What Is File Transfer?

A file transfer is the process of copying, moving or transmitting a logical data object between two or more computers either locally or remotely. It can be an upload or a download, and it can be initiated by the recipient or the sender. File transfer programs make it easy to upload or download files from and to the Internet as well as to a local computer or external storage devices such as USB flash drives.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and was first written as a white paper in 1971 by Abhay Bhushan, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). FTP works using separate control and data connections to connect to servers and transfer files. Users authenticate themselves with a clear-text sign-in protocol, most commonly a username and password. However, many public FTP servers allow users to connect anonymously.

An EFT or enterprise file transfer system (EFTS) is a dedicated hardware or software solution that performs file transfers for an organization. It can improve the scalability, reliability, auditing and security of file transfer processes. It can also reduce operating costs and provide greater visibility into critical transfer activities.

A data transfer rate is a measure of how much digital information will travel from one point to another in a given amount of time. This is often provided in units such as bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (KBps), megabytes per second (MBps) and gigabytes per second (GBps). Input the file size and the transfer speed into a data transfer calculator to determine how long it will take to move the file from a hard drive to a USB stick, for example. Share Links