In our unix/oracle shop we often transfer files between different systems
& databases using SQL for flat file extracts, FTP, and sql loader. Some
of our visiting consultants decry this as hopelessly outdated and advocate
using dblinks to access other databases directly. Most of in-house developers
think ftp is some black art, yet, it has worked fine for my project. My
experience with dblinks is not completely error-free. If there is a better
way, though, I'm willing to listen.

What is considered to be the "best" or perhaps most modern method of getting
data moved between systems? Most of our db's are Oracle on Solaris boxes,
and most of the data transfer occurs during nightly batch processes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike