Egnyte Beats Box.net and Hotfiles.com in Large Online Data Uploads Using FTP

Egnyte Inc., provider of cloud file server solutions, announced findings from an independent lab test showing its upload speeds for large data uploads using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) are twice as fast as Box.net and Hotfiles.com.

Leveraging Egnyte’s Cloud File Server solution over FTP, Frank J. Ohlhorst, director of ChannelTechCenter.com’s product testing labs, demonstrated that FTP is still the fastest way to transfer large and small files between two systems over distance.

Egnyte also surpassed milestones in adoption with more than five billion files currently stored in Egnyte’s cloud network and more than one million file operations (uploads/downloads) in a single 10-hour window.

FTP is one of many data upload/download options available on Egnyte’s Cloud File Server solution. From older technologies like FTP to newer file management solutions like Google Docs, Egnyte provides businesses with a complete file server with convenient ways to transfer files from local computers to the cloud. With Egnyte, companies have a solution that allows them to leverage the benefits of the cloud to securely access and share business information from any location.

"Now more than ever, businesses require anytime, anywhere access to critical business data, and that requires being able to quickly upload varying file sizes and types across networks," said Vineet Jain, CEO of Egnyte. "With Egnyte, we’re giving companies the tools they need to collaborate and work most effectively in today’s always-on world."

Re-Egnyte FTP
Egnyte is breathing new life into a traditional technology, making FTP a viable file transfer option – essentially transforming FTP into a new fast, flexible cloud service. Once the files are uploaded through FTP in Egnyte, companies can leverage all the benefits of the Cloud File Server, including central administration, folder based permissions, file sharing links and more. The integration of FTP and the cloud platform also enable file sharing in volume, a critical need in today’s fast-paced, information-dependent world as evidenced by the five billion files stored on Egnyte’s cloud network and the one million file operations over a 10-hour window.

Egnyte over FTP Rules Benchmark Testing
Lab Channel Tech Centertested against Box.net and Hotfiles.com – two file hosting services – and a Java-based version of the Egnyte solution, and found that Egnyte over FTP out-performed the other solutions and was two and three times faster in certain situations.

In one test, Egnyte over FTP uploaded an 80 MB file 30 seconds faster than Hotfiles.com and more than eight minutes faster than Box.net. As the file size increased with each successive test, so did the difference in speeds. Egnyte over FTP uploaded a 1 GB file in 26 minutes, compared to 47 minutes and 68 minutes for Hotfiles.com and Box.net respectively. As file size crept over the 2 GB threshold, Egnyte over FTP was the only technology to consistently upload the file successfully.

                    Comparison of Three Local Cloud Solutions

Lab Channel Tech Center’s benchmark tests measured the time it took to upload four files of varying sizes to each cloud-based service. The files were compressed and contained a mixture of video, audio, text, application and other file types. The files were uploaded to each service four times, and the average was taken to determine upload times.

"Businesses today need reliable, efficient and fast access to send large volumes of data over distance," said Laura DuBois, program vice president at IDC. "Organizations large and small can benefit by leveraging technologies that integrate well with FTP because it has the potential to deliver high volumes of files over the Internet."