Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms is based on an assessment of a company's ability to execute and completeness of vision.
"Threats have become considerably more targeted and complex, IT budgets continue to tighten and IT teams are stretched to full capacity," said Steve Munford, CEO at Sophos. "As a result, businesses - regardless of size - are moving to feature-rich products that are also simple to manage."
According to Gartner: "Leaders demonstrate balanced progress and effort in all execution and vision categories. Their actions in advanced malware protection, data protection and/or management capabilities raise the competitive bar for all products in the market, and they can change the course of the industry. A leading vendor isn't a default choice for every buyer, and clients are warned not to assume that they should buy only from vendors in the Leaders' quadrant. Some clients, however, may believe that leaders are spreading their efforts too thinly and aren't pursuing clients' special needs."
The report observes: "Standard anti-malware signatures engines are rapidly losing effectiveness against the surging volume of new threats and have very little value against targeted threats. Non-signature based solutions such as HIPS and proficient operations procedures such as asset discovery, configuration management, vulnerability assessment, and software management, are needed as a means to help inoculate PC against unknown threats. Endpoint protection platform (EPP) vendors continue to improve data protection. Several added or improved full-disk and removable media encryption, content-aware data loss prevention (DLP), and device and port controls. Data protection strategies must include consideration of the role of EPP vendors in providing some or all of this technology."
"With our latest addition of data protection capabilities to Sophos Endpoint Security and Control, we are helping businesses tackle both the external and internal threat without overburdening staff, systems or their top line," added Munford.
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The Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner and is re-used with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders'" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Sophos South Africa
Netxactics, trading as Sophos South Africa, is a South African-based company focused on the provision of security solutions. It is the master distributor for UK-based Sophos, one of the leaders in the provision of network access control and endpoint, e-mail and Web security and control solutions for the corporate environment. For more information, visit Sophos South Africa at http://www.sophos.co.za.
Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises worldwide to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Our network access control, endpoint, Web and e-mail solutions simplify security to provide integrated defences against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, we protect over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with our reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognised for our high level of customer satisfaction, we have an enviable history of industry awards, reviews and certifications. Sophos is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and Oxford, UK.
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