Ensure Partner Program Compliance and Protect or Increase Your Margins

Partner Program•Compliance•Training

Partner compliance deadline is March 31, 2022. Read more about Sophos Partner Program certification requirements and how to stay compliant.

Feb 01 2022 By

We reward your investment in the Sophos Partner Program with high discounts, dedicated channel support, and the world’s most effective cybersecurity technology.

We want to make sure you have the skills you need as a Sophos Partner to grow your business and secure a healthy customer base. Our sales and technical certifications are designed to do just that. Our certification paths will help you climb the Sophos Partner Program ladder, gaining more rewards as you go.

In a nutshell

To remain compliant with our partner program and to secure your margins, please:

  1. Extend expiring certifications with Delta courses click here
    (Check for Firewall v18.0 certifications in particular, as they will expire on February 11, 2022)
  2. Complete new certifications if required click here

Read on for a full description of compliance requirements. Please particularly review the “What you need to remember” section at the end of this post.

Yearly compliance audits

On March 31, 2022, we will conduct our yearly compliance audit. This will determine the partner tier and earned technical accreditations of all our partners for the following year.

It is important that you meet revenue and certification requirements as detailed in the Sophos Partner Program Guide by March 31, 2022. This way, you can maintain or even improve your partner tier as well as your margins for the next compliance period (April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023).

Access the Sophos Partner Portal to view your year-to-date compliance status. This page is only accessible for partner portal administrators.

Throughout the year, partners who qualify for a higher partner tier or a new accreditation by the 1st of a month will be promoted on the 15th of the same month.

Certification requirements

Please consult the Sophos Partner Certification Path for certification requirements for each partner tier and the steps required to achieve them.

Note that Sophos certifications are valid for two years after course release. Expired certifications may put your partner program compliance at risk. Make sure to extend expiring certifications with delta courses. These only require two hours to complete.

Certification lifecycle

The certification lifecycle page summarizes all active and expired certifications, and includes links to delta courses that will help you keep your certification fresh.

Below is a list of certifications that will expire soon.

Certification: Expiring on: Extend with:
Firewall Engineer and Delta 18.0 February 11, 2022 Firewall Engineer Delta 18.5
Firewall Architect and Delta 18.0 February 11, 2022 Firewall Architect Delta 18.5

Your certifications

You can view certifications held by your organization and the certified individuals on the Sophos Partner Portal.

We have previously notified the individuals holding expiring certifications as well as the partner portal administrators and will continue to send monthly email updates detailing the compliance status of your organization, plus upcoming certification expirations.

Your accreditations

Accreditations demonstrate your area of expertise, ensure preferred treatment with new product launches, and make certain you are listed on the Sophos Partner Locator where customers go to find a reseller. Accredited partners need to hold a defined set of certifications which is specified here.

 

This is what you need to remember:

To summarize, these are the most important steps we recommend you take to ensure compliance with the Sophos Partner Program.

  1. Where are you today?
    • Look up your partner tier and accreditations here
    • Check your year-to-date compliance attainment here (accessible for partner portal administrators only)
  2. Where would you like to go?
    • Identify training requirements for your current or higher tier here
    • Review certifications held in your organization here
  3. What actions do you need to take?
    • Extend expiring certifications with Delta courses here
      (Check for Firewall v18.0 certifications in particular as they will be expiring on February 11, 2022)
    • Complete new certifications if required here
  4. Boost your revenue
    • Make the most of sales promotions here
    • Run co-marketing programs here

Please reach out to your distributor or Sophos representative if you have additional questions. We thank you for being a trusted partner and look forward to a continued, successful partnership.

About the Author

Sophos is a global leader and innovator of advanced security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, including Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and incident response services and a broad portfolio of endpoint, network, email, and cloud security technologies. As one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity providers, Sophos defends more than 600,000 organizations and more than 100 million users worldwide from active adversaries, ransomware, phishing, malware, and more. Sophos’ services and products connect through the Sophos Central management console and are powered by Sophos X-Ops, the company’s cross-domain threat intelligence unit. Sophos X-Ops intelligence optimizes the entire Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which includes a centralized data lake that leverages a rich set of open APIs available to customers, partners, developers, and other cybersecurity and information technology vendors. Sophos provides cybersecurity-as-a-service to organizations needing fully managed security solutions. Customers can also manage their cybersecurity directly with Sophos’ security operations platform or use a hybrid approach by supplementing their in-house teams with Sophos’ services, including threat hunting and remediation. Sophos sells through reseller partners and managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.