Sophos Placed as a Leader in Endpoint Security Suites Report from Leading Industry Analyst

Sophos  (LSE:SOPH) a global leader in network and endpoint security, today announced it has been positioned as a ‘Leader’ in Forrester Research, Inc.’s new report, The Forrester Wave™: Endpoint Security Suites, Q4 2016.  Recognizing that Sophos received the highest scores in the Strategy category, Forrester refers to Sophos Endpoint Protection as delivering “the most enterprise-friendly SaaS endpoint security suite.” The report cites that “buyers will appreciate its intuitive administrative interface along with the flexibility and scalability required for most enterprise deployments, both large and small.” Forrester also found that overall Sophos customers report a “high level of satisfaction with the product’s effectiveness.”

Forrester evaluated 15 vendors against 25 criteria and categorizes vendor capabilities into three core needs: attack prevention, detection and remediation. The report recommends that before purchase, customers should consider a vendor’s ability to specifically:

•         Prevent malware and exploits from executing

•         Detect malicious activity post-execution

•         Remediate and contain malicious activity and potential vulnerabilities

The report included vendors who have products with the above capabilities and have demonstrated an enterprise market presence with a high-level of interest for their solutions from enterprise customers.

In the report, Forrester also assesses a vendor’s strategy. Sophos scored a maximum rating across the board in the cost and licensing model, product roadmap and go-to-market strategy criteria. Forrester cites, “In a field crowded with both new and legacy endpoint security technologies, Sophos’ roadmap to develop strong signatureless prevention and detection capabilities…should make the product highly competitive over the long term.”

Key to Sophos’ roadmap was the launch of Intercept X, a next-generation endpoint security product that stops zero-day malware, unknown exploit variants and stealth attacks and includes an advanced anti-ransomware feature that can detect previously unknown ransomware within seconds. Intercept X installs alongside existing endpoint security software from any vendor, immediately boosting endpoint protection with signatureless detection. Intercept X is now available and more information can be found on the Intercept X website.

“This study assesses both traditional and next-generation security vendors against consistent criteria. The placement of Sophos on the strategy axis to the extreme right indicates to us that Sophos is taking the lead by adding next-generation technologies to our proven endpoint protection portfolio,” commented Dan Schiappa, senior vice president and general manager of the Enduser Security Group at Sophos. “I believe that our position as a ‘Leader’ in this report is a testament to Sophos’ continued ability to assess the dynamic security landscape and listen to our customer needs to develop effective endpoint security products that exceed expectations for protection and manageability. I am proud that our customers benefit from our industry-leading technology, our strategy for both on-prem and SaaS deployment through the Sophos Central cloud-based management platform and our ability to consistently bring innovative security products to organizations of all sizes.”