Sophos has once again been positioned in the “Leaders” quadrant of Gartner’s latest “Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management”.
The quadrant is based on an assessment of a company’s ability to execute, and completeness of vision. Sophos is one of three vendors to be placed in the Leaders quadrant in this report, and the only IT security company to be positioned as a Leader by Gartner in three security Magic Quadrant reports : Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection Solutions (Sept. 2015), Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (Feb. 2016), and once again, the Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (UTM).
“Network security is a critical pillar in protecting against today’s sophisticated and persistent threats – and is one of the fastest growing market segments in IT security. Sophos’ continued recognition as a Leader in this Magic Quadrant validates its position at the forefront of this important and growing market,” comments Brett Myroff, MD of Sophos distributor, Netxactics.
“As a recognised leader in both endpoint and network security, and with over 100,000 customers in each segment, Sophos continues to deliver on its vision for a synchronised security platform that directly shares threat intelligence and the health status of all security products. This strategy achieves more advanced levels of protection for enterprises of all sizes – while at the same time being easier to manage,” he adds.
According to Gartner: “The Leaders quadrant contains vendors at the forefront of making and selling UTM products that are built for midsize-business requirements. The requirements necessary for leadership include a wide range of models to cover midsize-business use cases, support for multiple features, and a management and reporting capability that’s designed for ease of use.
“Vendors in this quadrant lead the market in offering new safeguarding features, and in enabling customers to deploy them inexpensively without significantly affecting the end-user experience or increasing staffing burdens. These vendors also have a good track record of avoiding vulnerabilities in their security products. Common characteristics include reliability, consistent throughput, and products that are intuitive to manage and administer.”
The Sophos network security business continues to grow faster than the market. In Sophos’ fiscal year ending 31 March 2016 reported billings growth was 27,5% in network security business which is well above the reported market growth of 7%. For the same period, the UTM and next-generation firewall (NGFW) business represented approximately half of Sophos billings worldwide.