Sophos Central Endpoint Protection – Renaming & End of Sale

As with Sophos Central Server Protection, Sophos Central Endpoint is now also being restructured. The Standard edition is being discontinued and the names of some products are changing. In this article we’ll briefly walk you through the changes.

Renaming

Up to now, Sophos Central Endpoint has been available in Standard and Advanced editions. In short: the Standard edition is being retired, and Sophos Central Endpoint Advanced (CEA) is being renamed to Sophos Central Endpoint Protection (CEP).

We can’t help wondering whether this decision is related to the fact that, for example, Microsoft’s free Windows Defender keeps improving and achieved a very good score in the April 2018 tests. Strategically, Sophos probably wants to make sure that the feature set stands out clearly from what free products offer.

End of Sale for Central Endpoint Standard

As mentioned, Sophos Central Endpoint Standard is being discontinued. The low‑cost entry‑level edition will reach End of Sale on 6 August 2018. Customers currently running the Standard edition will automatically and free of charge be upgraded to Sophos Central Endpoint Protection (the former Advanced edition), allowing you to benefit from the Advanced features at the same price. We suspect, however, that renewals may become a little more expensive in future.

We don’t see this decision as a major problem. We never really recommended the Standard edition anyway, because it lacked important features needed for strong protection. The difference to a free antivirus product was not particularly great.

Endpoint Advanced + Intercept X bundle

It’s not even six months ago (February 2018) that Sophos introduced the Sophos Central Endpoint Advanced + Sophos Intercept X bundle.

Endpoint Advanced + Intercept X available as a bundle! Until now, customers who wanted optimal, comprehensive protection on their endpoints had to license two products: Central Endpoint Advanced and Intercept X. With the new “SOPHOS Central Intercept X + Endpoint Advanced” SKUs, Sophos now offers a single bundle that includes both, with a discount of up to 40% compared with the individual products.

This bundle will be turned into a standalone product from mid‑October 2018 under the name Sophos Central Intercept X Advanced. New name, same features, same price.

Intercept X Advanced tested by SE Labs

While Forrester’s latest report once again positions Sophos Endpoint as a leader in the endpoint segment (alongside 15 other vendors), SE Labs, an independent testing organization, has also tested Intercept X Advanced against other products. The result: Sophos currently offers the strongest endpoint protection solution on the market.

Sophos summarizes the test and the results in the following video:

Summary

With so many name changes and portfolio tweaks it’s easy to get dizzy. Here’s a quick summary of the new product names:

• Sophos Central Endpoint Protection – for price‑conscious customers.
• Sophos Central Intercept X Advanced – for maximum protection.