Sterling Managed File Transfer

Introduction

Modernization of IBM Sterling Managed File Transfer (IBM Sterling MFT) is crucial to support business growth and protect against cyber threats as the digital world constantly transforms. Modernizing IBM Sterling MFT solution requires formulating and implementing a strategy to minimize risks and optimize efficiency. This blog details the phased rollout strategy in facilitating seamless change management for the modernization of the IBM Sterling MFT solution.

The Phased Rollout Strategy

The Phased Rollout Strategy offers a structured way to modernize IBM Sterling MFT, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum benefit. Breaking the implementation into smaller phases streamlines and accelerates the realization of positive outcomes.

A typical phase consists of collaborative planning, rollout, and realtime monitoring and optimization. This strategy ensures that each phase builds upon the successes of the previous ones, driving continuous improvement. The strength of this strategy lies in its repeatability. Once the initial phase is complete, the process can be repeated for future phased rollouts. Each iteration refines the system further, improving stability, scalability, and alignment with evolving business needs.

The Phase Rollout Strategy requires close collaboration between the Project Manager or Release Manager and the IBM Sterling MFT Architect to create risk-free phase rollout activities in the project plan.

A Typical Phase

1. Collaborative Planning: Identify the production activities suitable for a phase. Engage stakeholders to map dependencies (e.g., DNS changes, firewall requests, partner readiness, etc.), sequence the activities, identify the owners, and define timelines.
2. Rollout in Production Environment: Rollout of the identified production activities allows real-world validation without disrupting critical operations. Collect feedback from business and technical stakeholders to ensure any required adjustments are made. If time permits, create Ansible playbooks to automate the rollout using the native features of the IBM Sterling MFT product (e.g., command line, REST APIs, etc.).
3. Realtime Monitoring and Optimization: Upon live, track performance and quickly address any issues using the IBM Sterling Control Center Monitor, IBM Sterling B2BI Queue Watcher, IBM Sterling application logs, and Infrastructure tools. If possible, keep Ansible playbooks ready for immediate rollbacks in case of critical failures, ensuring business continuity.

Benefits Of A Phased Rollout Strategy

1. Minimized Risk: A phased rollout strategy reduces the chances of major disruptions during IBM Sterling MFT modernizations, ensuring smoother business continuity and minimizing downtime.
2. Scalability: Each phase of modernization builds upon the last, enabling incremental enhancements and flexibility to adapt IBM Sterling MFT to evolving business requirements.
3. Increased Stakeholder Confidence: The phased rollout strategy enhances stakeholder trust and satisfaction through more predictable and manageable updates.
4. Less Burden on the Team: By distributing the activities across phases, the team experiences a more manageable implementation process, reducing overall strain and improving the well-being of the team members.

Example Scenarios

1. Integrating SSP and SEAS with the existing SFG solution: This implementation can be divided into two phases, with one phase enabling the external partners to pass through SSP/SEAS and another subsequent phase enabling the internal partners to pass through SSP/SEAS.
2. Enabling SSH-Key-based authentication using SEAS: This implementation can be divided into two phases, with one phase installing/configuring SEAS in the production and another subsequent phase integrating SEAS with SFG and SSP to enable the partners for SSH-Key-based authentication.
3. Modernization of IBM MFT solution: This implementation can be divided into several phases, with the first phase focusing on a small set of pilot partners and subsequent phases migrating the partners in batches.

Please note the examples above are merely suggestions on how the implementation can be logically divided into phases for planning the change management. However, a comprehensive evaluation of both business and technical ramifications is imperative to delineate the phases accurately.

Conclusion

Given the opportunity cost associated with the commonly adopted big-bang approach in IBM Sterling MFT modernization projects for change management, a phased rollout provides a more effective strategy for modernization. Each phase leverages insights from the previous one, fostering continuous optimization and minimizing change risks. By embracing this phased rollout strategy, customers can modernize their IBM Sterling MFT systems with confidence, controlling costs while unlocking maximum long-term value and operational resilience.

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