Sophos may be best known for its consumer and packaged security software, but the company hopes to pack an equally powerful punch with MSPs.
In fact, Sophos has recently added some 1,600 partners bringing its total to around 12,000.
Hoping to keep up the pace, Sophos just added two new channel execs: Kendra Krause will run the Americas and Karen Delaney will manage Australia and New Zealand.
Krause got much of her experience running channel operations for Fortinet. Delaney, meanwhile, earned her stripes at IBM, Acer and Dell/SonicWALL.
“At Sophos, every year is the year of the partner, but this year in particular has truly demonstrated our 'channel-first' commitment -- from hosting the largest partner conferences in our history to a game-changing new MSP program, our focus is our channel,” said Mike Valentine, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Sophos. “We offer partners the most complete IT security value proposition -- proven and award-winning security solutions that are simple to use, combined with the industry's most powerful channel program. And with an aggressive roadmap that features an impressive array of offerings, we're very excited about delivering partners even more value in the coming months to help them grow.”
Sophos MSP Play
Earlier this year, Sophos announced what it believes is a complete security partner solution for MSPs.
That’s why they call it Complete MSP Security, and it refers a partner program built around Sophos software.
The service that underlies the program has a pay-as-you-go pricing model.
The company wasn’t shy about extolling its virtues, claiming, “Sophos Complete MSP Security is the first MSP-focused solution to offer complete protection for networks, endpoints, and mobile devices from a single vendor.”
Sophos certainly isn’t new to the MSP space. It has an existing partner program that already serves that community.
Sophos already trains MSPs and claims an array of resources and tools to help this channel succeed, and help MSPs build their own brands in the managed security space.
The company also offers technical and sales certification training.
Partners are ready to roll. “What Sophos is doing with their new MSP program is cutting edge and will be a major game changer for the entire industry,” said Shane Swanson, COO of CharTec. “Having the ability to have a true pay-as-you-go offering for our UTM offering is exactly what we as MSPs have been asking for from the industry. And it’s extremely rewarding to know that Sophos is not only listening to their partners, but taking action on our feedback.”
Another partner is bullish on the all-in-one outsourcing approach. “Our customers want total outsourced IT security that works, which is what any pragmatic business wants,” said Dan Ingling, IT/engineering manager, Line Systems, Inc. “Previously, we were challenged with delivering custom-tailored services from multiple vendors.”
PowerNET has been an MSP partner for the last four years. “Our clients love Sophos’ pay-as-you-go approach, which sees their monthly fee increase or decrease depending on the amount of endpoints covered – as opposed to the old method of guessing how many machines they need covered over time,” said Cameron Price, PowerNET’s business development manager. “Our consultants love the Sophos MSP offering as they no longer have to monitor and manage multiple consoles across our client sites; that, coupled with the support offered by Sophos, is second to none.”
Edited by
Alisen Downey
