Building Protocol with SFTP

Are you worried, how to start your SFTP journey? Well, this is the need of the hour considering the increase security that SFTP provides. The process to switch from FTP to SFTPs is relatively easier than what it looks and can help you and your organization get increase amount of security for all your file transfers, especially considering username, p/w, range of ports, and files, all sent in plain text which is susceptible to some form of suspicious activity. This is exactly why SFTP can be a quick remedy as all sorts of username, p/w and files are encrypted using Secure Socket Shell (SSH) cryptographic protocol, which makes you secured and free from any hacking activity. For enhanced security, it is recommended to combine key-based authentication with usernames and passwords or SSH cryptographic keys.

Today we might be standing quite strong especially with our FTP journey practiced over a period of time and considering the easy desktop accessibility we have with the likes of FileZilla, WinSCP, or CyberDuck. However with SFTP, all we need is simply a click and rest the entire procession gets done. The one server port connection for transferring data can help build more security and compliance with firewalls. The process around SFTP does need some attention and processing at the initial go however the security and the compliance that it follows is worth performing the task.

Still worrying, what if we were following FileZilla or WinSCP to move files through FTP? The best is we can still use the desktop FTP client even if we migrate to SFTP. The process of setting the SFTP server may vary based on your operating system and desired destination of files. So to make it a guided process, try setting your desktop FTP client to your SFTP server, with two of the most popular FTP clients - FileZilla and WinSCP.

Process to connect FileZilla to your SFTP server are highlighted below. Similar steps can also be taken for Cyberduck, Transit, etc.

• Open FileZilla and navigate to File > Site Manager.
• Click on New Site and name it
• In the Host field, enter the public IP address.
• Change the Protocol field to SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol
• For password authentication, change logon type to normal. Also, enter the end user’s username and p/w into the respective fields.
• For SSH key authentication, change logon type to key file. In the user field, enter the username you created while deploying SFTP server. In the key file field, browse for the .pem file that you created when deploying your SFTP server.
• Click connect and you are done.

Now to successfully send the data warehouse request via SFTP, we need to follow the below processes.

• Need to obtain the authorized_keys file, you can contact customer care to obtain the details
• Log in to the FTP site with the same credentials (Data Warehouse request) once the file is obtained
• Navigate to the .ssh folder in the root directory, here you can place the authorized_keys file
• Now go to the Data Warehouse request manager, configure and then click Advanced Delivery Options.
• We now need to click FTP in the pop-up window and specify the ftp site via port 22. Including the sftp:// protocol is only permitted when using SFTP.
• We can now name the folder and then enter the same credentials discussed above. Once done, click SEND. 

Below process is what we need to follow to download files using SFTP commands

1. Using your company's assigned username, enter the following command: sftp [username]@[data center]
2. Enter company's assigned password
3. Enter cd [directory name or path]
4. To retrieve files, enter get*
5. Enter quit

So with this, we are now more clearer in terms of why we need to have SFTP over FTP as it offers more secure way to connect to the server and transfer information. Also, not much of efforts is required for the migration, rather you can simply launch an SFTP server and can connect easily to the desktop FTP client. 

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