This is a highly anticipated product release, which couldn’t come at a better time.

If you’re already thinking of replacing a firewall, then it’s very likely that other pieces of network infrastructure are also under discussion. If you’re replacing your Wi-Fi, as soon as you have more than a couple of access points, you need something to power them or the search for available power sockets starts. Or maybe you need to separate IoT devices from other business devices on the network in one of your many remote offices. The answer is almost always a switch. And if everything comes from a single vendor, you can generally improve your network visibility, reduce your management overhead, and potentially also optimize the price.

While switches may not be the first products you think of when considering cybersecurity, access layer switches are generally the gatekeepers for device access to the rest of the network, and as if that weren’t enough, they’re the masters of segmentation. I’m sure we’ve all learned in our networking 101 best practices book, network segmentation is key when it comes to minimizing the exposure of a network in case of a breach, as it prevents lateral movement. Of course, many other solutions also have their role to play in that scenario, but you should never underestimate the role a switch can play.

And so, by popular demand, we’re now introducing switches.

The Sophos Switch Series

We will initially offer eight models, with two more expected towards mid-2022. Here’s a snapshot of the key specifications.

All switches can be managed in Sophos Central alongside your other Sophos products, however, the full feature set and configuration will only be available via the local web user interface from the first release. Management is also supported using the Command Line Interface (CLI) or Simple Networking Management Protocol (SNMP).

Sophos Central will be the key to some unique features in the future and yes, we do eventually plan to offer synchronized security, however, there is no final date for the introduction of that functionality that we can communicate at this time.

If you’re one of the many businesses struggling with ever-more devices to connect and power and are looking for a way to take back control of your network, Sophos Switch may just be the perfect solution. Our switches are ideal for small and medium-sized business, branch offices, retail, services, even remote and home offices will benefit from a more business-oriented setup, now that many of those have gone from being temporary to permanent.

While launching a hardware product in the current climate takes a bit of coordination, we will have first limited quantities available from December 16 and volumes will ramp up from January 2022 onwards. We plan to do the official market announcement for these products on January 11.

Further information is available on our website under sophos.com/switch.

Source: Sophos