SFTP (and FTPS) protocol support for Azure Files
Exposing the SFTP protocol would facilitate a bunch of scenarios where today 2 VMs (with all the management overhead that implies) are required.

Thank you for the strong feedback on this request. We will share our plans for this in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience!
246 comments
-
Mike Lawson commented
This is insane not to already have. Device configuration backup/restore, 99% of EDI transactions, integrations between platforms, exports between systems, offsite archives of DVR footage, etc all of that and more rely on some varient of ftp. ftp/ftps/sftp is the backbone for data transports between dis-similar systems. You're leaving entire markets out because you don't support the most common data exchange protocols in use in the world, or forcing customers to run compute stacks for what very well could/should be a simple gateway service available to be backed by your storage services. It wouldn't be that difficult to develop and would be great feature.
-
Trey Morgan commented
We are interested in seeing this feature delivered. I just received a request from an internal team for ftp/sftp support.
-
anil natarajan commented
The product we build over Azure PaaS has the need to interface with legacy systems by means of secured file exchanges. SFTP will help address the same. Moreover HTTP may not be the right solution everywhere, esp on B2B scenarios involving flat file exchanges and batch job processing.
-
Anonymous commented
I am amazed by this commentary. "The need to support direct FTP and SFTP access to Azure Blob storage decrease over time as customers move to REST based tools that provide greater throughput and better security than legacy protocols. "
I know of 2 very large mobile telecommunications providers that only share data via SFTP with only some rudimentary RESTAPI access to the same data. It is much more economical for the data to be transported one time in a file rather than expose an api that allows services to consume at will from these data pools.
SFTP is not some ancient vestige of the past. It's a core method for moving around large chunks of enterprise data in B2B operations. Sheesh, know thy customer!
-
Anonymous commented
We have many customers with automated processes setup that involve involve pushing or pulling files from us via SFTP. The hassle of migrating those customers to a new endpoint on Azure will be tough enough, but to change the protocol may make the migration impossible, and we can't tell our customers that won't/can't support REST to just go away.
-
Pete M commented
We need both SFTP and FTPS for our clients. We would like to have storage to Azure, AD integration, automatic or scripted folder and user creation and an API for us to be able use an internal tool.
-
Sandeep Sarvankar commented
SFTP is most essential requirement for file uploading while working with third party vendors or clients. Looking for a solution on Azure.
-
Andrew commented
Fileshare for customers in a way they understand.
-
Anonymous commented
Much as you'd like everyone to be ready for the brave new world. A lot of clients take a while, especially finance here in the UK. SFTP would make life a lot easier and blob a lot more useful
-
AlexW commented
Same here, SFTP !
-
Bas Pruijn commented
I see the need for SFTP with lots of my clients
-
Anonymous commented
This would be great, i have a current small SFTP server up on an Azure VM for one client, there is no reason i should need to maintain that when something as great as FTP as a service could be implemented. I would use this feature day one
-
NEMY commented
SFTP makes sense for all of your clients and should have been a part of windows for quite some time rather than ftps. Both would be best for all, but both choices should be avaible today. I expected that this was there already and I'm shocked that I have to look 3rd party. Doing this through storage reduces the overhead on servers and makes it green.
-
Abhijit More commented
Integration SFTP like feature in Azure File Storage would be most awaited feature, mostly the folder level security for blob / file storage. Please look into it.
-
Hung Vo commented
We are in logistic, also stuck with SFTP with bunch of users using Linux builtin is a lot of works to do. If azure storage can support this native SFTP that would be great.
-
Alain Verpoorte commented
SFTP as a service to blob/files/ADLS would facilitate the data exchange between us and our partners. It will avoid to have vm's but also avoid that users and partners use any other means (dropbox,wetransfer,...) to share files.
Ideally, the PaaS SFTP should come with some firewalling capabilities to restrict IP's both ways.
Users should be identify against a security group in AAD or AAD B2C.
Once logged in, they should be able to see any storage that they have access to. E.g. : In case of ADLS, ACL will limit the local rights.
File transfer automation time or trigger based are also required. -
Craig R commented
Please add this feature. A good portion of companies are still stuck in SFTP land due to software and skillset limitations (i.e. they are not scripting or command-line savvy).
Furthermore, with SFTP support, we will be able to leverage the new Azure Data Factory v2 Event-based Triggers without "yet another complex hacky azure integration + vm + logic app + whatever".
-
Kenneth commented
We need to collect data from our building automation systems. We have approximately 500 systems that are to deliver data to a central storage. The only protocol supported is sftp for a lot of those systems. sftp access to storage in Azure would be great.
-
Chuck commented
SFTP is critical for integration with data providers that don't yet support cloud-based infrastructure or are unwilling to take 'special' steps to send their data to a third party. Please implement.
-
Nicholas Piasecki commented
Both! In Logistics a terrifying amount of data is flat files flung around over SFTP and/or FTPS. FTPS is advantageous because you can communicate with it directly in .NET, but the .NET Framework lacks built-in support for SFTP.