Industry analysts have reacted positively to the news of
Sophos acquiring anti-spam experts ActiveState. Read what the
analysts have to say below.
IDC Research
24 September 2003 |  |
"In light of current threats to enterprise email, we believe
that corporations need to think in terms of a total messaging
security solution that prevents leaks of private or confidential
data, inappropriate emails, large files, viruses and other messages
that violate corporate policy. We recommend that companies adopt a
'layered security' strategy that combines desktop anti-virus,
server and gateway anti-virus, spam filtering, and proactive
techniques such as behavior analysis and heuristics.
"The marriage of Sophos and ActiveState is a logical step in
this direction, and will provide significant advantages to
customers. This is a positive move for both companies, who will
benefit from a strong market position and expanded footprint within
the enterprise."
Brian Burke, Research Manager
META Group
24 September 2003 |  |
"The acquisition of ActiveState by Sophos is precisely where we
believe the email control market needs to go. Tools which combine
spam, virus blocking and other mail hygiene services represent the
best approach to improving overall email system health. We
recommend that end user organizations look for mail management
tools that combine multiple disciplines from well-established
vendors that offer global support."
Matt Cain, Vice President
Ferris Research
24 September 2003 |  |
"Sophos and ActiveState have a shared vision, strong and
complementary products, and a similar culture of engineering
excellence. Enterprises increasingly look to a single vendor for
protection against spam and viruses at the gateway, so the
acquisition of ActiveState by Sophos makes a lot of sense."
David Ferris, President
Gartner Inc.
24 September 2003 |  |
"There is growing enterprise demand for combined anti-spam and
anti-virus product and service capabilities at the email
boundary."
Arabella Hallawell, Research Director
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.