Johannesburg, 12 Dec 2023
Sophos has addressed the complexity and challenges of offering managed cyber security services, with its Sophos MSP Connect Flex program, which lowers risk, increases margins and simplifies operations for MSPs.
This is according to Yash Mehta, MSP Channel Sales - Middle East & Africa at Sophos, who was addressing a webinar for South African managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs) this week.
Mehta said more sophisticated cyber threats, increasingly remote workforces and the need for more security solutions had increased complexity for MSPs. “Customers now require five or six layers of security on average. This brings in vendor sprawl, where partners must manage many dashboards, and different pricing and licensing models. And because many point products work in isolation, there is no sharing of insights across the environment,” he said.
Mehta outlined Sophos cyber security as a system – a complete system synchronised to predict and adapt to attacks using artificial intelligence, and easily managed from a single cloud-based platform. The Sophos MSP Connect Flex program enables MSPs to offer Sophos solutions and support, with control and management made simple.
With month-to-month consumption-based billing, and no need to commit for a period of time, Sophos Flex has no contracts or minimum quantities, and aggregated pricing tiers, he said.
“MSPs gain more control, better visibility, increased flexibility and best of breed products. You log into a dashboard, start creating customers and start assigning licences to them. This flexibility helps MSPs reduce their risk and financial exposure.”
He added: “The Sophos aggregate usage model also allows MSPs to lower their procurement price and pass on the benefits to even the smallest customers. There is no MSRP, allowing MSPs to set their own margins. You decide what margins you want to make. The more you sell, the lower the price and the bigger the margins.”
Mehta also highlighted Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) capabilities: “Sophos is one of the largest and fastest-growing MDR providers, with over 17,800 active customers – more than all other vendors providing these services combined. We have been rated as the top MDR provider by Gartner Peer Insights,” he said.
Sophos MDR offers 24/7 threat detection and response, expert-led threat hunting, an instant Security Operations Centre (SOC) and full-scale incident response. Sophos MDR is compatible with the cyber security tools partners and customers already have.
He noted that Sophos has a channel-first model, with neither Sophos nor distributors selling directly to customers.
To learn more, prospective MSPs can contact MSP.Sales.MEA@sophos.com
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