The CISO’s worst nightmare has become increasingly common: your enterprise has suffered a security breach, and it’s a race against the clock to track down the source. Even worse, the culprit appears to be internal: a legacy file transfer solution that hasn’t been updated in a year.
Enterprises today face a complex set of customer demands, executive mandates, and regulatory requirements that can leave even the most experienced leaders feeling like they are the last line of defense.
They need highly available solutions they can trust.
But effectively securing your business-critical data exchange requires more than the right tools. A trusted partner helps guide your strategy with expert, end-to-end support.
What does “support” mean, anyway?
When you have data exchange challenges, it sure helps to have a partner who knows how to solve them.
In my role as VP of Global Technical Support at Axway, I have the privilege of leading a dedicated team that regularly goes above and beyond to help our customers thrive. We see and experience first-hand how picking the wrong vendor for the wrong reasons can end up being a horrible situation for everyone involved.
See also: 6 signs your EDI provider might be overselling their capabilities
This is why my team represents just one (albeit critical) piece of the puzzle. At Axway, we view “support” as extending beyond technical support to professional services, digital transformation Catalysts, managed cloud services, expert implementation guidance, user groups, customer advisory boards, and more.
The reality is software solutions are key to business success today. Being diligent in selecting the right technology partner will not only help address your immediate needs but set you up for success for years to come.
And when it comes to securing business-critical data exchanges, we know there’s no small supply of challenges enterprises will face in 2025.
Mounting regulatory pressures
In 2025, virtually every digital interaction falls under some form of regulation. From NIS-2 and DORA in Europe to CISA in the USA or ITSM and Essential Eight in Australia, the granularity of data governance that today’s enterprises require is mounting.
In highly regulated industries, a security breach now extends beyond the traditional concerns of lost business and customer trust – it has become a critical compliance issue.
As the Director of Platform Ops Security at one U.S. health insurer emphasizes, “We are custodians of personally identifiable information, and we need to keep that data safe at rest and in flight.”
Expanding threat perimeters and diminishing visibility
Where organizations once managed a well-defined network perimeter, they now face a sprawling ecosystem of cloud services, edge computing nodes, remote workers, and partner integrations – each representing a potential threat vector.
This expansion creates a perfect storm of security challenges. The volume of proprietary and sensitive data transfers has grown exponentially, with enterprises processing millions of messages monthly across thousands of trading partners.
The challenge becomes particularly acute when dealing with legacy systems. Many enterprises find themselves in a complex dance: they must rapidly integrate new business partners while maintaining connections with existing ones who may be operating decades-old systems.
See also: Legacy MFT Solutions Might Not Look Broken, But They Are
The solution lies in end-to-end security coupled with centralized visibility. Organizations need a single source of truth that can:
- Monitor data movements across all environments in real-time
- Provide instant alerts about potential security anomalies
- Maintain detailed audit trails for compliance purposes
- Offer granular control over data access and transfer permissions
But there’s one critical element that cannot be overlooked: the quality of support needed to execute this vision.
The support imperative for secure b2b file transfers
A secure data exchange solution with support from experts should be a given. And as I mentioned earlier, support needs to be a robust success ecosystem, not a service desk.
Unfortunately, many infrastructure vendors are cutting costs, resulting in risky technology and poor support which is often sent to a third-party resource that knows nothing about your business.
A truly strategic technology partner should provide:
Trusted advisors. Support means so much more than an outsourced call center. Do the people helping you implement the solution have a deep understanding of your business context? Can they help tailor solutions for specific use cases, or offer proactive guidance on security and compliance as regulations evolve?
Always-on experts. Are MFT or EDI experts available 24/7 when something inevitably comes up? Beyond tech support, does your infrastructure vendor have a proven track record of implementing solutions that resolve complex integration challenges?
Can they offer SLAs guaranteeing up to 99.99% availability?
Investment in excellence. Trusted advisors are nurtured through constant reinvestment in the employee base, to retain senior, experienced resources. This is the view we take at Axway, building relationships over multiple years so we can be true partners in solving technological challenges.
Global support. A truly global support organization maintains a follow-the-sun team of experts who are all accountable to the same standards and expectations, regardless of where they are located.
This makes for seamless handoffs between support teams, but it also helps break down silos: as the support team accompanies customers from the beginning of their journey, they can integrate their observations and customer feedback into the product’s roadmap and processes.
Real-world impact: HCSC’s journey to secure data exchange
With nearly a century of experience in offering peace of mind for medical care, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) is a licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in five U.S. states. The company provides health coverage options for employers large and small, individuals and families, and Medicare and Medicaid plans.
HCSC’s transformation illustrates the power of having the right partner. By centralizing and streamlining its mission-critical B2B integration and file transfer processes, the health insurer was able to:
- Reduce partner onboarding time by 50% (from one month to two weeks),
- Successfully manage 100% growth in monthly transaction volumes,
- Seamlessly handle 4.5 million messages during peak periods,
- Maintain consistent compliance across multiple state regulations.
Axway gives HCSC secure methods of transport such as SFTP, PGP and AS2, along with quarterly updates to stay current with the latest encryption technologies.
“Every time I’ve worked with Axway Professional Services during upgrades, the experience has been exemplary,” notes Corey Wegele, Senior Manager Security Platform Management at HCSC. “The team is readily available to field questions and calls, and whenever we encounter issues, we trust Axway to help us resolve them quickly.”
Mike Crowley, Director Security Platform Ops at HCSC gives an overview of their experience in the following interview:
Read the full HCSC case study here.
Building for the future with a partner you can rely on
Axway’s commitment to superior support stands as a key differentiator in the market. Our industry-leading SLAs and robust security measures are built on:
- Executive-level focus: Axway is led by a CEO with deep roots in customer support
- Organization-wide focus on customer experience excellence
- A proven track record of successful enterprise implementations
- A global support infrastructure with local expertise
In today’s complex data exchange landscape, having the right technology is just the beginning.
It’s time to move away from the reactive “break-fix” support model that many integration vendors are resorting to today, to something more holistic and proactive.
True security and compliance require a partner who understands your business, provides reliable support, and helps you navigate the evolving challenges of secure data exchange.
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