Security has to be comprehensive to be meaningful to companies. It can be made simple, and is more effective as a system than a standalone technology, says a Sophos executive who recently visited Manila.
“Security is all about innovation,” says Gerhard Eschelbeck, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Sophos, as he announced that Sophos remains focused on innovation to simplify security technology.
Gerhard Eschelbeck, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Sophos
Eschelbeck said that complexity is the enemy of security and, thus, the company aims to make security simple for their customers and deliver it in a set of products that are easy to deploy and use. Sophos has products intended for endpoint protection, network security, server security, and cloud-based environments.
Responding to this need, Sophos has launched in the Philippines the Sophos SG Series appliances, a new generation of network security appliances.
Running on 4th Generation Intel Core processors, the appliance series boast of up to four times the speed of the previous UTM (Unified Threat Management) generation appliances. This brings flexibility and simplicity to security for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and mid-market organizations.
A Sophos survey conducted by Ponemon Institute to 2,000 respondents found out that insufficient budgets (42%) and lack of in-house expertise (33%) are the two main challenges SMBs are facing in maintaining their security posture. It was also revealed that many SMBs do not have a clear owner responsible for cybersecurity.
“SMBs in the Philippines increasingly ride on technology trends such as bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and cloud computing for productivity, while mid-sized organizations struggle with data overload and not knowing what security solutions best fits their needs,” said Eschelbeck.
“Such technologies introduce new attack vectors and security risks for SMBs and mid-sized organizations, as their security management and awareness remain nascent. The new Sophos SG series will prove to be a good return-on-investment, as it is not only affordable, makes up for their lack of IT expertise and saves time with easy and flexible deployment,” Eschebeck added.
The appliances, running on Sophos UTM 9.2 OS, feature over 150 enhancements including Advanced Threat Protection and SPX Email Encryption functionality. The 9.2 OS version can also be deployed on Intel-compatible PCs and servers and within virtual environments like VMware, Citrix, Hyper V, KVM and other virtual environments as virtual appliances and in Cloud using Amazon Web Services.
Tagged as the 6th generation of Sophos security gateways, the SG 1U appliances have models that cater to the requirements of small offices to distributed enterprises. Available in the mid-range 200, 300 and 400, these models deliver over 10 Gbit/sec firewall throughput to easily handle the demands of multi-layered protection.
Designed to streamline administrative processes for simpler and more effective security, the SG series use standard Intel technology to have them upgrade and benefit from future software enhancements. The series also include a multi-function LCD display for a quick status check, and performing basic administrative tasks on the appliance.
All appliances are fully interchangeable. If companies need to upgrade or expand their business, they can take their purchased modules and slot it in their new appliance.
“The new SG series appliances are the fastest and most flexible UTM and next-gen firewall devices we’ve ever produced, as proven in recent independent testing,” added Eschelbeck. “Sophos has been able to see dramatic performance improvements by unlocking Intel’s core processor capabilities to make fast, intelligent decisions.
The SG series 200, 300, 400, and 500 models are now available at Sophos authorized distributors and resellers, and 100 models will be available in October 2014.
Meanwhile, Eschelbeck announced that six months ago, Sophos launched Project Galileo, a cloud-based security platform that delivers UTM and endpoint protection as well as allowing all these products to communicate with each other to provide better security.
Eschelbeck said the project has the ability to integrate and share intelligent ideas to make better decisions, can make correlations and put devices in equal manner. It also has the ability to discover if the path is infected and provide complete protection in the system.
