The commonalities between SFTP and FTP end with the three letters in the acronyms. SFTP, unlike FTP with its passive mode and whatnot, is actually a decent protocol.
rickmb did not come even remotely close to specifying on which grounds he was asking his question. He might be a proponent of "if it's not automated [via capistrano/fabric/etc...] it's not deployed" for all I know.