Companies’ core systems, business applications, and hosting environments all depend on the integrity of the file feeds they process — no matter the industry. When enterprises don’t effectively monitor their file feeds, damaged files can go undetected, and serious business consequences can — and do — occur.

This was the case for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during the crucial winter holiday season of 2022. A corrupt file found also in the FAA backup system ultimately led to thousands of flight delays and cancellations across the U.S. — and many unhappy customers.

The glitch, however, could have led to an even more dire outcome as the problem was in the central database, which also maintains Notices to Air Missions, which inform pilots of issues along their course and at their destination.

The system meltdown is a stark reminder for organizations that it’s critical to evaluate IT infrastructure to prevent known vulnerabilities like easily corrupted files. Monitoring to make sure files are where they need to be, and when, must be a key part of infrastructure to ensure the integrity of feeds — for anything from financial services companies to hospitals, says Rahul Kelkar,Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Digitate.

“The problem of not having the right files available at the right time, in the right format, and the right size is very legitimate, and it’s across most business industries,” Kelkar says. For example, in financial services, not being on top of file monitoring could lead to a delayed loan, a lost customer, tarnished reputation, and ultimately an impact on profit.

Feeds become more vulnerable as files move through an enterprise. Delays in file feeds, manual errors, or missing data could cause a glitch and impact businesses adversely.

Traditionally, enterprises have approached this issue by putting in place a file-watching tool to monitor file feeds. A missing file raises a red flag Multiple alerts might sound simultaneously, raising the risk that some go unnoticed. “This is not something that’s very helpful,” adds Kelkar.

“It’s very reactive and it doesn’t close the loop. The pain has already started by the time you get an alarm.”

Instead, companies need a more flexible, reliable, holistic, and streamlined tool that takes business cycles and seasonality into account. They need a complete, scalable solution that identifies an issue and remediates it before it becomes a problem.

“Just detecting is insufficient now,” says Kelkar. The ideal solution, he adds, is a closed-loop autonomous system.

Part of Digitate’s ignio™ suite, the AI-based Business Health Monitoring Solution for File Feed is a proactive health monitoring solution that checks the health of file feeds across the organization and automatically diagnoses and resolves issues.

A dashboard provides end-to-end visibility and insight across business functions and helps with early detection of issues based on historical events while prescribed or preventive actions improve the mean time to detect and resolve.

One Digitate customer in the financial space was struggling to complete key business processes when critical files weren’t delivered on time. With Digitate’s solution, they greatly streamlined how files are sent, checked, and received through various regions.

The dashboard gave the client a holistic picture and automated the process of detecting and remediating missing files. “Customer satisfaction went up, and they realized efficiencies,” Kelkar says.

In today’s rapidly changing IT landscape, file monitoring is vital to smooth business operations. Successful organizations have effective file feed monitoring with a closed-loop autonomous system as an integral part of their unified IT approach.

To learn more about Digitate ignio, visit Digitate.