Sophos Names New Channel Chief Amid Complete Security Push

Sophos, which is positioning itself as a complete security provider, has named Emmanuelle Skala (pictured) as VP of global channels, succeeding Steve Hale. The shift arrives as many security software companies — Kaspersky Lab, McAfee and Symantec, to name a few — adjust their channel leadership.

Sophos is pushing beyond traditional endpoint security to promote unified threat management (UTM) and mobile device management (MDM) security solutions. Rival software companies, meanwhile, have been adjusting their software licensing models to better support recurring partner revenues, managed services providers and cloud-based security services.

The Sophos Channel

Skala, who previously managed sales and channel operations for Sophos, reports to Michael McGuinness, senior VP of worldwide sales and field operations. Hale, meanwhile, decided to exit the company because he’s based in Seattle and most of the Sophos executive team is based in the Boston area and in Europe, where acquisitions like Astaro (UTM) and Dialogs (MDM) are based. Sophos is making the channel chief transition amid the start of the company’s fiscal year, which kicked off April 1.

“We’ve got a deep bench here,” said McGuinness. “The new fiscal year prompted the [channel chief] change to some extent. [Steve] has done an excellent job over the last nine to 10 months” since joining the company from Novell. But, “we probably both underestimated the difficulty of working from the U.S. west coast” as the Sophos executive team continued to expand near Boston and in Europe.

Skala, meanwhile, has been with Sophos since 2008, focusing on sales effectiveness training while expanding her focus to channels. An Intel veteran, Skala “has been a strong contributor at Sophos” with ever-increasing responsibilities, McGuinness noted. “Instead of hiring a new person from outside and paying the tax of getting someone up to speed, we’ve hired some higher-level resources [to] free up Skala to focus on the channel.”

Sophos and Astaro Synergies

Sophos is a 100-percent channel company. But the company’s channel partner program and focus has been evolving. Historically speaking, Sophos has had a strong base of partners that are more volume based than services based. In stark contrast, Astaro’s channel partners have been much more solutions focused. Sophos is connecting the dots between the channel bases, while also increasing its focus on solutions-oriented partners.

Amid that evolution, McGuinness said Sophos will maintain its focus on three core areas — great products, great margins for partners, and happy customers.

Meanwhile, Astaro’s channel leaders also remain with the company. Bob Darabant, a channel expert, is VP of Americas for the Sophos Network Security Group — a next-generation term of the Astaro portfolio.

“The Astaro acquisition has been a  home run for us,” said McGuinness. “Astaro has great products in an explosive market. But certainly Astaro was younger than us so as we leverage the Sophos brand the to create a huge win for our partners and customers. Our overall message from Sophos is complete security to the mid-market that’s easy top deploy.”

Security Companies Evolve Channel Leadership

In recent weeks, numerous security software companies have had channel chief changes.

• McAfee named Gavin Struthers senior VP of worldwide channels in January, succeeding Alex Thurber, who resigned to TripWire.
• Symantec named John Eldh VP of channel sales for the Americas in March, succeeding Randy Cochran.
• Kaspersky Lab in March hired former Sophos Channel Chief Chief Christopher Doggett, Trend Micro channel veteran Jean Lozano and Sony veteran Chris Gaebler to bolster its channel partner and consumer business strategies.

On the one hand, many of those channel chief changes were prompted purely by channel veterans moving onto new opportunities. But on the other hand, security software companies have had their hands full trying to maintain traditional software licensing models while introducing new service provider models for MSPs and cloud-oriented consulting firms.

That isn’t an easy balancing act…