AWS re:Invent 2025 - Modernize managed file transfer workflows with event-driven SFTP (STG339)

Modernizing Managed File Transfer Workflows with Event-Driven SFTP

Overview

• The presentation covered how AWS Transfer Family and B2B Data Interchange (B2BI) can be used to modernize managed file transfer (MFT) and EDI workflows.
• Key topics included secure file transfer, authentication, storage, connectors, web apps, and event-driven EDI processing.
• The speakers highlighted trends in MFT and EDI, customer use cases, and new features and capabilities of the AWS services.

Trends in MFT and EDI

• Customers are looking for:
  • Secure and reliable SFTP and MFT in the cloud
  • Governance tools to track and audit data access
  • Simplified infrastructure management
• Emerging trends include:
  • Automation to integrate MFT with data pipelines
  • AI/ML readiness to enable innovative use cases
  • Hybrid access patterns for internal and external users

AWS Transfer Family

• Fully managed SFTP, FTP, FTPS, and AS2 servers
• Supports multiple authentication options:
  • Service-managed for simple key-based auth
  • Integration with AWS Directory Services
  • Custom identity providers with multi-factor auth
• Integrates with Amazon S3 and Amazon EFS for storage
  • Supports S3 Access Points and FSx for Windows File Server
• Provides VPC endpoints for secure internal access
• Offers SFTP connectors to connect to remote SFTP servers
• Includes Transfer Family Web Apps for non-technical user access

AWS B2B Data Interchange (B2BI)

• Managed service for automating EDI workflows
• Listens for file arrivals in S3, validates/translates EDI documents
• Writes transformed data to output S3 buckets and emits events
• Enables event-driven post-processing and integration with business apps

Modernizing MFT and EDI with Event-Driven Architecture

• Demo showcased a modern, AI-powered claims processing workflow:
  • Used Transfer Family for secure SFTP ingestion
  • Leveraged Guard Duty for automatic malware scanning
  • Employed Agentic AI agents for intelligent document processing
  • Integrated with DynamoDB for structured data storage
  • Provided web-based access through Transfer Family Web Apps
• Demonstrated how Terraform can be used to provision the entire solution
• Highlighted availability of Terraform modules for rapid deployment

Key Takeaways

• AWS provides a comprehensive, cloud-native platform for modernizing MFT and EDI workflows
• Managed services like Transfer Family and B2BI eliminate infrastructure overhead
• Event-driven architecture and AI/ML enable intelligent, automated processing
• Flexible authentication, storage, and access options support diverse use cases
• Terraform modules accelerate deployment and promote infrastructure as code

Customer Examples

• FICO modernized their MFT infrastructure using Transfer Family, reducing costs and deployment time
• BMW Group used Transfer Family to ingest camera data from production lines into S3 for analytics
• City of Los Angeles and Biscloud Experts helped customers migrate MFT to Transfer Family, achieving significant cost savings