Every webmaster knows that in order to get their website up there and to alter pages etc they need to access their web host via FTP, which stands for File Transfer Protocol that is basically the language the systems use for transferring files. Pretty simple! For the majority of people FTP is a suitable solution for all file transfer needs and web maintenance tasks, but many would argue that it is not that secure. When you work with normal FTP, all your instructions and session information are public for all the world to see. This is of little concern to your average webmaster who is working with a hobby site or something else that is not confidential. The problem comes when people are looking to upload and work with sensitive information and files.
This is where SFTP can come in to secure all those FTP transactions, making everything your doing secure. Transferring files and data over an SSH connection is known as SFTP, which simply stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol. Many FTP client programs support SFTP but people often think they don’t because it is often simply referred to as SSH. This leads to a lot of confusion for amateur users who don’t know what the effect is of transferring data over SSH. More and more web based FTP clients are also allowing for SFTP connections through their servers.
In order to use SFTP, your web host must have it enabled for your account. Many low end web hosts do not allow SSH over FTP and so you can not secure your connection to the server when transferring files. This is why for businesses and individuals whose website is very important to them financially or otherwise, should invest in some high quality web hosting. For purely storage and remote access purposes, then an FTP hosting company that provides FTP over SSH is strongly recommended. FTP service providers are on the rise as remote storage becomes more and more popular, and secure FTP often comes as standard nowadays. SFTP is a completely new protocol that has been designed from the drawing board, and is not simply a mish-mash of FTP and SSH which is a common mis-conception. SFTP is also misinterpreted as simple file transfer protocol, which has nothing to do with being secure at all.
SFTP is much more versatile than the traditional SCP (secure copy protocol) method that can only transfer files, as opposed to the full range of operations that can be performed by SFTP such as the renaming of files and more importantly the resumption of interrupted file transfers, as well as many more.
If you are working with mission critical files that are vital to the survival of your business or bank account, then pay the extra cost for a secure file transfer service that is reliable and fast!