Next-gen protection – cyber security as a system for MSPs

Hackers and malicious actors continue to prove that small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) are best suited for attacks. To get to these businesses, the attackers use a variety of tools and systems to gain access.

“Traditionally, managed service providers (MSPs) employ a range of disparate tools from different vendors to combat these threats. However, adding more tools and additional billing cycles dramatically decreases productivity and thus the overall quality of services,” says Ross Anderson, Sophos Product Development Manager at Duxbury Networking.

Sophos Central is a unified management console that allows MSPs to utilise a range of proven next-gen cyber security tools efficiently, without disparity. MSPs who use a single cloud-based management console realise immediate benefits as it allows them to be more predictive, adaptive and synchronised when applying security services.

Systems are defined by four key elements – central management, integrated components, automated action and extendibility. These four elements are what transform disparate point products into a system. The stronger each of these components, the stronger the system. A system with deep integration will outperform one with weak integration. “These same principles apply to cyber security when the aim is to protect and scale your solutions to your clients,” says Anderson.

Sophos Central is backed by the power of artificial intelligence and made even more robust with the inclusion of SophosLabs data scientists. “This team comprises cyber security experts that continually analyse the Sophos AI and machine learning models that increase the performance of Sophos products. The capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning models are able to decipher anomalies in IT infrastructure quickly and precisely. This allows MSPs to better protect clients by offering cyber security that can predict threats and attacks before they happen, allowing your clients to be much more resilient to a cyber attack,” says Anderson

Sophos Central is a highly intuitive single pane of glass dashboard that installs quickly. It provides a clear picture of MSP managed clients and their environments. With Sophos Central, MSPs can easily secure and report on client endpoint, server and network health (Intercept X & XG Firewall) while seamlessly deploying automated phishing e-mails (Phish Threat) and secure cloud environments (Cloud Optix). Beyond the control, MSPs also benefit from the visibility that allows them to easily cross-sell/upsell into accounts. This scalability and breadth of protection is unmatched in the industry.

Combining the efficiency of a centralised management platform with evolving AI models, Sophos Central gives you the benefits of one of the most intelligent cyber security platforms in the industry. Sophos Adaptive Learning capability allows the Sophos Central platform to communicate items such as application usage and threat data to Sophos. This intelligence allows the platform the adapt to the behaviours and actions of systems and users and provide much better protection from threats.

Sophos has pioneered a next-gen approach that utilises a patented Synchronised Heartbeat technology to share network and endpoint data. Synchronised Security is a revolutionary concept in cyber security that allows Sophos products to respond automatically to incidents. With Sophos Central, MSPs gain the full benefits of a synchronised cyber security system and are able to find threats faster, reduce remediation times with active investigation and secure clients confidently by minimising threat vectors.

“Sophos Central management console provides MSPs with the tools and functionality to secure clients while growing profitability. No other single security platform on the market today can offer the breadth of protection with full featured integrations, scalability and automation, all of which has been developed into this complete cyber security system designed for MSPs. To make implementation and usage even easier, Sophos Central integrates with multiple industry leading RMM and PSA vendors to complement your workflow management and automation. These integrations, plus the enhanced Sophos API, allow MSPs to offer next-gen cyber security without a lot of heavy lifting,” says Anderson.

Selling cyber security as a system

Many MSPs will include ‘AV’ as a checkbox under the base agreement to offer ‘security’. However, traditional low-cost AV solutions no longer fill the security need of businesses. “It’s a well-documented fact that most customers that suffer a breach have a difficult time recovering, or end up paying significant ransom to decrypt their files. When offering security, MSPs need to take a more holistic all-in approach, and offer cyber security as a system, removing the basic security components from the base agreement, and charging a premium agreement, whether standard or advanced, at a 50% or 100% premium above their existing base agreement. The cost justification is simple; to deliver a top-notch security offering, more sophisticated technicians are required, additional training and certification are prerequisites, and knowledge of deployment, configuration and management must be mastered,” says Anderson.

For more information, contact Duxbury Networking, (+27) 011 351 9800, info@duxnet.co.za, www.duxbury.co.za