New Sophos Firewall Launches with Advanced Performance Enhancements, Dynamic Traffic Routing and SD-WAN Capabilities, and Integrations

OXFORD, U.K. — 十一月 23, 2022 —

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today introduced new Sophos Firewall capabilities to better meet the complex and demanding needs of distributed and enterprise edge computing. Sophos Firewall now delivers performance enhancements that accelerate encrypted traffic inspection, dynamic traffic routing for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), added resiliency with software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) load balancing and high-availability enhancements, and seamless integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

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

The effective and reliable assessment of network traffic is critical in protecting against threat actors, as evidenced in Sophos’ 2023 Threat Report that published today. Distributed offices, remote workforces, cloud workloads, custom-built legacy apps, and a growing reliance on global software-as-a-service providers create a configuration and risk management headache for network security managers.

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

  • Advanced performance and protection: A new high-performance dynamic routing engine and Xstream Transport Layer Security (TLS) FastPath acceleration improves encrypted traffic inspection while also adding headroom for traffic that requires deep-packet inspection; the asymmetric cryptographic capabilities within Xstream Flow Processors – included in every XGS Series appliance – enable TLS inspection on even the most demanding networks
  • Added resiliency and peace of mind: New SD-WAN load balancing for performance and reliability in the event of an internet service providers’ (ISP) outage along with enhancements to high-availability clusters ensure maximum business continuity and uptime for mission critical networks
  • Improved ease of management: 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 search

Sophos Firewall integrates with Sophos ZTNA (zero trust network access) under one unified management plane and is a key pillar of Sophos’ SASE strategy, providing a more simplified, scalable and secure solution over traditional remote-access virtual private networks (VPN). The network solution is also part of the Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which integrates Sophos’ entire portfolio of products, services and Sophos X-Ops threat intelligence for faster and more contextual and synchronized detection, protection and response.

Availability

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

What Analysts, Channel Partners and Customers Say

“With their latest firewall release, Sophos has leveraged the flexibility of their Xstream architecture to deliver improvements in performance for VPN throughput and more efficient handling of TLS encrypted traffic, which is vitally important in today’s encrypted world,” said Christopher Rodriguez, research director of IDC’s Security & Trust practice. “They’ve also completed the build-out of 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’re positioning to provide the features and capabilities that larger distributed enterprise organizations demand, while also building out a SASE strategy that will appeal to organizations of all sizes.”

“As a multinational technology consulting firm that’s relied on Sophos Firewall since it was first incepted, Seidor Networks intimately knows the offering is a must-have solution for protecting against malware and other unwanted network traffic,” said Sean Hancock, ISP manager at Seidor Networks. “Sophos is continuously innovating and adding new features that are industry best. This new version of Sophos Firewall raises the bar even higher with unrivaled network protection and performance; and when you pair Sophos Firewall with Sophos XDR, the results are truly next level as endpoints and firewalls share real-time threat intelligence for further improved network visibility and lateral movement control.”

“The new Sophos Firewall software has multiple advantages for all of our customers,” said Marc Hurrelmann, chief executive officer at Midland IT. “Many of the features added have been designed to address the challenges that larger organizations are facing with implementing SD-WAN, optimizing performance, scaling their network, improving resiliency and up-time, and enhancing management efficiency.​ Smaller organizations will benefit from all the added value packed into Sophos Firewall with better performance, protection, networking, and management.”

关于 Sophos

Sophos 是全球领先的先进安全解决方案提供商和创新者,全面安全解决方案涵盖托管式侦测与响应 (MDR) 和事件响应服务,以及广泛的端点、网络、电子邮件和云安全技术。作为最大的纯网络安全厂商之一,Sophos 为全球超过 600,000 家企业和超过 1 亿用户提供防御主动攻击对手、勒索软件、网络钓鱼、恶意软件等威胁的保护。Sophos 的服务和产品通过 Sophos Central 管理控制台连接,并得到公司内部的跨领域威胁情报部门 Sophos X-Ops 的支持。Sophos X-Ops 情报优化整个 Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem 自适应网络安全生态体系,包括一个中央数据湖,为客户、合作伙伴、开发人员和其他网络安全与信息技术供应商提供一组丰富的开放 API。Sophos为需要完全托管的安全解决方案的组织提供网络安全即服务。客户还可以直接利用 Sophos 的安全运行平台管理其网络安全,或者采用混合方法,为内部团队补充 Sophos 服务(包括威胁追踪与修复)。Sophos 通过世界各地的经销商合作伙伴和托管服务供应商 (MSP) 销售。Sophos 总部位于英国牛津。如欲了解更多信息,请访问 www.sophos.com