Organizations with restrictive security policies may be unable to use FTP over port 1021 (or any other port) for file transfer to Sierra WebPAC, since FTP is an inherently insecure protocol. For the same reasons, FTP should ideally not be in use at all (even where permitted by the customer's organization) since it entails sending login credentials in cleartext which makes it subject to interception and abuse.[1]

Without FTP, the only alternative is to use Web Master within Sierra Desktop App to upload files to make changes to Live or Staging WebPAC screens.

If Innovative implements Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)[2] using port 22 then FTP-equivalent functionality would be available for those of us who cannot use FTP. Port 22 is already used for Admin Corner, so additional firewall configuration would not be required on the part of Sierra users.

SFTP file transfer capability is beneficial for a number of reasons, including scripted process automation in the context of Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD). For example, when using version control / source control management systems like GitHub, it would be very convenient to take advantage of an automated workflow "action" [3] to deploy WebPAC UI changes from a specific testing branch in the repository directly to "staging" via SFTP. Without SFTP, manual upload via Sierra Desktop App's GUI is required. With the addition of SFTP, the time and effort savings through automation could be substantial.

Ideally, key-based SFTP authentication would also be implemented for optimal use in automation rather than interactive, password-based authentication only.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol#Security

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_File_Transfer_Protocol

[3] https://github.com/marketplace/actions/sftp-upload