IBM Announces Sterling File Gateway New Administrative UI: The Initial Release of the Next-Generation Interface for the B2B/Managed File Transfer Portfolio
IBM Sterling Data Exchange has introduced Sterling File Gateway 2.0 (SFG 2.0), with a redesigned administrative user interface featuring a modern look and several key enhancements that lay the foundation for the future of the Sterling software portfolio.
This release delivers a significant upgrade in usability, leveraging the IBM Carbon Design Language framework for a fresh, intuitive experience. The new organization hierarchy provides greater flexibility in structuring data and ensures separation between departments and their trading partners. Role-based access controls safeguard data from unauthorized access and empower lower-level administrators to manage their own business units.
Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is included in Sterling B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway version 6.2.2.0, which became generally available on December 18, 2025.
FAQ
General Questions
What is Sterling File Gateway?
IBM Sterling File Gateway is a Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution within the Sterling Data Exchange portfolio. Built on Sterling B2B Integrator, it enables organizations to securely exchange files with partners using multiple protocols, encryption methods, file naming conventions, and formats.
Sterling File Gateway streamlines information exchange and management across B2B relationships, helping organizations meet operational performance goals and maintain a competitive edge.
What is Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is a new version of Sterling File Gateway with a more modern UI and added features. The first Sterling File Gateway release that contains Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is Sterling B2B Integrator/Sterling File Gateway 6.2.2.0.
It’s important to note that v6.2.2.0 ships with BOTH Sterling File Gateway 2.0 and the legacy Sterling File Gateway with the older UI, because existing customers will likely continue to use the legacy UI for some time. More details for existing customers below.
Who is it for?
Any company that needs to exchange data with their trading partners (both internal and external) in a secure and managed way:
- B2B/EDI/MFT developers and administrators, solution architects, managed services teams supporting B2B integrations.
- Line‑of‑business owners and operations who need rapid onboarding of new trading partners or changes in workflows.
What are the enhancements made to Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
Enhancements include a variety of key areas that are critical to our customers:
Usability
· Fresh, modern look and feel with major improvements in usability utilizing the Carbon Design Language framework.
· Reduced number of screens and clicks needed for the most common tasks and use cases.
· Elimination of the need to go to the B2B Integrator dashboard to complete Sterling File Gateway administrative tasks.
Organization hierarchy and role-based access control
· Organizational hierarchy to define your organization structure in a flexible way and support separation of duties and separation of data.
· Enable line of business users to administer individual business units in the organization, managing resources and access separately from other departments.
· Granular control of roles and permissions at an organization or organizational unit level to provide only the minimum required access to specific users.
· Ability to generate reports at an organization or organization unit level or include statistics for an entire department within the hierarchy.
Onboarding flows
· Simplified onboarding wizard to guide users through creating all the necessary assets for a file exchange – users, partners, endpoints, routing channels, and templates.
· Ability to save and resume onboarding later without needing to start over.
· Assignment of more than one user to an endpoint for shared access to a common mailbox.
Dashboards and File Activity monitoring
· A dashboard that surfaces important information at-a-glance and quick links for easy navigation.
· File Activity landing page with high-level metrics on total arrived files, successful routes, failed routes, etc.
· Quick access to filtered lists of file transfers based on time range – last hour, last day, last week.
· Ability to drill down into transfer details – view events for arrival, routing and delivery phases of a file transfer, view replay, and redeliver history.
What use cases are supported in Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
· Onboarding:
o Administrators & internal partners
o External partners
o Assign roles/permissions
· Provision SFTP flows for:
o Initiating producer, Listening producer
o Initiating consumer, Listening consumer
· Create Routing Channel Templates & Routing Channels for:
o Inbound/outbound flows via SFTP
o Static or dynamic routing
o Native PGP encryption
o File layers, provisioning facts, special character handling, etc.
· Broadcast deliveries:
o Create partner groups to deliver files to multiple partners at once
· Monitoring & troubleshooting:
o Troubleshoot file transfers with File Activity dashboard
o Drill down into file arrival, routing and delivery details
o Replay/redeliver a single transfer or multiple transfers matching filter criteria
o Audit logs for authentication and authorization
· Reporting:
o Generate & export file transfer reports (by producer/consumer, datetime, routing status, etc.)
· Deployment:
o Import/export between environments
o Clustered deployments with on-prem VMs or containers
What are the new concepts I need to know about in Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
Organizations/Organization Units
An organization hierarchy is a new feature in Sterling File Gateway 2.0 that mirrors your company’s structure and provides flexibility for data separation and fine-grained access control.
The system is organized into:
Organizations (Orgs)
· Represent the business entity that owns this Sterling File Gateway 2.0 server
Organizational Units (OUs)
· Divide a business entity into smaller departments
· Can be further divided into smaller organizational units (sub-OUs)
Partner Organizations
· Represent external trading partners
· We do not know the internal structure of partners - Therefore, these are not broken down into OUs and sub-OUs in Sterling File Gateway 2.0
Endpoints
Endpoints are a generic representation of a source/destination of a file exchange; A set of configurations that allow an Org/OU to exchange files with a partner via a routing channel.
Endpoints can be a producer or a consumer (or both) of files and it describes the protocol connection & encryption details. I.e., a mailbox, an SFTP server, a C:D node, etc.
File Exchange Configuration
A File Exchange Configuration is a consolidated onboarding flow to configure a file exchange between two endpoints. It ties together sub-resources like users, keys, routing channels, etc.
For New Customers
Can I preview what Sterling File Gateway 2.0 looks and feels like?
Yes – see our online video demo
Can I use this in production?
Yes! For SFTP-based file transfers, this release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0 can cover all the major Managed File Transfer use cases and scenarios.
How do I learn more about Sterling File Gateway 2.0? How do I get started?
The best place to start is our documentation in the IBM Knowledge Center:
What’s new in Sterling File Gateway 2.0
Some tips to get started:
1. Once deployed and started, you will need to log into Sterling File Gateway 2.0 as the super user “fg_sysadmin”, similar to how legacy Sterling File Gateway is set up today.
2. As fg_sysadmin, create the organization hierarchy, defining what your company structure looks like, what departments will be sending files with their own set of trading partners so that they are kept separate from other organization units.
3. Assign at least one user with the Organization Admin role to the organization created. Optionally assign one or more users with the Organization Unit Admin role for any Organization Units created under the Organization.
4. These Org/Org Unit admins can now log into Sterling File Gateway 2.0 and begin onboarding partners, creating endpoints and monitoring file activity.
For Existing Customers
What about current Sterling File Gateway? Am I forced to use Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
In Sterling B2B Integrator/Sterling File Gateway 6.2.2.0, both “legacy” Sterling File Gateway and the new Sterling File Gateway 2.0 co-exist.
Using Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is optional. You are not required to move to Sterling File Gateway 2.0. You can continue to use current Sterling File Gateway as-is, with no changes to your existing deployments.
What happens to my existing SFG resources like partners, routing channels, routing channel templates, etc.?
Nothing – no changes have been made to the backend of Sterling File Gateway and deploying/upgrading to Sterling B2B Integrator/Sterling File Gateway 6.2.2.0 will not modify these existing resources.
Resources are kept separate between legacy Sterling File Gateway and Sterling File Gateway 2.0. Resources created in one system are visible/editable in that system only and not from the other.
· Resources created in Sterling File Gateway 2.0 are managed exclusively in the new UI.
· Resources created in legacy Sterling File Gateway remain managed in the legacy UI.
Can I try the new Sterling File Gateway 2.0 without committing to using it?
Absolutely!
Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is deployed and run separately from the rest of the application. Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is available as on-prem IBM Installation Manager (IIM) and container deployments.
Why is it only the “initial” release in 6.2.2.0?
Sterling File Gateway is a comprehensive application with many features. Sterling B2B Integrator/Sterling File Gateway 6.2.2.0 introduces the initial release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0, featuring a completely rebuilt administrative UI based on a modern framework and new RESTful APIs.
To deliver this release sooner, we focused on the most commonly used features that address the majority of customer use cases. This version establishes the foundation for future enhancements. Our roadmap includes achieving full feature parity with the current Sterling File Gateway and continuing to add new capabilities.
What are the limitations of the first release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
Currently only the SFTP protocol is supported in Sterling File Gateway 2.0. Other protocols that Sterling File Gateway supports today such as Connect:Direct, AWS S3, MQ/MQ FTE and custom protocols will come in a future release.
Other features that are not included in the initial release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0:
· Single Sign-On from the Sterling File Gateway 2.0 UI into B2B Integrator UI
· External login support: Sterling Secure Proxy, Sterling Secure Proxy w/ Sterling External Authentication Server, LDAP
· 4-eyed principle approval flow (multi-user approval of changes)
· External PGP encryption support
· Custom user roles
· Enable/disable user, clone user & bulk user actions
· Global Mailbox integration (onboarding, convert endpoint to GM, management UIs, file activity updates)
· UI branding/theme support
· File Activity advanced filters
· Restricting features by permission/role (replay/redeliver, generate report, branding, migration tool, etc.)
How do I get my existing SFG resources into the new Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
Migration:
Currently, there is no way to migrate existing Sterling File Gateway resources to Sterling File Gateway 2.0. A migration tool is in development and will be included in the next major release.
Creating new resources:
To use Sterling File Gateway 2.0, all resources—such as users, partners, routing channel templates, routing channels, PGP keys, and SSH remote profiles—must be created and onboarded in the new interface.
Managing resources:
Resources in legacy Sterling File Gateway and Sterling File Gateway 2.0 are completely separate. Items created in one system are visible and editable only within that system:
· Resources created in Sterling File Gateway 2.0 are managed exclusively in the new UI.
· Resources created in legacy Sterling File Gateway remain managed in the legacy UI.
What are the plans for existing customers using the current Sterling File Gateway to move to 2.0?
The next major release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0 is targeting feature parity with current Sterling File Gateway. See the list above in What are the limitations of the first release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
The next major release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0 will include a built-in migration tool that enables one-way migration of selected resources from the legacy Sterling File Gateway to the new system. After migration, these resources will be managed exclusively in Sterling File Gateway 2.0.
To simplify adoption, the tool will support migration on a partner-by-partner basis, allowing organizations to transition in phases rather than all at once.
Beyond this release, all new features, enhancements, and customer requests for Sterling File Gateway will be implemented in version 2.0
When will I get the next major release of Sterling File Gateway 2.0?
We are already working on it!
Tentative target date for General Availability is Q4 2026, but plans are subject to change.
Disclaimer: Statements by IBM regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at the sole discretion of IBM. Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for IBM products remain at the sole discretion of IBM.