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AWS Transfer Family

  • Fully managed service for transferring files into or out of Amazon S3 or Amazon EFS using industry-standard protocols.
  • Supports multi-AZ, highly available, and scalable deployments.
  • Pricing is per provisioned endpoint per hour plus per-GB data transfer.

Supported Protocols

  • SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol)
  • FTPS (File Transfer Protocol over SSL)
  • FTP (available only within a VPC)

Authentication Options

  • Built-in user management (stores credentials)
  • External identity providers:
    • Microsoft Active Directory
    • LDAP
    • Amazon Cognito
    • Okta
    • Custom authentication systems

Use Cases

  • File sharing between partners or clients
  • Integration with CRM/ERP systems
  • Hosting and distributing public datasets

AWS Transfer Family – Architecture Overview

Flow:
  1. Users connect via an FTP/SFTP/FTPS client, optionally through Route 53.
  1. AWS Transfer Family handles authentication using internal or external identity providers.
  1. Once authenticated, access is granted to an Amazon S3 bucket or Amazon EFS file system.
  1. Access control is enforced via IAM roles.
AWS Transfer Family supports direct integration with enterprise authentication systems and enables secure, high-performance file transfers without managing infrastructure.