Hagerman On The Record

If Kris Hagerman is right, the trajectory for the cybersecurity industry will in many ways parallel what happened with data center infrastructure and the widespread adoption of cloud infrastructure as a service. “We see exactly the same thing happening in cybersecurity,” said Hagerman, the CEO of cybersecurity giant Sophos, in a recent interview with CRN. Now, he is focused on making sure that Sophos is at the forefront of enabling the shift to cybersecurity delivered via a service model—or “security as a service.”

Sophos has begun its shift in this direction by emphasizing its managed detection and response (MDR) service as a top priority for investment going forward. The Sophos MDR offering now has more than 15,000 customers and is a “$175 million business, growing at over 50 percent a year,” Hagerman said. “And we think that is likely to accelerate.”

All in all, when it comes to the highly competitive MDR market, “I think in many respects, we’re already at the front of that wave,” he said. “We have more MDR customers than any other vendor that we’re aware of.”

[Related: Sophos CTO Joe Levy On Surging MDR Demand And Endpoint Security Updates]

MDR, however, is just the start of the vendor’s foray into the as-a-service arena. Sophos is “now moving to the next phase, which is to take what we deliver in MDR and make that available in our products,” Hagerman said. The ultimate goal is to take all of the products in the Sophos portfolio—including in endpoint, network, cloud and email security—and “deliver them as a service—and do it in a way that’s highly flexible for both customers and for our channel partners,” he said.

The focus on partners is one thing that’s not changing with Sophos, Hagerman noted. “We have seen just incredible momentum with our channel partners selling and deploying Sophos MDR because it’s such a great fit for their own businesses,” he said.

What follows is an edited portion of CRN’s interview with Hagerman.