Sophos has announced rapid global expansion of MSP Connect, an award-winning initiative designed to assist managed service providers (MSPs) in increasing client management efficiencies, unlocking new business possibilities, and increasing income. The growing demand for Sophos’ next-generation cybersecurity products and services that guard against ransomware and other cyberthreats is driving the expansion.
Through MSP Connect Flex, Sophos’ flexible monthly billing scheme, Sophos MSP Connect achieved 67 percent year-over-year billings increase in the first quarter fiscal year 2022, ending June 30, 2021, and 55 percent year-over-year billings growth in fiscal year 2021, concluding March 31, 2021. Since April 1, 2020, the start of Sophos’ fiscal year 2021, MSP Connect has grown to support over 16,500 global and regional MSPs throughout the world, a 54 percent growth.
“The world experienced a necessary shift to remote working this past year, requiring businesses to rely heavily on the cloud. MSPs have been on the frontlines since day one, helping organizations secure hybrid workforces with remote employees – a critical role considering changing attacker tactics, techniques and procedures(TTPs) that increasingly involve remote access services such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP),” said Scott Barlow, Sophos vice president of global MSP and cloud alliances.
Added, “MSP Connect makes it easier than ever for MSPs to secure diverse customer environments with one comprehensive cybersecurity portfolio that’s simple to deploy and manage.”
Sophos XDR, the industry’s only extended detection and response (XDR) solution that synchronises native endpoint, server, firewall, and email security, is now available through MSP Connect. As part of the Sophos adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem, a new open security architecture for protection, Sophos Intercept X with XDR and other pillar products – including Sophos Firewall and Sophos Cloud Security – share threat intelligence in real time for coordinated and automated response to threats. The ecosystem, which is built on a cloud-based data lake with the industry’s most comprehensive data set, is constantly improving thanks to the collaborative input of Sophos solutions and services, partners, customers, developers, and other security industry vendors.
MSPs can also take advantage of Sophos Managed Threat Response (MTR), a fully-managed threat hunting, detection, and response service that gives them access to a dedicated 24/7 security team that can quickly discover and neutralize sophisticated and complex threats. With over 5,000 customers, the customizable solution provides great growth prospects for partners and is one of the industry’s most extensively utilized managed detection and response services.
“We’re seeing unprecedented demand for integrated security solutions and services that better protect customers and enable partners to expand their business,” said Barlow.
Further said, “Sophos is constantly innovating, and we’re arming MSPs with the multilayered security needed for protection, visibility and compliance of on-premises and public cloud environments. Sophos’ new managed cloud security bundle, for example, provides everything MSPs need to extend their cybersecurity expertise to the public cloud.”
MSPs handle Sophos solutions and services through the cloud-based Sophos Central platform, which allows them to manage all customer installations, both on-premises and in the public cloud, respond to warnings, and track licenses and future renewal dates all from a single, easy-to-use interface.
“A customer recently became the target of what could have resulted in a devastating breach, but we were able to quickly stop the attack thanks to the Sophos Rapid Response team, which provided critical support in an extremely challenging situation. We’ve now made it a requirement for all ITConnexx customers to implement Sophos MTR, so that neither us nor our clients find ourselves in a similar situation again,” said Brian O’Shaughnessy, CEO at ITConnexx.
Added Brian, “The innovation behind Sophos XDR is another game changer in how we’re able to protect our customers from today’s most sophisticated threats with an all-encompassing holistic view of their environments.”
“The cybersecurity threat landscape is extremely volatile, and one of the biggest challenges we face as an MSP is in finding industry-best vendors that not only help differentiate our business, but more importantly ensure our customers are protected from the most advanced and never-before-seen threats,” said Bob Coppedge, CEO at Simplex-IT.
Also said,“ Sophos solutions and services provide the industry’s best protection, bar none. The enablement and education further provided through MSP Connect helps us create the bridge we need to communicate with executives – especially those who don’t always understand the intricacies of cybersecurity.”
