integrates with our existing IT infrastructure and systems. It also offers a feature that allows for integration with Outlook. This integration enables us to send files securely via email through a link. However, using the standard email attachment method does not provide any file protection. The Outlook plugin streamlines this process. Once installed, it provides an option within our Outlook interface to connect and send files directly from our mailbox. This eliminates the need to access the GoAnywhere platform separately, generate a link, and then send it – saving us valuable time and steps.

The training and portal videos familiarized me with the benefits of GoAnywhere. I believe someone new to the platform could grasp most of these benefits within a week or two, though not all of them in such a short timeframe.

The most valuable feature, GoDrive, requires an additional license. It functions similarly to Dropbox, providing a central location where all users can easily upload files. Once uploaded, the files are continuously monitored, encrypted, and inaccessible to unauthorized users. Additionally, GoDrive offers image-sharing capabilities. For instance, if we want to send a file to someone via email, we can enter their email address. Instead of sending the file through the exchange server, GoDrive generates a link. This link, when sent to the recipient, allows them to access the file with a single click. The link can be set to expire after a specific number of downloads or uploads, and we can even add a password for further security. In essence, GoDrive eliminates the need to use the exchange server for file sharing.

Fortra needs to offer more use cases for GoAnywhere MFT during training.

I have been using Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT for 2 months.

GoAnywhere MFT is stable.

GoAnywhere MFT is scalable. They have a 99 percent retention rate.

The technical support is good. Their development team releases new versions 4 times a year.

Positive

I deployed GoAnywhere myself and found it to be easy to install. It's the simplest product I've installed so far. The process takes less than 15 minutes. All you need is the installation file. You download it, and there are almost no prerequisites for running the software.

GoAnywhere uses a web-based console for management. You'll get an HTTPS link with an IP address to access it. You can then log in to your web console to manage GoAnywhere. Even deploying it on multiple machines is straightforward; there's an agent that simplifies the process.

GoAnywhere MFT delivers a positive return on investment, as evidenced by our extensive customer base.

I would rate Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT 8 out of 10.

GoAnywhere allows us to encrypt our data using either TGP or AES encryption.

Depending on the use case, one or two people are required to maintain GoAnywhere.

We offer GoAnywhere to a wide range of clients, from small IT shops to large banks with thousands of employees.

I recommend reading about all the additional features, such as GoDrive. You should also be aware that GoAnywhere is highly scalable.

We use it for SFTP and for hosted software that connects to it through the cloud. We also use the AS2 piece, although that is still in test mode. We move about 10,000 files a day.

We're a hospital and we use it for payroll, the pharmacy, and the cafeteria. And on the admin side, it extracts reports from a third-party location. We also have trading partners and we pass on public and private keys.

GoAnywhere connects to our Azure server. We also have some in-house servers that it connects to. We move files to the Isilon, which is a repository where we store a lot of files.

When we started out, we were a tier-three location. Now we are a tier-one. We started out with no more than about 150 or 200 jobs, and now we have over 1,000 jobs.

GoAnywhere's workflow features have helped us to eliminate manual processes. We had people manually running a job, but now that we have automated it, they don't have to do it anymore. They also don't have to waste time trying to write a program and testing it to see if it's going to work. They send us their requirements and we can code them and provide them with what they need. That gives them more flexibility. They can go on to do other tasks. And if they have to add something or change a filename, they don't have to go through the whole process. They just send in a request to us and that makes it easier for them.

For example, they can send us a request saying, "We need you to create a Secure Folder so that we can communicate and move files with a third party." We set that up and they just drop the files in there and they don't have to worry about whether the file they're trying to send is too large. It allows us to send PDFs. GoAnywhere has helped us to be more diverse than we were before.

It has also helped to eliminate unsecured file transfer methods. We used to use a lot of FTP stuff, and that was not too secure, but we brought in the SFTP and the PTP abilities. Some companies still insist that we use FTP, but we try not to use it. By using secured methods, we know the files are going out in a secure way. We know they're going to go through the firewall.

What we find valuable is that we are able to connect with vendors through SFTP. They are able to send us resource pieces and, when we connect to their side, we are able to transmit files. We can also manipulate the files and rename them.

Another valuable feature is the ability to use calls to run multiple jobs at one time, including recursive calls that go folder by folder and check each one before sending a file. 

We use the FTPS abilities a little and we also use the PTP features. 

In addition, as a company that works in the healthcare field, the main hospital-related software we use is Epic Systems. We deal with ambulatory care through GoAnywhere as well. The Epic side of it is on the cloud and, with GoAnywhere, we're like a "middleman" and we move files between it and other places where they need to be.

We also use the Secure Folders module and the Web Client a lot. For example, we set up external vendors to come in and review files or folders in a Secure Folder. That way they can go in and review whatever information or data they need to do. It helps us to keep in contact with vendors. It's helpful because we don't have to let them into our entire system. We can just give them access to that one folder. They can't add anything and they can't delete anything. We just set up the permissions the way the owner on our side wants them.

The intuitiveness is good. And anytime you need to reference something, you can punch it in on the web and it breaks it down for you, step-by-step. And if that doesn't help, they have a chat line so that you can communicate with them and they point you back in the right direction. And beyond that, they will bring support online and support helps you to resolve the issue.

Some of the description boxes can't be expanded. They're too narrow. You have to slide stuff over to see them.

I have been using HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT for about four years.

The support could be enhanced a little bit. I know they are pushing numbers, but when they ask you to tell them what your issue is about, and you tell them, they say, "Hold. Let's get you to support." If they knew even a little bit about it, what it is trying to do, that would take some of the pressure off the support side. If the first echelon of support could say, "Okay, you are trying to create a variable," and could tell you what you have to do, that would be good. Then, if you needed more help, you could go to the tutorial piece.

But if we need any help, they work on the issue and try to get things resolved. They reach out to you to make sure you have all the tools that you need to work with.

Before, everybody was doing their own programming, using SFTP server scripts for multiple servers. Everything was totally different. You may have had your way of doing it. I may have had my way of doing it, but there were no standards. Somebody wrote things in C#, somebody else in C+, and others in Python. They might end up with the same results, but when you had to troubleshoot somebody's work, you just couldn't understand the way it flows.

At one point our company had IBM Sterling Managed File Transfer but we got rid of that. We had bought a full package from IBM, but we weren't using all the components. We were just using one or two pieces of it. But we are using as much as we can of GoAnywhere and when they add more new components that just makes it that much more valuable.

The initial setup was relatively straightforward, but no solution is entirely straightforward. You always have to reach out to support for assistance, if you have never used the product or something similar to it. While it's pretty straightforward, there are times when you have to ask questions.

The whole process took about a day, although I wasn't here when they implemented it. As for me, I hadn't done any programming in 30-plus years, but it brought me back into it. They don't use that same language anymore; there's no more COBOL. It's a different world.

Over the time we have had it, and given the things we have been able to do with it, it has paid for itself. Using all the features it has saves the company money. We went from a small number of jobs to over 1,000 jobs. If it weren't a good product, we would never have been able to add to it like that. We would have tried to find another solution.

Our IT department and its director like it because we are able to manipulate things and produce what the third party or the vendor or the customer needs. We have gotten our money's worth.

They have an open-door policy. You can call them and they are willing to set up an appointment, come in, and show you what they have to offer and how it would be of benefit. It would be well worth your time to listen to what they have to say.

It's a good system, one of the best I've seen so far, and I've been out there on the internet, looking at different systems. They don't mind working with you and they don't mind giving you the software to test for 30 days. Once you get an understanding of it and you get the outcome, what you're looking for, it's good.

We can use almost any type of program with GoAnywhere, and it allows you to manipulate many things. We can use the C# side of it, and we use SQL and MySQL as well.

Our primary use case is file transfer between trading partners and internally to different applications on Windows, Linux, AIX, and iSeries machines.

We are running on Windows. 

In the past, scripts were written in Windows batch files and it was taking lots of time. With GoAnywhere, it is simpler and has more functionality.

The scripts can be written very quickly. With GoAnywhere advanced workflow, I was able to expand the scripting to include more features like emailing the log. I was able to send emails to the business unit that included what file was transferred and at what time.

Our old system used to take five minutes to transfer over 10MB of data. With GoAnywhere, it takes a few seconds. Now I can perform and schedule more FTPs than before and it takes fewer system resources.

The most valuable feature is the Advanced Workflows. It is useful for an open VMS system. With DOS-style batch files, it was long and difficult. With GoAnywhere, however, it was very easy.

With the Advanced Workflows, I can manipulate the date and send the file with an old date to the host. This is a great feature.

It has built-in zip compression as well as encryption features and we do not have to buy additional licenses for this functionality.

I also like the IP Filter list. It can protect the system from outside attacks using Banned IP addresses. It has very good security features.

With Web users, I can use the IP filter. It can be done with each user.

GoAnywhere integrates well with other products.

It sends an email alert if the process fails.

I think that this product has most of the features we require, although the license is expensive.

DNS support needs attention. If the hostname has a dash in it then it does not work. Without a dash being included, it works fine. This is something that needs to updated in the next release.

The shared mailbox support for OWA in the cloud needs to be improved. The shared mailbox does not have a password, and we cannot use it. If there is a password for it then it works well.

if you have host name with example aaa-fgju than in web user ip filter list the name aaa-fgju will not work. If you have host name fghhg1 then it will work. The agent is good feature but license is bit expensive. 

I have been using GoAnywhere MFT for more than six years.

It is very stable. We never experience downtime, exept during upgrades.

Scalability is very good. I saw only this level with high availability solutions.

Technical support is excellent. They are always willing to help and want to resolve the issue ASAP.

Prior to GoAnywhere, we used FTP Serv-U and FTP Voyager. FTP Voyager is a free product but the functionality is very limited. It was not able to meet our business requirements. As technology changes, FTP Voyager does not have good features for new technology.

It also has high CPU utilization because it was written for workstation OS. The interface for FTP Voyager was simple but very functionality-wise, it was too basic. There were lots of restrictions while using it.

 Everything was written manually. Lots of the time, we were not able to justify business needs with FTP Voyager. We needed a product that serves our business needs and found that GoAnywhere was the perfect one for us.

The initial setup was simple. It took only one hour to set up the product.

The product was implemented in-house.

It saves lots of time in terms of administration. With is product, I can perform other duties and it requires less intervention on a daily basis.

Licensing can be expensive and it depends upon which features you want to buy. If the license were cheaper then we would buy more features.

I have used other vendors and found that GoAnywhere was the winner in terms of price and our business requirements. In our case, it meets all of the business requirements.

This suitability of this product depends on business requirements.

For anybody who is implementing this product, I would suggest taking some time to learn Advanced Workflows because it is complex.

We are using it for Managed File Transfer and secure FTP and BGP processes for incoming and outgoing files. We also move data inside of the network using the GoAnywhere agent between servers, and we have also used the scripting capabilities of GoAnywhere for the change in a file's name and other things.

GoAnywhere MFT helps centralize the exchange of data between systems, employees, customers, and trading partners.

The interface of GoAnywhere MFT is good. It is easy to use. It is clear. The help is very good.

GoAnywhere’s workflow features eliminate the need for custom programs and scripts for file transfer. It is very important for us because normally when you receive the file, you need to perform a lot of work to be sure that you can deliver or integrate with the backend. It helps to have the capabilities for automation or manipulation of the files through the workflows.

GoAnywhere’s workflow features help to eliminate manual processes, especially processes related to encryption using BGP.

It is very easy to use. It is easy to create projects in a graphical environment. The configuration and the setup of the environment is very easy. In general, the use of the software is very simple. It is clear, and it is one of the best products. 

It is very simple to use, and it is powerful. The configuration is very flexible in terms of the protocols and algorithms for encryption and security configuration.

In some cases, the logs need deeper information. In terms of communication and checking, they need to go a little deeper.

In some scenarios, when you are in a cluster environment, the load-balancing capabilities of the gateway need to be improved a little. This functionality needs some improvement.

In general, workflow features are good, but when you need to use the transformation capabilities, there are some problems in terms of the way they manage the resources of the machine. There are some limitations in the size of the file, so the transformation capability has to be improved. 

I have been using this solution for 3 years.

Their support needs improvement. We have a partner, but we are not receiving a quick response. I do not know if the customers have the same experience, but in our opinion, it needs some improvement in terms of the response time. I would rate their support a 7 out of 10.

Neutral

We work with some IBM products, such as IBM Sterling File Gateway. In some scenarios, it is as powerful as GoAnywhere MFT, but it is much more complex to use and set up. GoAnywhere MFT is easier. IBM has an advantage in terms of support of Connect:Direct, which is a proprietary protocol. It is a very strong protocol. It is one of the differentiators of IBM.

Its deployment is very easy.

We are not making a calculation, but it depends on the kind of file you are moving. In some cases, if the file does not go through, you could have problems with the logistics, but I do not have a number for the return on investment.

It is very attractive. In terms of the capacity of the product and functionality, it is a good price. Considering its capabilities, its price is good. 

We know GoAnywhere has the capability to connect to popular ICAP servers, but we are not using any.

I would rate GoAnywhere MFT a 9 out of 10.

This is used in a virtual environment where a number of customers establish a requirement to send or receive files. The files are sent using SFTP and Zip with projects providing details to customers on when and what was sent. We send these files internally or externally. Other things the solution is used for is cleaning up data from sent or received files for projects and customers. The environment consists of Windows and Linux systems to which each customer presents the data to send or import.

The use of this product has helped improve our organization and its ability to send or receive. It has done this by allowing us to remove any homegrown process and centralize needed actions. It has helped consolidate these areas of action or homegrown processes to one location in a way that is workflow based. This workflow and central location of the process allows us to hinge at one area to understand where or what any issue or concern may be. Doing this can help or allow us to find areas to be resolved, if needed, or establish new ways of providing a product.  

I have found that the workflow process has a easy to use or viewable section which is key to this product. You have the ability to create the steps in a viewable, actionable area. Review these steps and set them up in an order that makes sense to the process you need. Along with this ease of viewing and ability to move things around you can validate those actions by placing them in a debug state. Here you can view and find your issues or concerns as the workflow and view are an asset for this product and valuable.

In using this product, I have not found many areas of the product or service that need to be completely improved. However, with any product, improvement of a service or product can always be reviewed. If one were to look to improve it:

1. Continue to look forward and listen to its customers. 
2. Improvement in support or product relies on being ingenious, supportive, and listening to its customer base. 

I have been using this solution for over a year.

The organization has ways to listen to its customers and providing that feedback is working as the company listens and provides support as applicable.

Yes, I used a homegrown software.

We are a healthcare company, and large employers and health plans will hire us to provide our services to their employees and members. They then have to send us files as to who their employees are, and we have to process them under the guidance of HIPAA. GoAnywhere is our file transfer platform for securely sharing health information.

The workflow features eliminate the need for custom programs and scripts for file transfers. The impact has been huge and has saved us many months of engineering time. GoAnywhere's workflow features have helped us eliminate manual processes and have streamlined our operations and made them more secure and repeatable.

We have been able to eliminate single-function tools or unsecured file transfer methods like email-based file transfers. Before switching to GoAnywhere, we had a lot of files being sent to us over email.

GoAnywhere has enabled us to allocate staff toward other work and has freed up engineering talent to focus on more important problems. We have been able to reduce the workload as well.

We like that GoAnywhere helps to centralize the exchange of data among our systems, employees, and customers. We wanted something that was scalable and secure and had a nice API, so we could automate the creation of new accounts and new directories and build a workflow around it. Every time we sign up a new customer, we can automatically create a setup for them. Some customers use a username and password, and others use a pre-shared key. We can build the workflow so that when we receive a new file, it alerts our application servers to go pick it up and process it. It is our one and only method by which we exchange data with our largest customers.

The user interface is highly intuitive; we got it set up and running within a matter of days. It is useful when support staff are trying to troubleshoot issues.

The comprehensiveness of GoAnywhere's workflow features is very high, and it has met all of our needs.

At present, HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT integrates with an antivirus solution, but it's a bit kludgy. It would be nice if the antivirus were built into the product so that it doesn't require integration.

We've been using it for four and a half years.

It's been very stable, and we have never had issues. It's stable enough that we give our customers a service level on the service that we provide with this solution.

For what we do, it scales perfectly. We haven't had any issues.

We use it for two or three different use cases, and it gets used every single day. It's mission-critical to us.

We're not adding any new use cases to it at present, but our use of it will grow as we assign new customers.

I haven't personally contacted technical support, but as far as I know, we've had no issues with it.

We previously used a homegrown solution and switched because we wanted something that would scale and that wouldn't require customization every time we signed up a new customer.

The initial setup was very straightforward and fast. We had it going and were using it within a matter of days.

The part-time effort of one engineer is required for maintenance of the solution.

We implemented it ourselves.

As for ROI, it probably paid for itself in the first two months. The license cost for the first year was roughly equivalent to two months of an engineer's salary. By freeing up engineers from creating customized solutions, it paid for itself immediately.

HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT is very reasonably priced for the value it brings.

Make sure that you fully spec out your environment and include all the servers, clusters, and features you're going to need before you worry about the price.

If you are dependent on file transfers for your business, there isn't a better solution. Don't waste your time trying to evaluate other solutions. I would highly recommend GoAnywhere and would rate it at ten on a scale from one to ten.

We have a lot of different files that we need to move from in-house to a vendor. While our online banking configuration is real-time, we upload files every morning to cover some aspects of that online banking. Customers also send us files and we pull them off of our secure servers and push them on to our core application vendor. In summary, our use case is almost entirely secure file movement: making sure a file gets from here to there.

We're running this as a cluster with four Linux platforms, two at our on-site and two at our co-location site. Always live. 

Our web development team wants to do source code management for change control of our executables. They are working right now on setting that up. GoAnywhere is the resource that handles movements from test to acceptance, and from acceptance into production. The reason we do that with GoAnywhere is that its logging capabilities, of all of the actions that have been taken, are exquisite, in my opinion, and I've been working in core for 40 years. If anybody wants to know if something did or didn't happen, I can point at a specific line in a job log that says yes or no.

It has also centralized the exchange of data. We used to use an iSeries to run our core operations. There was a job scheduler on it, and we used that to invoke certain GoAnywhere jobs to do motion. Since then, we've converted off of the iSeries, and because GoAnywhere can run on Linux or Windows platforms, we didn't need to do away with it. We could just move it. And we could also move some of the scheduling that we still had to do off of the Series and have GoAnywhere's job scheduler handle it for us. And that's what we did.

We used to use two or three other scripted FTP processes in Robo-FTP, where the operator would double-click on an icon on a desktop to do something. Those all got moved into GoAnywhere.

And its workflow features have very much helped us to eliminate manual processes. That has made our operations a lot smoother. We've had some staff changes. One of those staff changes necessitated our automating a bunch of functions and we're doing so and continuing to improve that automation. In addition, the automation of file transfers has helped to reduce workload by about one-third to one-half of an FTE.

In terms of handling more documents, we set up a lot of file transfers to the core application server of documents created in our bank's branch system. GoAnywhere supported all of that.

All of our internal, as well as external file transfers, are secured now, and GoAnywhere is what was used. We used GoAnywhere when we created the external servers to go from FTP to secure FTP and GoAnywhere supported that transition really easily. We were able to get rid of one internal FTP server after we did that.

The workflow features eliminate the need for custom programs and scripts for file transfers. It handles a lot of different things. We have gone into database programming, to some extent, with a few of our transfers that require a bit of translation between how they are when we pick them up and what they need to look like for where we send them. I'm looking forward to using that ability a little bit more.

Another nice feature is that you can invoke a native program from GoAnywhere. That helps you because you don't have to get fancy with agents. If a native program runs on the server that GoAnywhere is running on, like sed or perl, you can use it,

The intuitiveness of GoAnywhere's user interface is pretty good. The nature of job scheduling is that it can sometimes be really intricate, and difficult to see and understand. We've had learning on it, but the main person who supports it for us digs in and finds documentation that explains how to go about things. We'll then run some test jobs to make sure it works the way we think it's going to, and then we'll use it. In general, it's very intuitive.

When it comes to GoAnywhere's workflow features, there are a couple of areas where I'd like to get a little more consistency. The two aspects of scheduling that we use are scheduled jobs and monitors. And there's cross-capability between the two. We've done some philosophical thinking about when a function should be handled by a monitor and when it should be handled by a scheduled job. When a monitor invokes a project to accomplish something, that gets logged as a job. I've had a little difficulty figuring out where to look to see the monitor's activities itself, to see if the monitor is having a problem. 

For instance, if an account on a secure FTP server has expired, the monitor that uses that account doesn't announce to us that it's having a problem. I want to work with them on this to get it fixed.

Another aspect would be greater visibility into exactly what's happening. But part of that is because we haven't learned how to look at it. I still need to establish some training for my people who support this. We've learned a lot and done a lot with the documentation, which is pretty good, but some formal training would really help tie together a lot of the little tidbits of knowledge in our heads.

We have been using HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT for eight to 10 years.

I don't believe it was any fault of HelpSystems, but the service did stop working for a couple of hours one time. I need to check with them and see if there's a way to restart that says, "Go back and pick up the stuff that didn't run." In this particular instance, the number of things that didn't run was small enough that I could manually look at the schedule screen and figure out what needed to be run. Still, I'm wondering if there's a button I could have pushed that would have taken care of all of that automatically. If that's not a feature they have, that might be something they should implement.

Aside from supporting the occasional new needs, we don't have plans to increase our use of GoAnywhere.

Their tech support is pretty good in responding to us and in helping us to work through any issues that might crop up.

At times we've had some difficulty getting a point across, but I won't assign 100 percent of the responsibility for that to them. Sometimes we won't phrase things correctly. But they don't run away from us. They stick to it and figure out what's going on.

Positive

I didn't do the original deployment. It was done by some engineers who reported to me, and then our web developer did the current implementation of four Linux servers. But the original setup was pretty straightforward.

I have one guy who supports the servers but he rarely has to do anything on them. I also have one web developer who manages all of the jobs. It works out to 1.25 FTEs and that's because they're always looking at ways they can make these projects work better.

GoAnywhere pays for itself easily. It has saved us work and enables us to sleep through the night.

They were open-minded and they did what they could for us, in terms of cost, when we made the transition to GoAnywhere.

And when we migrated from the iSeries to Linux servers, HelpSystems carried forward the startup money that we spent when we originally installed GoAnywhere on the iSeries. We did not have to pay startup fees on the Linux servers. We got credit and that was nice of them.

GoAnywhere was on our radar before we got it. We knew of other options, but after seeing the demo for GoAnywhere, we saw that it does what we needed. I did do a small business case for it that included an examination of other options, but that was a long time ago.

I'm fond of this tool. I don't know how much of an opportunity I'll get to explore other aspects of GoAnywhere's services, but I like what it's doing for us. 

I would 100 percent recommend GoAnywhere to someone else who is looking for solutions in this area.