Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and
viruses, and Modalit, an Authorised Sophos Reseller, has announced
that FARM-Africa, the international non-governmental organisation
promoting rural development in Africa, has installed Sophos
Anti-Virus and Sophos PureMessage to protect its network from
viruses and spam.
FARM-Africa is dedicated to improving the quality of life of
rural African communities. To achieve this, it is vital that both
its website and internal IT systems are virus free and working
optimally. New online gift initiatives such as FARM FRIENDS, offer
people the opportunity to buy a dairy goat or a brood of chickens
to help poor African farmers feed their families. This makes
securing purchasers' bankcard details and other classified
information absolutely essential. In addition, the organisation
stores on its system important files, images and contact details of
supporters and donors, all of which need to be protected against
virus infections.
FARM-Africa decided to switch to Sophos's solution after it
experienced virus infections while using its previous protection.
The company chose Sophos because of its easy-to-use automated
updating. In addition to scanning emails for viruses, desktop
anti-virus protection was essential for the organisation as it uses
CDs and floppy disks to distribute information and updates to its
offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda. Poor
Internet connections in some of these countries makes downloading
information over the web almost impossible.
Spam was also a problem for FARM-Africa, which receives up to
150 unwanted emails each day. This spam was not only a nuisance,
but it also took up a significant amount of storage space. The
organisation chose Sophos PureMessage because its message handling
options give organisations greater control of their email traffic,
allowing them to set various actions based on the likelihood that
messages are spam.
"Many poor African families depend on FARM-Africa to make a
lasting difference to their lives. Any time lost to virus infection
or spam infiltration has a negative impact on our ability to help,"
said Christie Peacock, chief executive of FARM-Africa. "Sophos's
comprehensive protection against viruses and spam not only gives us
peace of mind that our systems are secure, it also frees up
resources so we are better able to help African communities become
self-sufficient."
Sophos's technology was chosen and is now being managed by
Modalit, the company that provides a range of outsourced IT
services to FARM-Africa.
"We chose Sophos's consolidated anti-spam and anti-virus
solution because it fitted FARM-Africa's needs, the roll-out on to
desktop PCs was problem-free and the products are easy to manage,"
said Iain Stewart, director at Modalit.
About FARM-Africa
FARM-Africa (Food and Agricultural Research Management) is an
international non-governmental organisation aiming to reduce
poverty by developing innovative approaches to natural resource
management in Africa. Through its projects in Ethiopia, Kenya,
South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda it works in partnership with
small-scale farmers and herders enabling them to produce more food
for their families and so make a lasting difference to their
lives.
About Modalit
Modalit provides a broad range of networking and support
services for small to medium sized enterprises who do not have
their own in-house IT resource. The company has over ten years'
experience supporting Windows technology across a range of sectors
including arts, publishing, law, accountancy, insurance and
education. They also have a strong client base in the
not-for-profit sector.
Modalit offers a one-stop shop providing consultancy, project
management, support and training. As a small business serving small
businesses, they have genuine first-hand knowledge of the business
environment in the sectors they support.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.