Sophos Firewall unleashes the power of Xstream for distributed and enterprise edge computing

Launched new Sophos firewall with advanced performance enhancements, dynamic traffic routing and SD-WAN features, and integrations

Sophos Firewall Control Center v19.5

OXFORD, UK, Nov. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today introduced new features in Sophos Firewall to better meet to the complex and demanding needs of distributed and enterprise edge computing. Sophos Firewall now offers performance enhancements that speed inspection of encrypted traffic, dynamic traffic routing for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), increased resiliency with software-defined WAN load balancing (SD- WAN) and high availability enhancements, and seamless integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

“One of the main advantages of the Xstream architecture and stream processors is that they are programmable. This means that while other firewalls get slower over time, we can increase performance even as we add new features and capabilities,” said Daniel Cole, vice president of product management at network security at Sophos. “Our design ensures that customers’ investment in Sophos Firewall is future-proof and enables a seamless transition to a cloud-based world. SD-WAN and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) demand a more efficient platform that is not only resilient, but also makes day-to-day management easier and faster than ever.

Assessing network traffic efficiently and reliably is key to protecting against threat actors, as evidenced by Sophos’s Threat Report 2023 released today. Distributed offices, remote workforces, cloud workloads, custom legacy applications, and a growing reliance on global software-as-a-service vendors are creating configuration and maintenance headaches. risk management for network security managers.

Sophos Firewall now delivers the performance, protection and resiliency that distributed enterprises need, while simplifying the management of complex networks. Benefits include:

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• Advanced performance and protection: A new high-performance dynamic routing engine and Xstream Transport Layer Security (TLS) FastPath acceleration improve inspection of encrypted traffic while adding headroom for traffic that requires deep packet inspection; the asymmetric cryptographic capabilities of Xstream stream processors – included in every XGS Series device – enable TLS inspection even on the most demanding networks

• More resilience and peace of mind: New SD-WAN load balancing for performance and reliability in the event of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) outage along with enhancements to high availability clusters ensure maximum business continuity and availability for critical networks

• Better manageability: Managing network security is easier than ever with new Microsoft Azure Active Directory integration for seamless administrator single sign-on and new host and service object discovery

Sophos Firewall integrates with Sophos ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) under a unified management plane and is a key pillar of Sophos’s SASE strategy, providing a more simplified, scalable and secure solution compared to virtual private networks (VPNs) traditional remote access. The network solution is also part of Sophos’s adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem, which integrates Sophos’s entire portfolio of products and services and Sophos X-Ops threat intelligence for faster detection, protection and response. , more contextual and synchronized.

Availablity
Sophos Firewall is available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global network of partners and managed service providers (MSPs). It’s easily managed in the cloud-native Sophos Central platform alongside other solutions, where users can oversee installations, respond to alerts, and track upcoming licenses and renewal dates through a single, intuitive interface, or by Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR).

What analysts, channel partners and customers are saying
“With its latest firewall release, Sophos has leveraged the flexibility of its Xstream architecture to improve VPN throughput performance and more efficient handling of TLS-encrypted traffic, which is vitally important in the encrypted world. today,” said Christopher Rodriguez, research director of IDC’s Security and Trust Practice. “They have also completed building their networking feature set to provide an integrated SD-WAN solution. Combined with other recent enhancements to their secure access portfolio like ZTNA as a Service, they are positioning themselves to deliver the features and capabilities that large distributed enterprises demand, while developing a SASE strategy that will appeal to organizations of all sizes.

“As a multinational technology consulting company that has relied on Sophos Firewall since its inception, Seidor Networks knows intimately that this offering is a must-have solution to protect against malware and other unwanted network traffic,” said Sean Hancock, ISP manager at Seidor Networks. . “Sophos is constantly innovating and adding new features that are the best in the industry. This new version of Sophos Firewall raises the bar even higher with unparalleled network protection and performance; and when you combine Sophos Firewall with Sophos XDR, the results are truly next-level, as endpoints and firewalls share real-time threat intelligence for better network visibility and lateral movement control.

“The new Sophos Firewall software has multiple benefits for all of our customers,” said Marc Hurrelmann, Managing Director of Midland IT. “Many added features were designed to address the challenges large organizations face when implementing SD-WAN, optimizing performance, scaling their network, improving resilience and availability, and improving management efficiency. the added value contained in Sophos Firewall with better performance, protection, networking and management.

Additional Resources

Learn more about Sophos X-Ops and its groundbreaking threat research by subscribing to Sophos X-Ops blogs and following Sophos X-Ops on Twitter

About Sophos
Sophos is a global leader and innovator of advanced cybersecurity solutions, including managed detection and response (MDR) and incident response services, as well as a broad portfolio of endpoint, network, and data security technologies. emails and the cloud that help businesses defeat cyberattacks. As one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity providers, Sophos defends over 500,000 organizations and over 100 million users worldwide against active adversaries, ransomware, phishing, malware, and more. Sophos’s services and products connect through its cloud-based Sophos Central management console and are powered by Sophos X-Ops, the company’s cross-domain threat intelligence unit. Sophos X-Ops intelligence powers the entire Sophos adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem, which includes a centralized data lake that leverages a rich set of open APIs available to customers, partners, developers and other cybersecurity vendors and of information technologies. Sophos provides cybersecurity as a service to organizations that need fully managed turnkey security solutions. Customers can also manage their cybersecurity directly with the Sophos security operations platform or use a hybrid approach by complementing their internal teams with Sophos services, including threat hunting and remediation. Sophos sells through reseller partners and managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/168379b2-d42a-4f0f-85ef-e1698be3b1ee

CONTACT: Contact: Sam Powers, Sophos@walkersands.com