In-House FTP vs Hosted FTP

What’s your FTP solution? If you’re running own business, you want to be sure everything is working like a Swiss watch. The widespread belief that self-help is the best help often leads to doing things yourself and even considering deploying an FTP server yourself with internal resources.

FTP Budgeting

Be ready to start with the most important question: Do you have the extra budget to keep and manage the in-house FTP infrastructure? Setting up your internal FTP server will eat a big part of your yearly operating budget. Server technology needs to be online 24/7, 365 days per year. Your electric bill will increase from having hardware always running, not just when you are at the office Monday – Friday from 9-5. That’s only the beginning of the expenses you should consider when hosting an FTP server internally. We’ve made a list of costs you should consider (prices are approximate):

• $500 for a business class firewall to stop malicious attacks.
• $200 to $1000/month for a dedicated business-class Internet access package; or data center space.
• $2000 to invest in a good machine to be the primary FTP server, that would be enough to suit your business needs without a performance drop.
• $500 for a UPS battery backup, which helps to run a server for a couple of hours in case of power failure.
• $100 per month for 1TB of space for cloud storage backup.

You’re looking at a minimum of $3100 for hardware and services before you even get started. Once you add on monthly fees – you’re looking at quite the expenditure. Keep in mind, this list doesn’t account for keeping the server in a temperature-controlled room. Because your FTP server will always be running and generating heat that can cause failures due to built up heat, particularly in the summertime. You’ll need to consider cooling depending on the server location and enclosure if there is one. If you have highly sensitive data on your FTP server, so should consider the security of the physical servers themselves.

In-House FTP Responsibility

When you start building your in-house FTP server, you become responsible for everything. Let’s repeat that critical point; you become responsible for EVERYTHING. You have to purchase the hardware, choose and maintain the operating system, map your software needs, configure, deploy, and hope that everything is working properly after your setup. All these things require a huge amount of time, effort, and technical skills. From time to time you’ll need to upgrade hardware to keep up with expanding business needs. This includes needing more concurrent users, or resource requirements like purchasing new software.

With a hosted FTP solution, you are responsible for fixing any and all problems. As new bottlenecks and issues arise, you or your technical team have to make sure that everything on the server is running smoothly and updated. If you’ve decided to deploy internally, do you have a rescue plan when your FTP server goes down?
 Or what if your server gets hacked?

FTP server security is no laughing matter; any server can get hacked, even one managed by professionals. You won’t be safeguarded against DDoS attacks without an adequate firewall and other security measures in your configuration. So you’ll need to account for the extra time you’ll need to devote internally towards the discovery of new threats and issues on your in-house FTP server.

Hosted FTP Alternative

Of course, your business can run its physical FTP server, but nowadays the majority will have neither the adequate budget nor the internal knowledge to do this successfully on their own. Don’t take on this headache if you don’t have to; you can choose an alternative like a hosted FTP service such as ExaVault. With hosted FTP, you can replace your expensive to maintain in-house FTP server infrastructure. ExaVault is a secure managed service with highly professional support.

Benefits of using ExaVault’s hosted FTP service:

• You don’t have to purchase any equipment or server infrastructure.
• You don’t need to keep a primary server and backup server, along with other hardware incurring utility costs.
• You don’t need to employ technical staff with staff salaries.
• You don’t need to spend time discovering issues and maintaining your server.
• You don’t worry about security issues and the resolution, someone else is on it.
• You have the instant use of well-designed tools, built to support and manage your workflow.
• You have a support team to call when something goes wrong, or you just need help figuring out the correct permissions in admin.

Running your FTP needs with ExaVault unburdens you from complicated IT processes that spend your time, money, and human resources. Go to ExaVault’s hosted FTP page for more information and start your free trial today. You work on your business, and we’ll work on your FTP needs.

Ready to have your own hosted FTP server?