The AWS Transfer Family is a managed service that enables file transfers to and from Amazon S3 or Amazon EFS using traditional FTP-based protocols instead of S3 APIs or EFS mounts. This is useful for businesses that rely on FTP for exchanging files with partners, customers, or internal systems.

Supported Protocols

AWS Transfer Family supports three file transfer protocols:

1. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – 🚨 Unencrypted (not recommended).
2. FTPS (FTP Secure) – ✅ Uses SSL/TLS encryption for secure file transfers.
3. SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) – ✅ Uses SSH encryption for secure file transfers.

👉 Key Difference: FTP is not secure, whereas FTPS and SFTP encrypt data in transit.

How AWS Transfer Family Works

1. Users connect to the AWS Transfer Family endpoint using FTP, FTPS, or SFTP.
2. AWS authenticates users using one of the following methods:
   • AWS-managed credentials (stored within AWS Transfer Family).
   • External authentication (e.g., Active Directory, LDAP, Okta, Cognito, or custom authentication sources).
3. Once authenticated, users can upload/download files from Amazon S3 or EFS.
4. AWS Transfer Family automatically assigns IAM roles to handle secure access to the storage backend.

Key Features & Benefits

✅ Fully managed – No need to maintain FTP servers.

✅ Highly available & scalable – Supports large-scale file transfers.

✅ Integrates with IAM & external authentication (Active Directory, LDAP, Okta, Cognito).

✅ Supports Route 53 for custom domain names.