A self-described “quiet software company” that has taken no funding while building a base of more than 200 enterprise customers over the course of 17 years is hoping to make some noise today with the launch of a version of its high-performance data transport software for the major cloud infrastructure platforms.

Data Expedition Inc. says its software provides a superior alternative to the ubiquitous file transfer protocol that is commonly used to send files over TCP/IP networks. Its proprietary Multipurpose Transaction Protocol, or MTP/IP, is patented file transport software that the company says automatically adapts to any network and maximizes the throughput potential of underlying network infrastructure. With today’s announcement of CloudDat, it’s bringing that capability to the cloud.

The 43-year-old TCP/IP was intended “for general purpose messaging, not bulk transport,” said Chief Executive Seth Noble, who developed the protocol as a Ph.D. student at the University of Oklahoma. Using it to send large files “is like filling a bucket with a teaspoon.”

MTP/IP is a purely software-based protocol built upon UDP (User Datagram Protocol), a TCP alternative that’s used mainly for low-latency and loss-tolerating connections between networked applications. It works at the application level without concern for underlying drivers, Noble said. “It’s able to automatically adapt to any network,” he said. “It can figure out in milliseconds how fast data should be moving.”

Performance relative to TCP/IP varies with the application but is typically about seven times faster, he said. The company claims CloudDat can support about 900 megabytes per second per instance and provides in-transit encryption. It’s available in the Amazon Web Services Marketplace as well as on Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud.

In a fortunate turn of events for Data Expedition, its software is integrated natively into Oracle Diva, a content storage management suite aimed at media companies. The integration came about through an earlier agreement the company had with Front Porch Digital Inc., which Oracle acquired in 2014. “When customers install Diva, our software is already built in,” Noble said. “It’s already the default choice for sending into the cloud.”

The software is licensed on a subscription basis with terms that differ depending on the cloud provider. Subscription licensing on Amazon starts at $1.50 per hour, with monthly and high-volume options available. There are no charges for volume, line speed, or client seat. On-premises perpetual server licensing starts at $3,000, or $5,500 if used with AWS S3 storage. On Google and Microsoft cloud platforms, licensing is currently perpetual-only. The company publishes details on its website.

Data Expedition said its customers include Amagi Media Labs Pvt., The Associated Press Inc., Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The Walt Disney Co., Lockheed Martin Corp, Proctor & Gamble Co. and Ricoh Co. Ltd.

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