SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is principally used for file sharing. In Imperial College it is commonly used as a way of collaborating with other universities and colleagues in the field who wish to exchange large amounts of data. Imperial College already has a cloud based SFTP service (through BOX), which will satisfy the majority of user’s needs. However there is a need for an on-premise solution for some cases.

These cases include organisations where Imperial College staff are in a location that blocks access to external file sharing servers/services. In addition it also makes it easier for collaboration to happen with certain sensitive locations (E.G NHS sites). There is also a number of external health data suppliers who want to use SFTP to transfer data, and require Imperial College to store the data internally (on-premise).

Technical Details:

• All users of this service will need to have an Imperial College user account.
• Users will need to have an SFTP client to connect to this service.
• Users (both internally and externally) will need to connect to the following location to use this service SFTP.IC.AC.UK
• Typically for most users they will connect as follows, sftp [IC username]@sftp.ic.ac.uk e.g. sftp joebloggs@sftp.ic.ac.uk
• After the users login they will be upload to their designated group area, where there will be a [Groupname]-incoming folder where they should place their files (or pull their files from if they are downloading it)

 Other Key Points:

1. Service will be resilient across two servers
2. For customers, it will provide encryption in transit and encryption at rest.
3. 100GB quota per group.
4. 10 day retention period with automatic deletions.
5. MOTD & Issue login screens to communicate with users regarding the service and also retention period.
6. Auditing of access will be enabled.
7. SFTP protocol only for ingress and egress of data.