Put your books down, class. It’s time for a pop quiz. Who knows what FTP stands for?
Free Tibetan Puppies?
Flossing Tackles Periodontitis?
&%$@ The Pistons!
If you guessed ‘None of the above’ or even ‘Geez, that last one seems really negative and I highly recommend some anger management tools’ you’re correct!
Sameer Waskar (red), Mahesh Digarse (light yellow), and Shreyas Moghe (dark yellow) work together to determine the appropriate emoticon for stoicism. Stop suggesting the eggplant, Sameer.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is commonly used for exchanging files over the Internet. FTP uses the Internet’s TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer. It uses a client-server architecture, often secured with SSL/TLS.
The parent CSV come straight out of the Student Information System (SIS). Most SIS systems offer a FTP upload option out of the box. This allows EdTech tools that rely on data such as rostering and grade information to do what they do. Securly is now among the EdTech products supporting the Sftp option for direct SIS exports.
Securly uses SFTP (FTP over SSH), a connection that requires a user id and password to connect to the SFTP server. It’s important to note that any user ids and passwords supplied over the SFTP connection will be encrypted, which is a big advantage over standard FTP.
How is it useful:
- Allows you to transfer multiple files as well as directories
- The ability to resume a transfer if the connection is lost
- The ability to add items to a “queue” to be uploaded/downloaded
- Many FTP clients have the ability to schedule transfers
- No size limitation on single transfers (browsers only allow up to 2 GB)
- Many clients have scripting capabilities through command line
- Most clients have a synchronizing utility
- Faster transfers than HTTP
So, there you go! Useful information about FTP, more detail about why Securly uses SFTP, and more acronyms than you could possibly stomach in a single sitting.
