APAC Utility Provider Ensures Reliable, Secure Data Transfers With Kiteworks SFTP

SFTP Challenges

APAC Utility Provider, a major power company serving millions of customers across the Asia-Pacific region, relies heavily on secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) to exchange critical meter readings and other sensitive data with its customers and partners. However, the company’s legacy SFTP setup posed several challenges:

• Strict change management processes meant it could take months to implement updates, putting data transfers at risk
• Inability to easily update SFTP keys across multiple customer deployments
• Poor communication around changes negatively impacted customer relationships
• Limited visibility and auditing of SFTP activities
• Time-consuming manual management of SFTP users and permissions
• Increasing pressure from internal teams to switch to an AWS SFTP service

Facing potential service-level agreement (SLA) penalties, loss of customer trust, and arduous administration overhead, the APAC Utility Provider knew it needed to modernize its SFTP operations. The company turned to Kiteworks and its revolutionary managed SFTP solution.

Kiteworks SFTP Solution

The Kiteworks platform provides the APAC Utility Provider with a centralized, simplified way to manage its SFTP infrastructure while maintaining the security, performance, and flexibility it required. Key capabilities included:

Self-service for the business: Kiteworks empowered the APAC Utility Provider’s metering business unit to manage its own SFTP folders, users, content, and permissions through an intuitive web interface. This freed up significant time for IT admins while ensuring the business maintained control.

Seamless continuity: The APAC Utility Provider was able to continue using its existing SFTP scripts without any rewrites, minimizing disruption and risk during the transition to Kiteworks. Customers experienced no change in their SFTP workflows.

Robust security and governance: The Kiteworks hardened virtual appliance protected the APAC Utility Provider’s SFTP data and metadata from threats. Granular policy controls enabled admins to manage user access, expirations, domain allow/block lists, and more. Comprehensive, real-time audit logs provided full visibility.

High performance and scalability: Built to handle machine-to-machine transfers, not just personal file sharing, Kiteworks SFTP could scale to meet the APAC Utility Provider’s data volume demands through clustering and high-availability options. This debunked the myth that Kiteworks wasn’t suitable for high-performance use cases.

Responsive service: With Kiteworks’ support team working closely as an extension of the APAC Utility Provider’s own team, the utility company could give its customers timely updates and quickly resolve any SFTP issues that arose, bolstering confidence.

Needs

• Strict change management hindering timely SFTP updates
• Difficulty updating SFTP keys across multiple deployments
• Poor communication around changes impacting customers
• Limited visibility and auditing of SFTP activities
• Time-consuming manual management of SFTP users and permissions
• Pressure to switch to AWS SFTP service

Kiteworks Solution

• Kiteworks SFTP centralized, simplified management
• Self-service capabilities for the metering business unit
• Seamless continuity with existing SFTP scripts
• Hardened virtual appliance for robust security
• Granular policy controls and comprehensive audit logs
• High performance and scalability for machine-to-machine transfers
• Responsive support team working closely with APAC Utility Provider

Business Impact

• Increased efficiency and agility in provisioning SFTP infrastructure
• Strengthened security and compliance posture
• Improved customer satisfaction through reliable, performant, and secure SFTP services
• Cost optimization and lower TCO compared to alternatives like AWS SFTP
• Future-proof foundation for exchanging critical data with customers and partners

Reaping the Benefits of Modernized SFTP

Modernizing its SFTP operations with Kiteworks delivered significant benefits for the APAC Utility Provider:

Increased efficiency and agility: Self-service capabilities reduced the typical time to provision SFTP infrastructure from months to minutes. Business users could onboard new customers, partners, and regulators and adjust permissions on the fly. IT maintains control of overall policies.

Strengthened security and compliance: Centralized policy management, at-rest and in-transit encryption, and immutable audit logs helped the APAC Utility Provider lock down its data transfers and demonstrate regulatory compliance.

Improved customer satisfaction: With more reliable, performant, and secure SFTP services, the APAC Utility Provider could consistently meet SLAs and maintain customer trust. Issues could be quickly triaged and resolved with minimal customer impact.

Cost optimization: The APAC Utility Provider achieved lower TCO with Kiteworks compared to alternatives like AWS SFTP. The platform’s automation and visibility features reduced ongoing administrative overhead.

Thanks to Kiteworks SFTP, the APAC Utility Provider now has a future-proof foundation for exchanging vital data with its customers and partners. The company has been able to simplify operations, strengthen security, and boost agility, ensuring it can continue to provide stable, dependable energy services across the region