IT security and control firm Sophos today announced that it has
been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders' Quadrant in the
Magic Quadrant for
Endpoint Protection Platforms, 2009.
Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms is
based on an assessment of a company's ability to execute and
completeness of vision. According to Gartner, "Leaders demonstrate
balanced progress and effort in all execution and vision
categories. Their actions in advanced malware protection, data
protection and/or management capabilities raise the competitive bar
for all products in the market, and they can change the course of
the industry. A leading vendor isn't a default choice for every
buyer, and clients are warned not to assume that they should buy
only from vendors in the Leaders quadrant. Some clients, however,
may believe that leaders are spreading their efforts too thinly and
aren't pursuing clients' special needs."
"Threats have become considerably more targeted and complex, IT
budgets continue to tighten and IT teams are stretched to full
capacity," said Steve Munford, CEO
at Sophos. "As a result, businesses-regardless of size-are moving
to feature-rich products that are also simple to manage."
The report observes that, "Standard anti-malware signatures
engines are rapidly losing effectiveness against the surging volume
of new threats and have very little value against targeted threats.
Non signature based solutions such as HIPS and proficient
operations procedures such as asset discovery, configuration
management, vulnerability assessment, and software management, are
needed as a means to help inoculate PC against unknown threats.
Endpoint protection platform (EPP) vendors continue to improve data
protection. Several added or improved full-disk and removable media
encryption, content-aware data loss prevention (DLP), and device
and port controls. Data protection strategies must include
consideration of the role of EPP vendors in providing some or all
of this technology."
"With our latest addition of data protection capabilities to
Sophos Endpoint Security and Control, we are helping businesses
tackle both the external and internal threat without overburdening
staff, systems or their top line," added Munford.
* Gartner Research "Magic Quadrant for Endpoint
Protection Platforms, 2009" by Peter Firstbrook,Arabella Hallawell,
John Girard, and Neil MacDonald. May 4, 2009
About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is
reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical
representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period.
It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure
against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in
the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select
only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic
Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to
be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties,
express or implied, with respect to this research, including any
warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose.
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.