For businesses dealing with large files that might contain sensitive information, sharing and sending these files can be a challenge. Attaching them in an email won't work if the receiving mail server rejects the files for being too large. If they contain sensitive health records or proprietary, confidential research, public cloud storage services are ruled right out. This is where secure managed file transfer (MFT) services shine as they provide businesses with a secure way to easily transfer files.
Accellion Kiteworks Business, which begins at $15.00 per user per month, provides basic data privacy controls, user management, and some mobile device management (MDM) features. Accellion Kiteworks Business can't match our Editors' Choice Citrix ShareFile Business for ease of use or our other Editors' Choice Globalscape EFT Cloud Services ($495.00 at Globalscape) for extensive features, but it delivers solid performance for a decent price.
MFT services do more than just send links to large files, as Hightail (formerly known as YouSendIt) does. MFT services also do more than just provide file storage, as Box does. MFT software comes with built-in file tracking tools to let businesses track where the files went and who opened them. It also lets businesses set limits such as expiration dates and the number of times the files can be downloaded. Accellion Kiteworks Business provides an Administrator dashboard that shows all of the files that were uploaded and downloaded to the system as well as all of the users associated with the account. The software offers reports that are fairly basic but useful for troubleshooting (for users who are having trouble with the service).
Accellion Packages and Free Trial
Accellion offers three different Kiteworks plans: Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise Connect. The entry-level Business plan, which begins at $15.00 per user per month, is limited to five to 500 users. Each user gets 1TB of storage and each file is restricted to 2GB in size. The Enterprise and Enterprise Connect plans have custom pricing plans so you'll need to call Accellion for exact pricing. These two plans remove all file size limits, storage quotas, or user caps. If you have less than 500 users but need to have file sizes of more than 2GB (such as media files), Accellion Kiteworks may prove to be too restrictive—or too expensive—for you.
Similar Products
Globalscape EFT Cloud Services
Citrix ShareFile Business
Linoma Software GoAnywhere MFT Standard
Coviant Software Diplomat MFT Standard
Accellion offers a 14-day free trial for the Enterprise plan but you are limited to just five users during the course of the trial. There are no file size limits but the storage quota is capped at 1TB. You don't have access to all of the features in the trial either, but you do have the file-sharing tools, automation, mobile apps, and integration with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Single Sign-On (SSO) tools. For this review, I looked at the free trial version of Enterprise; however, this review focuses only on features available in the Business plan. A credit card is not required for the free trial, which makes it easy to try the software and see if it fits your needs.
One thing to keep in mind about the Business plan is that it is purely cloud-based. All of the files being transferred are uploaded to and downloaded from public cloud servers. The Enterprise plan gives you the option of having the software entirely on-premises (much like how Linoma Software GoAnywhere MFT Standard (995.00 Per License at GoAnywhere) works), having it on a private cloud with a virtual appliance, or on a hybrid cloud, which takes advantage of local and public infrastructure. Citrix ShareFile Business also allows a hybrid solution but at a lower price point than Kiteworks.
Accellion Kiteworks Business can be useful if you have a lot of users who regularly send files to partners and clients outside of the organization. All you need to do to get started with the free trial is give Accellion your name and email address. Accellion then sends you the links to the Admin interface and the User interface (UI) for the public cloud, along with a password via email.
Getting Around Accellion Kiteworks Business
When you log in to the Admin panel for the first time, Accellion Kiteworks Business shows you an empty dashboard. It is very simple and, in fact, it may be a little too simple. I kept expecting to see menu options populate in the left area. Eventually, I figured out that the Person icon at the top is for user management, the Folder icon is for file management, and the Pie Chart icon is for reports.
Now let's talk a bit about the reports. The reports show you how much space each user is using, which is handy since Accellion does restrict storage if you are on the Business plan. You can also see how many files have been uploaded. The activity log shows information such as login attempts so that you can tell when someone is playing the guess-the-password game to break into an account. It's not highly customizable but is still an interesting insight for the IT manager.
The first thing I did was create some users to use this platform. The Users page doesn't differentiate between employees and clients in the way that ShareFile does. I just put in all the users who would be regularly accessing Accellion Kiteworks Business. I found the process to be much simpler than it was in Globalscape EFT Cloud Services or Citrix ShareFile Business. I just entered the email address and defined the person as a User (and not as an Application Administrator). Once the person was created in the system, I could click on the name and change the profile to be just a recipient, if needed. I could also reset passwords, suspend/delete users, and assign user policies.
There is a catch to the simplicity, though: You can't assign granular access controls. Accellion Kiteworks Business is all about profiles. The system comes with three profiles by default: Standard, Restricted, and Recipient. You can create other profiles with different levels of restrictions (such as file quota) as well.
Accellion Kiteworks Business has extensive Active Directory and LDAP integration but that is limited to the Enterprise and Enterprise Connect plans. For the Business plan, the controls are too basic. If you want flexibility in user access controls, Globalscape EFT Cloud Services is a far better option.
Accellion encrypts all of the files in transit as well as in rest on its servers. Enterprise users have the option of managing their own keys so that Accellion doesn't have access to the data. Until the recipient downloads the file, the files themselves aren't moving anywhere so you don't have to worry about copies of the files being stored on mail servers and other intermediary stops.
As a user, most of your time will be spent in the UI, which looks completely different from the Admin interface. The screen looks like most file managers, with a menu, a folder tree, and the main pane displaying all of the contents. The left-most sidebar is a menu, with options to display All Files, Shared Folders, Favorites, Recent Activities, and Mail. The final option, Move Tray, opens a separate pane displaying files which are being moved. When you click a folder in the folder tree, you see the contents of the folder in the main pane. It's intuitive because people are used to working in this kind of interface.
Sharing Files With Accellion Kiteworks Business
Accellion Kiteworks Business feels very much like Dropbox when sending files. In fact, like most MFT software, the files themselves aren't moving anywhere after being uploaded to the cloud server. To send files, you create a folder and assign users to the folder. Once you save data to the folder, the system automatically sends an email to the recipients with the link to where the file is saved. As long as you have the person added to the folder, every time you save something, that person will receive a notification. There is no formal Respond mechanism, although, provided the user has the correct privileges, the user could always add files to the shared folder.
Accellion Kiteworks Business offers a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, making sending the email seamless. To get SharePoint integration, you will need to have Accellion Kiteworks Enterprise. To work with other cloud providers or SSO platforms, you will need to have Kiteworks Enterprise Connect. I would have liked to see something like what Citrix ShareFile Business offers, where the link is sent to the user informing them of the location to upload the file.
Support, Integrations, and Management
Accellion Kiteworks Business is somewhat of a latecomer to the MFT party, but it makes up for the delay by paying attention to the mobile app. The Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps let you create files, synch copies with the server and the device, and send and receive files. MDM tools from MobileIron, Symantec, and Good Technology are available through Accellion Kiteworks Business, which can recognize devices and sync files with the account. If you decide later on that those devices should no longer have the files, you can just revoke the permissions. There are also connectors to third-party storage services such as Google Drive, SharePoint, Box, and Dropbox—but they are limited to Enterprise Connect users. It would have been nice to see this feature offered on the Business plan the way Citrix ShareFile Business offers it.
The fact that Accellion did not offer 24/7 support was a little disappointing considering that Citrix does. So, if you are the type to not want to wait until morning to get help, then you will find Accellion Kiteworks Business frustrating. There is an online chat but, when I clicked on it after hours, I was told it would send an email to the support team and I would receive a reply later. To be fair, I did receive a response well within 12 hours. There is also a toll-free phone number but that is also not available 24/7. Online documentation exists but the tool is straightforward enough that you really don't need it. Still, it seemed the documentation was a little lacking as compared to other services.
Securely and Easily Share With Accellion Kiteworks Business
Accellion handles all of the security considerations for Business plan users, but gives organizations the option to manage their own encryption keys for greater security (in the Enterprise plan). Compared to our Editors' Choice Globalscape EFT Cloud Services or the on-premises offerings such as Linoma Software GoAnywhere MFT Standard, Accellion Kiteworks Business is just taking baby steps. If you are looking for a product which mimics the workflow of how people already work, then Accellion Kiteworks Business will be appealing. It isn't as versatile as our Editors' Choices Citrix ShareFile Business or Globalscape EFT Cloud Services, and some organizations may butt heads against the file size requirements on the Business Plan, but overall, Accellion Kiteworks Business is a solid performer and well-suited for most businesses.
Accellion Kiteworks Business offers an easy-to-use secure managed file transfer (MFT) service with basic data privacy tools and reporting. The service is strongest if you are using a mobile device to access the files.
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