Jason Ellis , Vice President Channel Sales EMEA , Sophos

Leveraging its vast installed base of Sophos Endpoints and the integration capability of Sophos Central , channel partners can upsell Sophos MDR and offer MSP services for enterprises . Combined with attractive deal margins offered by Sophos , Jason Ellis says partners have brought opportunities worth a billion dollars to the vendor .

“ We have over half a million Endpoint customers across the globe , and those customers are struggling to have the expertise to be able to monitor their software ,” says Jason Ellis , Vice President Channel Sales EMEA , Sophos .

Sophos enterprise customers purchase the Endpoint software licenses and then purchase the Sophos MDR licenses . This ensures they are supported round the clock and across the year . Sophos MDR also has connectors into the multiple cybersecurity products from alternative vendors that may be operating at an end customer ’ s installation .

“ We can take the logs from those products into our MDR service . From a partner ’ s perspective , that means they are able to go into a customer ’ s environment , and they are able to say we will just put a connector onto them . It is difficult for the partners to say , rip out that technology , but they are able to say , we can offer an extra level of security ,” elaborates Ellis .

All Sophos solutions , including its Managed Service Provider , MSP solutions , are available on a single integration platform called Sophos Central . Sophos Central , allows escalation of an enterprise incident to be forwarded either to the trusted channel partner or directly to the enterprise .

A key growth driver for the Sophos MDR business is its vast installed base of Endpoint customers .

“ All our technologies snap into Central . If you are a customer , you can see your Endpoint , your Firewall , your encryption , or any services that you have , all from one place ,” says Ellis .

Sophos Central can also synchronise all security solutions from different vendors that usually do not talk to reach other . “ If you have got different solutions on the Sophos

Central platform , then they will all be talking to each other ,” says Ellis .

Partner programme

Built on three foundational pillars of profitability , partnership , and product the Sophos Global Partner Programme is designed to adapt to the unique needs of today ’ s next-generation resellers , managed service providers , and cybersecurity experts . The structure of the Sophos Partner Programme remains the same as in previous years . It is a classic model of Platinum , Gold , Silver , and Authorised tiers . According to Ellis , it has remained the same as previous years , “ Because partners like predictability .”

However for channel partners , the Sophos Partner Programme has a strong attraction because of the margins that it offers , and in return channel partners have brought significant opportunities to Sophos .

“ Our partners , have shared over a billion dollars ’ worth of opportunities across Europe , Middle East and Africa , and the reason they are doing that is because they make an incredible amount of money ,” says Ellis .

24 www . intelligenttechchannels . com