OXFORD, UK – September 20, 2018. Sophos (LSE:SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint security today announced that it has once again been positioned in the “Leaders” quadrant of Gartner, Inc.’s September 20, 2018, “Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (SMB Multifunction Firewalls).” As one of only three vendors positioned as a leader, Sophos is positioned furthest for completeness of vision and ability to execute. Sophos is the only IT security company to be consistently positioned as a Leader by Gartner in both the January 2018 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms and the Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management.

“Introducing innovative technologies such as deep learning in the sandbox and synchronized security enables Sophos to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape,” commented Dan Schiappa, senior vice president and general manager of Products at Sophos. “We develop our cybersecurity products to work better together as a system, enabling our defenses to be as coordinated as sophisticated attacks such as the persistent SamSam ransomware. We believe that the continued placement of Sophos in the Leader quadrant in both the Endpoint Protection Platform and UTM Magic Quadrant reports, allows our customers to be confident that they are getting best of breed protection and a predictive, integrated solution that can detect, analyze, and automatically respond to even unknown threats.”

One of the most significant advantages of network and endpoint synchronized security is the level of visibility it can provide for network traffic. In a recent survey from Sophos, “The Dirty Secrets of Network Firewalls,” IT managers admitted that they could not identify about 45 percent of the traffic on their network, which presents a serious security concern. By enabling the firewall to receive information directly from the endpoint, XG Firewall can now positively identify all applications – even obscure or custom applications. In an average network, XG Firewall Sync App Control is able to identify 100-200 previously unknown apps, revealing hidden risks to network security. Sophos is the first vendor to deliver this level of visibility with the XG Firewall and Sophos Endpoint Protection or Intercept X.

Sophos’ portfolio of network protection includes the next-generation XG Firewall series and the SG UTM series.

One recent review of the Sophos UTM on the Gartner Peer Insights review site stated, “Sophos product capabilities fit our requirements and reduced the number of appliances performing different tasks from 4 to 1. The Sophos UTM provides firewall, web filtering, wireless AP management, remote site management, email encryption, AV / SPAM protection all in one appliance. It was a relatively painless implementation with an HA and fail-over between sites configuration. Sophos customer support was very helpful throughout the implementation.”[sic]

The review continued, “I have been a Sophos customer for over 20 years. The company is innovative and markets products that are leading edge in protecting the organization from virus / malware / ransomware etc. and provides the tools for the IT team to successfully manage end-users activity ensuring a safe and productive work environment.” [sic] (May, 2018).

Another customer who had recently upgraded from SG series to XG series of next-generation firewall commented on their experience with: “We’ve upgraded from a SG230 to a XG230. Both were well suited to the load here although the newer XG230 is not stressed as much as the SG230 in terms of CPU, disk, average load and memory. The XG interface is cleaner in that it is easier to read. After a month, I am still exploring but am able to find everything I used in the past. Firmware updates are more intuitive in my opinion.” The review continued, “As part of the entire suite of Sophos products in use we have a comprehensive, up to the minute security solution. 3 years on the SG series was a very good experience and the upgrade to XG gives me no reason to expect anything but staying ahead of the curve.”[sic] (August, 2018).

For additional information on Sophos UTM and next-generation XG Firewall solutions, please visit www.sophos.com/utm.

A complimentary copy of the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (SMB Multifunctional Firewalls) report, will be available on the Sophos website on Monday, 24 September, 2018.

(1) Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (SMB Multifunction Firewalls),” Rajpreet Kaur, Claudio Nevia, 20 September 2018.

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