Strengthening Cyber Resilience: Sophos' Strategy for Smarter, Simpler Security

In an exclusive interaction with VARINDIA, Sunil Sharma, Vice President of Sales at Sophos, discussed the company’s efforts to strengthen cyber resilience for mid-market and enterprise customers. Sophos is enhancing MDR services, expanding AI capabilities, and unifying security operations. The acquisition of Secureworks bolsters threat detection and response, addressing India’s cybersecurity challenges. By leveraging AI-led automation and cloud security, Sophos collaborates with MSPs and key industries to deliver scalable, high-fidelity protection and improved incident response.

How are you positioning your brand to drive preference and growth for FY 2025–26?

We’re positioning Sophos as a key partner in enabling cyber resilience, particularly for mid-market and enterprise customers navigating complex digital transformations. Our strategy is rooted in three priorities: strengthening our MDR services, expanding our AI capabilities, and simplifying security operations through a unified platform.
A significant milestone this year was Sophos' acquisition of Secureworks. This allows us to integrate powerful detection and response capabilities into our ecosystem, bolstering our threat-hunting and investigation strengths. For India, this translates to stronger local offerings that address both skills shortages and increasing cyber threats. This move is one example of our commitment to offering end-to-end managed services. It reinforces our position as a trusted security partner in a market facing rising ransomware, phishing, and insider threats.

“We are enhancing our ability to provide tailored, high-fidelity threat detection that supports industries like BFSI, healthcare, and manufacturing, where attack surfaces are expanding.”

What is your brand’s story, and how do you communicate it effectively to strengthen brand power in today’s hyper-competitive market?

Sophos has always focused on making cybersecurity smarter, simpler, and more proactive. We help organisations move from a reactive approach to a defensive state of continuous resilience, driven by intelligence, automation, and human expertise.
This narrative has been brought to life through our threat reports, incident insights, and platforms like the Sophos Academy, where we educate partners and customers. With the integration of Secureworks’ Taegis into Sophos, our story now includes deeper investigative capabilities and richer telemetry.

How do you envision the future of the IT industry, and what strategies are you adopting to forecast and capitalise on India's growth potential?

India is set to be one of the most dynamic digital economies globally, and with that comes a heightened threat landscape. We expect AI-led automation, cloud-native infrastructure, and regulatory frameworks to shape IT strategy across sectors.
Our approach is to offer modular, scalable security services that can evolve with these shifts. We are enhancing our ability to provide tailored, high-fidelity threat detection that supports industries like BFSI, healthcare, and manufacturing, where attack surfaces are expanding. In India, we are also building strategic alliances with MSPs and system integrators to ensure these capabilities reach even the most distributed environments.

How do you ensure your brand’s messaging and positioning resonate with your target audience?

We focus on clarity, business relevance, and evidence-backed messaging. Whether it’s an IT manager at a mid-sized firm or a CISO at a bank, our communication centres on one thing how we can reduce their operational risk and simplify Cyber Security.
We draw on real threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and practical insights from our incident response teams. Instead of only speaking about features, we focus on outcomes like reduced alert fatigue, faster response, and improved visibility. That’s where we see the best response from customers.

With rapid technological advancements, how is your organization prioritizing R&D and product innovation to stay ahead of industry shifts?

Innovation at Sophos is driven by insight from the field and a strong belief in cross-functional intelligence. All our key technologies such as MDR, XDR, Firewall XGS and more are constantly upgraded based on customer feedback, experience in the field and industry events.
Additionally, we’re investing in automation, cloud security, and advanced AI for cybersecurity. These capabilities are integrated within Sophos Central to ensure ease of management across environments. As we scale, we’re staying close to our customers’ operational challenges, whether it's compliance, skills gaps, or incident response and designing our roadmap to support them holistically.