Sophos has reported "accelerated worldwide growth" across its MSP Connect partner program, the cybersecurity company says.
MSP Connect now supports more than 16,500 global and regional MSPs worldwide, Sophos noted. This represents a 54 percent increase since April 1, 2020, the company says.
Among the additional business metrics to note:
- Sophos achieved 67 percent year-over-year MSP Connect billings growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 and 55 percent year-over-year billings growth in FY21, the company indicated.
- Sophos also recorded double-digit MSP Connect growth in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, with "significant gains" in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland (UKI), Germany and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), the company adds.
Actual revenue dollar figures are undisclosed. But if you read between the lines, Sophos appears to be performing well under private equity owner Thoma Bravo -- which acquired the security business in March 2020.
One MSP Security Dashboard, Expanded Capabilities
In many ways, Sophos was an early mover in the MSP partner market. Scott Barlow, VP of global MSP and cloud alliances at Sophos, joined the company through the Reflexion acquisition of 2015. Since that time, the Sophos Central management dashboard for MSPs has gained more and more power -- allowing partners to oversee customer installations both on-premises and in the public cloud; respond to alerts; and track licenses and upcoming renewal dates, the company notes.
More than an endpoint management system, Sophos Central continues to gain more and capabilities -- both organically, through acquisitions and via integrations. The integrations typically involve third-party business management tools that support remote monitoring and management (RMM), professional services automation (PSA) and IT documentation vendors.
Key Sophos platform expansions include various managed detection and response (MDR) and cloud security offerings. MSPs, in turn, gain Sophos MTR threat hunting, detection and response services. Also, Cloud Optix capabilities allows MSPs to automatically discover and secure customer assets stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Security Companies Engage MSPs
Admittedly, Sophos faces plenty of competition in the MSP-friendly security market. Fast-growing SentinelOne taps MSSPs, MSPs and Incident Response partners for much of its revenue flow. Plus, multiple XDR-focused companies are building out partner programs. And entrenched rivals such as Webroot (now owned by OpenText) remain entrenched in the MSP sector.
Admittedly, Sophos isn't resting on its laurels. The company's latest move involves Sophos XDR, which synchronizes native endpoint, server, firewall, and email security, the company says.
