Security company Sophos has co-headquarters in the U.K. and the U.S. Its network security products were derived from the acquisition of Astaro in 2011, but have evolved considerably since then. Sophos recently announced the acquisition of India-based Cyberoam, giving Sophos new geographic coverage, but with considerable immediate overlap in product lines. The Sophos UTM lines necessarily target SMBs. Gartner has observed Sophos usually scoring high where price is the primary factor and where Sophos products are already in place. Cyberoam is mostly seen on shortlists in India and nearby geographies.
Sophos is assessed as a Niche Player for enterprises, mostly because it wins over competitors in some selections based on some specific features, or because it has a very specific channel serving primarily the midsize businesses and smaller enterprises, or specific geographies. The Sophos and Cyberoam firewalls are available as an appliance or a software load.
Strengths
Surveyed users consistently comment on the ease of installation as a strong point. The Sophos UTM console scores very well in selections that Gartner has observed.
A free firewall is available in the "UTM Essential Firewall" edition; it includes firewall, network address translation, routing and Web GUI. The free edition runs on a PC, within a virtual machine or in the VMware vSphere Editions.
The Sophos blog has been a visible medium in the security ecosystem for establishing Sophos as a broader security participant, and Cyberoam has had a technical focus and depth of discussion on competitive performance that is popular with firewall buyers.
Sophos' endpoint product customers can have the same vendor provide them with their network firewall solution.
Cautions
The Sophos firewall is not often seen in enterprise selections among Gartner's client base. As a UTM product, it is not a match for most enterprises, and instead is seen more often in SMBs. The Sophos and Cyberoam products usually compete with other SMB firewall vendors' solutions; however, they are good shortlist candidates for Type C enterprises (see Note 1).
Sophos and Cyberoam were not listed by any vendor we surveyed as a significant enterprise competitive threat, and they have not been highly visible on NGFW shortlists among Gartner clients. Recent efforts in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) security might become another enterprise niche for Sophos.
Upcoming product line integration/rationalization could cause confusion among customer prospects, and may dilute focus on improving the products and delivering new features.