The Files.com Agent is a small program you install on a server inside your own network. It lets Files.com reach storage that lives on-premise or in a private cloud — a NAS, a file share, an internal SFTP box — without your opening any inbound firewall ports. The Agent makes one outbound connection to Files.com and keeps it open, so traffic flows out from your network, never in. That outbound-only design is the reason security teams sign off on it.

Like any piece of software, the Agent needs updates: new releases fix security issues, add features, and improve reliability. Keeping it current across every server you run it on used to mean logging into each machine, downloading the new build, and restarting the service by hand. The Files.com Agent now does that for you. It can update itself, on a policy you set once.

How Automatic Updates Work

You pick how aggressively the Agent updates itself by setting one option, auto_update_policy, in its configuration file:

• Always. Install every new release as it ships.
• Critical Only. Install only the updates that address security, performance, or reliability problems. This is the default.
• Never. Turn automatic updates off entirely, for environments with strict change-management rules that require every update to go through a manual process.

Before the Agent installs any update, it cryptographically verifies the new build — it checks a signature to confirm the file is a genuine Files.com release and was not tampered with in transit. If an update ever causes the Agent to fail on startup, it rolls back to the previous working version on its own. You do not end up with a dead Agent and a 2 a.m. ticket.

Why It Matters

With automatic updates on, your Agents stay on the latest secure version without anyone logging in, downloading a build, or restarting a service. That means less downtime, fewer tickets, and one fewer recurring chore for the IT team. And because you choose the policy per your own change-management rules, staying current never means giving up control over when an update lands.

Automatic updates are opt-in, so you decide if and when to turn them on. Set the auto_update_policy option to your preferred value in the Agent's configuration file. Full details are in the Agent documentation.

The Platform Behind the Agent

The Agent is one piece of Files.com, the cloud-native File Orchestration Platform: one platform that replaces the stack of legacy tools IT teams run to move files — SFTP and FTP servers, MFT suites, file-sharing apps, and the custom scripts holding them together. It speaks every protocol, connects 50+ cloud and on-prem systems, automates every transfer, and keeps a complete audit trail of who moved what and when.

The Agent is how the platform reaches the systems that can't move to the cloud. Files.com runs your SFTP, FTP, and FTPS endpoints in the cloud, and the Agent extends that reach into your data center — so a partner uploading a file over SFTP can land it on an internal NAS, and a scheduled job can pull from a private share, all without exposing those systems to the internet. Self-updating Agents mean that layer keeps itself current the same way the rest of the platform does.

Once you've set your update policy, this could be the last Agent update you ever install by hand. The Agent takes care of itself, and you go back to managing your file flows instead of your software versions.

To see how the Agent connects your on-premise systems to Files.com, explore the On-Premise Agent, or start a free trial — no credit card, live in minutes.