The Gately Report: Sophos MSP Partners Having Better Luck Talking to SMBs About Cybersecurity

Sophos MSP partners are having an easier time convincing SMBs that they need better cybersecurity, and they’re willing to pay more to stay safe.

That’s according to Scott Barlow, Sophos’ vice president of global MSP and cloud alliances. He said 2021 was a “phenomenal” year for the cybersecurity vendor.

Sophos’ Scott Barlow

“Sophos saw accelerated growth of MSP Connect, [and] introduced several milestone innovations in 2021, all of which strengthen the adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem, including Sophos Extended Detection and Response (XDR), XGS Series firewall appliances and Sophos Cloud Optix advancements,” he said. “[It also] made several successful and strategic acquisitions, including Refactr, Braintrace and Capsule8, and was named the highest-rated and most-reviewed Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Endpoint Protection Platforms. There’s a lot to be proud of, and we’re well positioned to continue building on this momentum in 2022.”

Last month, Sophos unveiled Sophos its Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) offering that fully integrates with its next-generation endpoint solution, Sophos Intercept X. It provides advanced endpoint protection and ZTNA with a single agent.

Sophos in 2022

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Barlow talks about what’s in store for Sophos MSP partners in 2022.

Channel Futures: Sophos just unveiled its Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). What will that mean for Sophos MSP partners?

Scott Barlow: We often talk about “trust nothing, verify everything,” and that’s exactly what this is going to do. Sophos ZTNA is going to remove the complexities of managing multiple vendor products and agents, incorporating that selling cybersecurity as a system by offering ZTNA to MSPs. We’ll be working on having ZTNA available to MSPs via a monthly subscription, but it is available for MSPs today. And I think there’s a really significant opportunity for MSPs to jump in. CompTIA did a study and they have a quote that 22% of MSPs do not have a zero-trust strategy. And this really opens the door for Sophos to be a leader in the MSP space.

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