Organizations increasingly rely on data to serve customers, drive decision-making, and power business processes. This data is typically stored in files, across disparate applications, databases, and local machines and must be moved across the organization quickly to respond to real-time customer demands.
Businesses have long used multiple file transfer protocols and mechanisms to move data for different purposes. They might employ FTP for file transfer between computers on a network, protocols such as AS2 for EDI, and APIs to exchange data between applications. Typically, they have had no centralized or integrated processes for these different types of data exchange.