Telecom
Sophos and Pax8 Forge Strategic Partnership to Enhance Security Management for MSPs
Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today announced a strategic partnership with Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace.
The collaboration introduces the most comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity solutions available to Pax8’s network of more than 40,000 managed service providers (MSPs).
MSPs in the Pax8 network now have a complete one-stop shop of best-in-class cybersecurity solutions available from a single vendor – including Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X and Sophos Firewall.
This revolutionizes opportunities for channel partners to streamline operations, simplify billing and significantly reduce the complexity of cybersecurity management across customers.
According to the Sophos MSP Perspectives 2024 report, MSPs that consolidate their security stack with a single vendor can cut daily security management time by nearly 50% – a savings that jumps to 69% for those juggling six or more security vendors.
By partnering with Pax8, Sophos is removing a key operational barrier for MSPs, enabling them to seamlessly manage cybersecurity through a single vendor platform trusted by 600,000 organizations to streamline solution integration and enhance efficiency while strengthening their security posture and simplifying cloud procurement cycles.
“Sophos and Pax8 are strongly aligned in our mission to empower MSPs with best-in-class end-to-end security services and products while simplifying lifecycle management of these solutions and reducing operational overhead.
“MSPs want to align with vendors who are easy to work with and this agreement will make it even easier for MSPs to work with Sophos, something we’ve long been committed to,” said Joe Levy, CEO of Sophos. “With cybersecurity, speed and innovation are essential for defending against attackers.
“This partnership with Pax8 accelerates MSP access to critical cybersecurity tools, enabling them to better protect their customers in an increasingly complex and volatile threat landscape.”
Key advantages of the Sophos and Pax8 partnership for MSPs include:
· Driving new revenue opportunities for partners by providing the most comprehensive portfolio of security offerings by a single vendor on the Pax8 Marketplace.
· Reducing overhead costs and freeing up partners’ billable hours by simplifying procurement and billing via a fully integrated Pax8 Marketplace experience.
· Empowering partners with seamless experiences through coordinated MSP enablement, support and sales training initiatives.
· Compatible and comprehensive 24/7 security for MSPs’ Microsoft Defender customers with Sophos’ MDR service for Microsoft environments.
“MSPs today need solutions that align with the way they operate—cloud-first, flexible and easy to manage at scale. Pax8 is revolutionizing the way MSPs access and deploy cloud-based solutions, and cybersecurity is an important piece of the overall stack,” said Scott Chasin, Chief Executive Officer of Pax8.
“By bringing Sophos’ innovative security offerings to our marketplace, Pax8 is providing our partners with access to enterprise-grade security solutions for their SMB customers in a way that simplifies management, reduces risk and drives profitability.”
Comprehensive Security, Unparalleled Efficiency
“MSPs say they could cut day to day management time almost in half by consolidating on a single cybersecurity platform – and Sophos enables them to achieve that goal.
“By managing all their customers’ cybersecurity in the cloud-based Sophos Central platform, MSPs can reduce workload and free up valuable billing hours,” said Raja Patel, Chief Product Officer, Sophos.
“What’s more, with a complete portfolio of Sophos cybersecurity solutions at their fingertips, Pax8 MSPs enjoy extensive opportunities to sell additional revenue-generating products and services that meet their clients’ evolving cybersecurity needs.”
Last minute change: Backed by real-time threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops, a global team of elite threat hunters and security analysts, Sophos’ solutions provide proactive, AI-driven protection against cyberattacks.
As the leading pure-play cybersecurity provider of MDR services, Sophos protects over 28,000 organizations globally. Insights from Sophos MDR further strengthens security by providing MSPs and their customers with unparalleled protection. Automated threat detection, managed response, and deep security insights across Sophos’s portfolios equip MSPs to enhance defenses, minimize risk exposure, deliver enterprise-grade protection and cut through the noise to reduce management complexity.
Better security for Microsoft environments
More than 60% of Sophos MDR’s customers are managed via MSPs, giving Sophos unparalleled insights into attacks on MSP-managed environments.
Sophos leverages these learnings to update customers’ defenses in real-time, optimizing their protection from ever-evolving attacks and providing peace of mind to both clients and partners.
Furthermore, with Sophos’s robust MDR service for Microsoft environments, Pax8 MSPs can elevate the security of clients using Microsoft Defender while enabling their customers to see greater return on their Microsoft investments.
The Sophos MDR service through Pax8 supports MSPs in several ways. They can either leverage Sophos’ managed service completely or to augment their customers’ in-house department, including coverage on nights and weekends, which are critical times to defend networks because they are when attackers often strike. For MSPs that provide in-house MDR services, the new AI Assistant in Sophos XDR enables operators of all skill levels to neutralize adversaries faster with existing threat investigation and response intelligence from frontline Sophos MDR analysts.
Availability
The Sophos offering will be available on the Pax8 Marketplace starting February 28, 2025. Pax8 partners interested in learning more about Sophos offerings coming to the Pax8 Marketplace can learn more and sign up at www.sophos.com/msp.
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
Accidental Billionaire Opts for Jail Instead of Returning Money Credited Him by Mistake
US Set to Deport 79 Nigerians on Criminal List
SEC Warns of Potential Ponzi-style Risks in AURUM BOT, ModMount
Airtel Nigeria Commits to Boosting Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure
Ungoverned AI is Quietly Scaling Risk in Nigeria – Dr. Naiho
19 Nigerian Banks Meet CBN Recapitalization Targets Ahead of March Deadline
Youth Talent Takes Center Stage as T2 Ignites High-Octane Rap Battles @ Carnival Calabar
Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Wrapped Up 2025 with Real Change in Governance, Health, Media Across Africa
Showmax Unlocks Easier Payments for Nigerian Subscribers via Baxi
Nigerian Terra Industries Secures $11.8m for Expansion
Telecom2 days agoTelecom Operators Invest Over $1Bn on 2,850 New Sites in 2025 – NCC
E-Financial2 days agoIf Capital is the Answer, What Exactly is the Problem with First Holdco
E-Financial2 days agoAmaanah Finance to Unveils Non-Interest Banking Services Today
General News2 days agoFirst Trustees to Host 8th Islamic Estate Planning Clinic in Abuja
News2 days agoNSCDC Hands over Fake Crypto Currency Trader to EFCC
News2 days agoAlakija’s Flourish Africa Provides N300m Grants for Women Entrepreneurs
General News2 days agoSecurity Forces Probe Use of Drones by Terrorists
Broadcasting2 days agoNew Horizons Nigeria Breaks Ground: First to Fuse Mandarin into ICT Curriculum