Introducing Sophos Workspace Protection

We’re excited to announce the latest addition to the Sophos portfolio: Sophos Workspace Protection. It’s an easy, effective, and affordable way to protect remote and hybrid workers, contractors and guests – and the networks and data they access – from threats, breaches, and shadow IT, and provide consistent policy enforcement on and off the network.

The challenge – Why Sophos Workspace Protection?

The traditional network perimeter has been disappearing in recent years, with applications, data, and users everywhere. This shift has made protecting remote and hybrid workers a significant challenge for IT teams.

In response, cloud-delivered network security solutions like Secure Web Gateways (SWG), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), and cloud firewalls – often collectively known as SASE or SSE solutions – have emerged to try and solve this issue. However, these solutions come with their own set of challenges related to back-hauling and encrypted traffic, latency, and cost effectiveness that have made them unworkable options for many smaller and mid-sized organizations.

At the same time, many organizations are grappling with both shadow IT and the need to safely adopt and integrate generative AI technology and services into their workflows without exposing proprietary information or sensitive data. There’s been no easy way to solve these issues, particularly with a remote or hybrid workforce.

Most organizations have been waiting for a better way.

A better solution: Sophos Workspace Protection

Sophos Workspace Protection provides a unique and elegant solution to the challenge of protecting remote and hybrid workers. It integrates all the network security components needed to secure apps, data, workers, and guests – wherever they are – into a single easy-to-use and familiar app: a hardened Chromium browser.

Sophos Workspace Protection includes:

• Sophos Protected Browser – a new secure Chromium web browser powered by Island.io that provides several security features, including control over app usage, local data controls, and web filtering, and that is hardened against exploits and attacks. It also integrates Sophos ZTNA for access to web apps and rich SSH and RDP support.
• Sophos ZTNA – now integrated into Sophos Protected Browser, it can be used agentless or with a thin agent as before. It also works with Sophos Endpoint to provide device posture assessment and Synchronized Security Heartbeat to define device health as part of access policies. Existing Sophos ZTNA customers will automatically get access to the full Sophos Workspace Protection bundle and all the added benefits it provides.
• Sophos DNS Protection for Endpoints – provides an additional layer of web protection across all apps, ports, and protocols on your remote Windows devices with added visibility, security, and privacy with DNS over HTTPS.
• Email Monitoring System – a Sophos email solution that deploys alongside Google or Microsoft email solutions to monitor email traffic and provide additional insights, analysis, and detections of unwanted or malicious email, including phishing attacks.

Much easier and more affordable than alternatives

Sophos Workspace Protection provides significant advantages over alternative SASE or SSE cloud-delivered solutions, including:

• Affordability: With no expensive cloud infrastructure or traffic management, Sophos Workspace Protection enables you to get more from your security budget.
• Efficiency and performance: There’s no backhauling traffic or man-in-the-middle decryption in the cloud to slow your users down.
• Management overhead: Having a single app to protect all other online apps – private apps, SaaS apps, web apps – reduces day-to-day IT efforts. Plus, it’s simple to add and remove users – including contractors or workers using unmanaged devices.
• Security: Sophos Workspace Protection transforms the browser from a security liability into a key security asset.
• Universality: It works everywhere – on or off the network.

Sophos Workspace Protection is the ultimate solution for remote or hybrid workers – nothing is easier or more affordable.

Sophos Workspace Protection is managed alongside all your other Sophos products in Sophos Central.

When is it available

Sophos Workspace Protection will be released in late February. If you have a current project, your local Sophos representative can help you get a quote from Sophos today, and Sophos Protected Browser and Sophos DNS Protection for Endpoints are available now in Early Access.

Details:

• Sophos Protected Browser and DNS Protection for Endpoints are available in early access via Sophos Central. If you’re already a Sophos customer, you can simply log into your Sophos Central account to get started. Note, you must have a licensed Sophos product to access the program. Please provide your feedback via the Sophos Community.
• Sophos ZTNA will be included with Sophos Workspace Protection from the general availability date (GA). Existing Sophos ZTNA customers will get full access to the new Workspace Protection bundle capabilities, including Sophos Protected Browser, Sophos DNS Protection for Endpoints, and Sophos Email Monitoring System. If you’re not already a ZTNA customer, you can start a free trial within Sophos Central, or sign up for a free trial Sophos Central account.
• Sophos Email Monitoring System is available now as a free trial in Sophos Central. Sophos customers can activate a trial directly within the Sophos Central console. If you don’t already have a Sophos Central account, get started here. 

• A free trial option for Sophos Workspace Protection will be available from GA in late February. 

Licensing and purchase options

Sophos Workspace Protection bundles four tightly integrated products into a single high-value bundle licensed on a simple per-user basis.

• Sophos Protected Browser
• Sophos ZTNA
• Sophos DNS Protection for Endpoints
• Sophos Email Monitoring System

The components are modular, allowing you to deploy just what you need.

Sophos Workspace Protection is available on term subscriptions or via monthly MSP Flex, making it an ideal choice for any size of organization.

Sophos customers get even more value

Sophos Workspace Protection is the ideal complement to Sophos Endpoint, Sophos MDR, and Sophos Firewall – extending and unifying these great products and services to remote and hybrid workers everywhere they go. It also extends Synchronized Security Heartbeat to application access policies for users everywhere. To learn more about Synchronized Security, check out this article.

Partnering with Island.io on Sophos Protected Browser

Sophos has partnered with an industry-leading Enterprise Browser vendor, Island.io, to deliver the Sophos Protected Browser in Sophos Workspace Protection. Island has been developing its Enterprise Browser product since 2000 and is widely recognized for its expertise in this space.

With the Sophos Protected Browser, Island provides the core Chromium browser technology and policy enforcement engine in the browser, while Sophos provides the Sophos Central management, logging, and reporting experience, as well as our industry-leading threat intelligence for web and content inspection.

How to get started

• Speak to your local Sophos representative or partner to learn more
• Join the Early Access Program
• Visit sophos.com/workspace-protection