Sophos selects Red Education to fast-track APAC channel expansion

Sydney, Australia, 11 December 2012 – IT security and data protection company Sophos, has today announced a partnership with Sydney-based specialist training and certification company Red Education to train Sophos’s partners and customers throughout the Asia Pacific region.  The partnership with Red Education will allow Sophos to expand its reach in the region, with the education and training requirements for its full product range being delivered by experienced trainers.

Red Education will provide the classroom training element of this agreement, which was previously coordinated by the Sophos team. Sophos will continue to supply its online education system underpinning these training modules and it will continue to manage the certification exams which students will sit through access to Sophos’s partner portal.

This agreement is part of Sophos’s strategy of active investment in and recruitment of quality partners and distributors across the Asia Pacific region. The partnership allows the company to rollout products quickly and seamlessly across the region with minimal impact on its resources.

“I am very keen to ensure we continue to adopt industry best practices. This agreement is part of our drive to find innovative ways to support the growth of Sophos in the Asia Pacific region,” said Stuart Fisher, Sophos’s managing director, APAC.

Red Education, part-owned by Australian Sophos distributor Distribution Central, provides outsourced training for vendors including Aruba Networks, F5 Networks, Crossbeam Systems, Fortinet and Riverbed. The company has classroom facilities located in Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and access to partner facilities in most other locations in which Sophos operates.

“We’re delighted to be working with Sophos as this agreement enhances our security training offerings within the market. We anticipate that Sophos will be a major vendor in our portfolio going forward, and that we will equip its customers and partners with the vital skills and geographic spread of course availability in Asia Pacific,” said Rob Howard, Managing Director Red Education.

“We strive to provide a practical experience, delivered by seasoned professionals with many years’ hands-on experience behind them, so that delegates can take that with them into the real world,” Howard said.

Red Education has a strong team of skilled and experienced trainers, having worked with other global enterprise technology clients. The company has worked closely with the Sophos support team to ensure it is well equipped to train teams across the product range.

The agreement has already taken effect and Red Education has commenced its training of Sophos’s customers and partners.

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About Sophos   

More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs – a global network of threat intelligence centres. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.

Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Media Contacts:

Anthia Crosby

Espresso Communications

+61 2 8016 2200

anthia@espressocomms.com.au

Amanda Conroy

Espresso Communications

+61 2 8016 2200

amanda@espressocomms.com.au