Sophos MDR and Managed Sophos Services sound similar, but they do different jobs. One watches for attackers around the clock. The other keeps your Sophos products in good shape. Here’s who does what, so you can choose the right cover.
Sophos MDR: people watching for attacks
MDR stands for Managed Detection and Response. It’s delivered by Sophos’s own analysts, not by your IT partner. Sophos monitors your environment 24/7, investigates suspicious activity, hunts for threats and responds to them. It’s sold in two tiers, Sophos MDR and Sophos MDR Plus, and it can work with supported non-Sophos systems as well as Sophos products.
You choose how Sophos responds
During onboarding, you pick a response mode:
- Authorize: Sophos is authorised to take action for you.
- Collaborate: Sophos works with your team on the response.
- Notify Only: Sophos tells you, and your team takes the action.
Choose carefully. Sophos’s service description warns that Notify Only can materially delay containment. If nobody on your side can act at 2am, that matters.
Managed Sophos Services: looking after your setup
This is delivered by Pentacle’s engineers. It covers the day-to-day care that security tools need:
- Policy tuning: firewall and endpoint policies adjusted as your business changes.
- Patch and firmware updates: planned and applied for you.
- SLA-backed support: support and escalation under an agreed SLA.
It doesn’t include 24/7 monitoring. That comes from Sophos MDR.
Which do you need?
- No one to watch alerts out of hours? Look at Sophos MDR.
- No time to look after your firewall and endpoint policies? Look at Managed Sophos Services.
- Both? They work well together: Sophos watches for attacks, and we keep your setup tuned and up to date.
How Pentacle IT Solutions can help
As a Sophos Gold Partner, we help you choose the right Sophos MDR plan, set it up and support it, and our Managed Sophos Services look after the products you already have.
