Channel Awards 2024: Q&A with John Mitchell, Sophos

John Mitchell, discusses Sophos’ nomination and big milestones in 2024

In this Q&A, John Mitchell, channel director for EMEA North at Sophos, discusses the company’s dedication to channel partners and the importance of industry recognition, such as the CRN Channel Awards.

Mitchell reflects on Sophos' achievements, including its ongoing growth and commitment to innovation amid a challenging cybersecurity landscape in 2024. He provides insights into the evolving channel environment, the complexities faced by customers, and the strategies Sophos employs to address these challenges.

Mitchell also outlines future opportunities, emphasizing the growing importance of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services and Sophos' plans to support partners in this area.

CRN: Why do you think awards like the Channel Awards matter? What would winning this award mean to your company?

JM: Awards like the CRN Channel Awards are so important in recognising the commitment and dedication we bring to building strong and effective relationships with partners.

Winning 'Vendor of the Year’ would be a true testament to our hard work and dedication to our partners and mean that Sophos is being recognized for its leadership in the channel. We want to solidify our position as a trusted leader in cybersecurity and partner enablement, and this award would serve as motivation for the entire organisation to continue delivering an exceptional high quality of support to our partners.

CRN: What would you say is your company’s proudest achievement over the past year?

JM: At Sophos, 100 per cent of our business is through the channel and we’ve continued to see our business grow through ongoing developments to our product and services portfolio.

We’re proud to see this dedication recognised across the industry with a number of awards and recognitions and have even retained our achievement as the highest-rated and most reviewed endpoint protection solution. In Gartner’s 2024 Voice of the Customer Report for Endpoint Protection Platforms (April 2024), Sophos once again had the highest number of reviews among all vendors included. As of July 2024, Sophos scored a 4.8/5.0 rating based on 473 reviews. Sophos was also named a Customers’ Choice vendor in all 11 industry segments included in the report.

CRN: What have been the biggest challenges of 2024 so far and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?

JM: In 2024, the threat landscape has continued to become more complexed and sophisticated. With this evolution, we’re constantly making our solutions more innovative and more accessible. This is why we continue to launch new innovations and combine these developments with our existing products, giving our partners access to the latest technology, tools and support they need to keep their customers protected from these ever-evolving threats.

To address these challenges, we've strengthened our third-party integrations, reducing the complexity our customers face in managing multiple technologies. Our technology partnerships, such as the integration with Tenable in a Managed Risk solution, allow customers to meet their cybersecurity challenges more effectively. These efforts, driven by our dedicated team have enabled us to continue providing effective cybersecurity solutions and to address emerging issues proactively.

CRN: How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?

JM: The channel is constantly evolving and more than ever we’re seeing customers who want a streamlined and consolidated experience. Consolidating vendors offers several advantages, making operations far more efficient, but also reducing costs and resources.

For a lot of our customers, the main challenge when it comes to staying ahead of today’s threats is keeping up with the latest cybersecurity solutions. We recently conducted research that found 39% of MSPs found keeping up with these advancements as one of their biggest day-to-day challenges. It’s clear to see the importance of ensuring partners are equipped with the knowledge they need to protect their customers data and have access to the necessary support to best set them up to succeed.

CRN: What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

JM: Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is becoming one of the fastest-growing facets of cybersecurity support and we’re continuously developing and enhancing our MDR solution to provide our partners with all the necessary capabilities and resources they need to successfully sell these solutions to their customers. To meet this rising demand, we want to ensure we’re equipping our partners with advanced training and certifications for MDR and provide them with the right sales tools that emphasises the value of proactive managed security.

With this level of demand and growth, it’s not surprising that the majority (81%) of MSPs already offer some level of MDR service, with most others planning to add MDR to their offerings in the near and mid-term. We want to empower to lead with the message of consolidation, through reducing the complexity and costs of managing multiple point products.