Sophos Central brings synchronised security management to admin

Sophos has announced the next evolution of its cloud-based management platform with the release of Sophos Central. Sophos Central is an integrated management platform that simplifies the administration of multiple Sophos products and enables more efficient business management for Sophos partners.

This unified platform is an element of Sophos' synchronised security strategy to enable multiple security products to work together seamlessly with simpler management and better security.

The integrated security platform of Sophos Central has three core components: Sophos Central- Admin, -Partner and -Self Service.

Sophos Central-Admin, formerly known as Sophos Cloud, allows the IT administrator to manage all their Sophos products from one console, including endpoint, server, mobile and Web, with e-mail and wireless management coming soon.

Sophos Central-Partner, formerly known as 'partner dashboard', allows partners to manage their Sophos licensing, as well as identify and track cross-sell or up-sell opportunities with easy-to-use reporting. This tool also enables a partner to remotely manage end-user products without the partner needing to travel to a customer site.

Sophos Central-Self Service, launching later this year, will enable end-users to manage quarantined e-mail, self-service device provisioning (BYOD), as well the secure configuration of wireless access points and hotspots

"Many customers are crushed under an avalanche of security tools that are too complex to manage effectively. Sophos Central simplifies this for partners and customers by bringing their Sophos products into one management platform," says Brett Myroff, MD of Sophos distributor, NetXactics.

"The synchronised, real-time information sharing enables a faster response to incidents and improved security for organisations of all sizes," he adds.

According to the company, Sophos Central makes it easy for partners to manage their customers in addition to the ease of security management. This includes proactive management and tracking of their business, identifying and acting on revenue opportunities, managing customer security configurations and seeing all security issues on one dashboard. This can all be done remotely, which reduces the overall cost of business and allows rapid growth without demanding more and more expensive resources.