August 3, 2017

Traditional Managed File Transfer (MTF) systems have become outdated. Their limited functionality, accompanied by an inability to scale alongside larger business needs, has paved the way for a new Managed File Transfer workflow that boasts a microservices architecture with containerization.

In an MTF workflow built with RoboMQ, each of the functional components are microservices, depicted as hexagons in the figure below. The microservices follow task worker patterns and can be infinitely chained to enhance workflow functionality. The microservices are chained using AMQP based Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) that provides guaranteed delivery and tracks the metadata, or the progress of the file processing.

RoboMQ’s integration middleware provides comprehensive error handling, alerts, notifications and error analytics that are built out of the box. You can get an email, SMS or a phone call when any business workflow exception occurs. It can also create a case in the ticketing system like ServiceNow or Jira for the operations team to get engaged.

Since RoboMQ’s Managed File Transfer service is built on a state of the art microservices based Hybrid Integration Platform (HIP), there are significant benefits of the new architecture based on container, microservices, and hybrid clouds.

1. Docker microservices based components –

Each file listener, validator, transformer, and encryption/decryption components are all built as Docker containers. MFT thus inherits the advantages of container architecture like:

Auto-healing – Ability to automatically restart services in case of failures
Auto-scaling – Components can be scaled as needed based on load or the characteristics of the workflow. For example, if the transformation is costly in terms of the processing then more than one transformers can be run with only one of the validators and transfer in and out microservices.
Almost Zero deployment cost– Functional components run as self-contained autonomous execution units that reduce installation and deployment costs to zero.

2. On-premise, on-cloud or hybrid cloud –

MFT components can be run on-premise, fully on a public or private cloud or in a hybrid configuration where some components run on cloud and some on-premise providing the best of both worlds.

3. Expandable workflow –

New functionality can be added or chained to the existing workflow to provide new business feature sets. One example of such expansion is the recent addition of the Blockchain Hyperledger Integration with MFT

4. File to/from API integration –

The files can be integrated with REST, SOAP, JSON or XML APIs by breaking down file records to events or collecting events and dispatching them as files. These features open up possibilities to integrate older file-based systems with new generation cloud and SaaS applications.

In summary, RoboMQ Managed File Transfer service provides core file handling and processing capabilities that are built for the world of hybrid cloud and containers, allowing modernization by integrating file-based systems with SaaS and cloud systems with enhanced security, data transformation, and expandable functionality sets. For more information, you can visit our website or you can simply send us a message at info@robomq.io.