How do other managed file transfer applications work?
Unlike GlobalSCAPE WAFS, most vendor claims of “byte-level differencing” simply do not prove true in practice. Such applications often transfer the temporary and unneeded system files created by the operating system, in addition to the working file. If you measure the traffic, you see that they actually send more bits than the original file size. Those applications are targeted for LAN-based deployments—using it on the WAN was an afterthought. Conversely, the so-called “network accelerators” are built for the WAN, but they perform only compressed file transfers, at the time of file open, which is very slow and causes network spikes. Some will also keep a limited local cache on an appliance at each site. That design is really optimized only for Web-based applications. For distributed file sharing, however, that design is quite primitive and unworkable. Relying only on Common Internet File System (CIFS) optimizations and a limited cache to speed WAN file access makes no technical or prac
