New small business solutions ease IT security headaches
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses
and spam, today unveiled its new range of small business solutions,
designed to meet the computer security needs of companies with less
than 100 employees. The solutions provide businesses with products
that are easy to install, use and update, ideal for companies with
limited IT resources.
A recent poll* of nearly 4,000 small- to medium-sized businesses
revealed that 80% of companies found the flood of spam made them
less productive at work, yet only 28% currently have an anti-spam
solution in place. To avoid the spam plague, small companies need a
simple yet robust solution, designed to be easily managed and
maintained.
"The ongoing deluge of spam, as well as the increase in
destructive viruses, worms, mail bombs and denial-of-service
attacks, necessitates that small businesses adopt a proactive
approach to email hygiene, with effective protection not just at
the desktop, but at all levels of their network," said Matt Cain,
vice president, Meta Group. "A multi-layered, integrated anti-virus
and anti-spam solution that is preconfigured and simple to operate
and maintain, is key for the email security of small
businesses."
The Sophos Small Business Suite provides full protection against
today's virus and spam threats at all points of entry. Comprised in
this suite are the Sophos PureMessage Small Business Edition, which
combines award-winning virus and spam protection for the email
gateway, and Sophos Anti-Virus Small Business Edition, which offers
a comprehensive desktop and server defence against the virus
threat.
Small companies rarely have a dedicated IT department and need
to devote time to managing their business, rather than worrying
about the latest mass-mailing virus threat or dealing with large
quantities of spam. Sophos PureMessage Small Business Edition
addresses this need by automatically downloading the latest virus
and spam protection. By filtering email at the Exchange or SMTP
gateway, neither end-users nor administrators need to deal with
unwanted mail, and the network runs more efficiently as it no
longer has to process unwanted messages.
As many virus threats travel by means other than email, such as
network shares, the internet and wireless networks, small
businesses also need to protect their desktop computers and
servers. Sophos Anti-Virus Small Business Edition provides
award-winning protection against viruses for Windows and Apple Mac
desktop and server computers, in a single solution that is easily
deployed and maintained for small network environments.
"We cannot afford to compromise our business integrity by
sending out a virus to one of our customers or competitors," said
James Young, corporate IT manager, at Two Way TV. "We wanted a
solution that was easy to use and would maintain itself
automatically - the Sophos Small Business Suite does just this. It
protects our computers from security threats at the desktop and
server, meaning we are safe from virus attacks."
Although fully aware of potential damage from viruses in terms
of productivity and company credibility, many small businesses do
not have the time and resources to devote to IT security, so need a
user-friendly, out-of-the-box solution. Sophos has designed its
Sophos small business solutions to be easy to deploy and update
against emerging threats.
All of Sophos's small business products are automatically kept
updated via the internet, providing hands-off operation. Virus
identities and new spam identification methods are delivered from
Sophos's worldwide labs for automatic updating. Individual remote
users can choose to update either from their company network or
directly from Sophos, while for those connecting to the internet
via a modem, updates can be checked on detection of a dial-up
connection.
The solution's control centre allows administrators to centrally
deploy Sophos Anti-Virus to new computers and configure and monitor
updates via the management console. Status information on every
Windows computer where Sophos Anti-Virus is installed is recorded
and displayed, alerting the administrator should a virus be
detected.
"Small businesses need software which is simple and intuitive,
easy to install and maintain, and competitively priced," said
Ronnie Sutherland, product manager, Sophos. "We have an excellent
track record at protecting large companies with industrial strength
protection against viruses and spam. The introduction of dedicated
products for small businesses enables us to expand our remit into
this sector."
More information about
Sophos's small business solutions.
*Sophos online survey, 3731 respondents from
small- to medium-sized businesses, 2004.
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.