Boston Children's Hospital Selects Secure File Transfer
Boston Children’s Hospital, the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, is known the world over for its exemplary child patient care as well as for its groundbreaking research in pediatric medicine. With over 11,000 employees to support, the Information Services Department offers numerous solutions to meet their users’ varying information technology needs.
Challenges
One of the many IT needs of an institution of its size is the ability to securely transfer large files with other collaborating institutions. According to Scott Bolser, Messaging and Collaboration Team Leader at Boston Children’s Hospital, the limitations of their Web-based “homegrown” solution became apparent over time. “It didn’t scale properly,” stated Bolser, “And due to the existing architecture, there was a 2GB limit on file size.”
Solution
Realizing they needed to replace their old system with a more robust solution, the team at BCH learned about Secure File Transfer (SFT) through Gartner. “We were looking for a simple user-to-user and user-to-group ad hoc solution for securely sending large files externally,” says Bolser.
“We wanted to make it as simple and with as few clicks as possible.” Ultimately ease-of-use was the top selling point of SFT for Bolser and his team.
Other advantages SFT had over other systems included scalability, the ability to send an unlimited amount of data without incurring additional licensing costs, no file size restrictions and the ability to transfer—and automatically zip– entire folders of data.
Adoption by end-users was “pretty much immediate” and the initial feedback was that SFT was “quick and easy,” according to Bolser. “I don’t know of any major complaints which, in IT, is good feedback. People may not tell you when they like something, but they’ll sure let you know when they don’t,” he added with a laugh.
Results
Bolser sees SFT usage at BCH expanding over time as “people see how it fits their needs.” With the ability to handle packages of unlimited size and to scale to a growing number of users and uses, the possibilities with SFT are limitless.
Company
Boston Children’s Hospital
Industry
Healthcare
Headquarters
Massachusetts
Website
www.childrenshospital.org
The Problem
- Needed an easy-to-use ad hoc file transfer solution
- Limited file size capability with “homegrown” solution
- Wanted a scalable solution
The Solution
- Auto-resume and unlimited file size features led to smoother transactions
- Immediately adopted by end users for its ease-of-use
- Scalability provides plenty of room to grow