CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Exaforce vs Sophos

Exaforce sells a platform built on a unified data layer and real-time knowledge graph, with agents that help security teams detect, triage, investigate, and respond to threats. Sophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection. CISO Tribune files both under MDR and managed SOC. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Exaforce
  • Sophos
Exaforce vs Sophos: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
ExaforceExaforce sells a platform built on a unified data layer and real-time knowledge graph, with agents that help security teams detect, triage, investigate, and respond to threats.exaforce.comSophosSophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection.sophos.com
What it sells
  • Exabot Triage[1][4]Investigates security alerts and classifies them.
  • Exabot Investigate[1][6]Supports natural language search and visual exploration for investigations.
  • Exabot Respond[1][7]Executes response across endpoint, identity, IaaS, SaaS, and email.
  • Sophos Fusion[6][7][10]Sophos Fusion is a single cloud-based platform for managing IT security protection.
  • Sophos Firewall[1][10]Sophos Firewall includes features for higher education, K-12, and primary and secondary institutions.
  • Sophos Managed Detection and Response[7]Sophos describes fully managed, 24/7 detection and response.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesOxford, United Kingdom[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately heldOwned by Thoma Bravo since 2020[3][7][8][9]
Named customers
Not stated on its pages
  • Jotun[4]
  • National 9/11 Memorial & Museum[4]
  • London South Bank University[4]
  • Town of Gilbert[4]
  • DFS Group[4]
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • October 1, 2026Sophos launched CISO Advantage, an agentic AI service that links security operations to security strategy, rolling out across North America, the UK and Europe.[5]
  • July 15, 2026Sophos announced Sophos Fusion, a defense system combining its endpoint, network, email, cloud, identity and security operations products in one architecture.[6]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[8]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetFrom its own pages, Sophos sells mainly to distributed and growing enterprises with complex networks, which its XGS 2U firewalls target. Sophos also sells firewalls for SMB and branch offices, and plug-and-play security for smaller branch offices and remote sites. Sophos Firewall includes features tailored to higher education, K-12, and primary and secondary institutions.
Last verified
November 6, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Exaforce and Sophos are both filed under MDR and managed SOC.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Exaforce's primary category is AI SOC analysts; Sophos's is EDR and XDR.
  • Exaforce is also filed under SIEM and AI model and agent security. Sophos is also filed under Firewalls and NGFW.
  • Exaforce lists Exabot Triage, Exabot Investigate and Exabot Respond. Sophos lists Sophos Fusion, Sophos Firewall and Sophos Managed Detection and Response.
  • Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom.
  • Exaforce is privately held. Sophos is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2020.
  • Sophos publicly names Jotun, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, London South Bank University, Town of Gilbert and DFS Group.

What it sells: Exaforce

What Exabot Triage does[1][4]
Exabot Triage investigates security alerts across SIEM, EDR, phishing tools, and Exaforce detections. Exabot Triage classifies alerts as False Positive, Benign, or Needs Investigation.
What Exabot Investigate does[1][6]
Exabot Investigate supports natural language search, visual exploration, and simplified queries across data sources. Exabot Investigate operates independently of any SIEM. Query Builder in Exabot Investigate combines behavioral events and configuration context into a single query.
What Exabot Respond does[1][7]
Exabot Respond executes response across endpoint, identity, IaaS, SaaS, and email, with out-of-the-box playbooks for common scenarios. Customers can build custom workflows in a visual drag-and-drop builder using nodes for conditions, actions, approvals, AI reasoning, loops, and branching. Automation Agents can run workflows autonomously or with human approvals.

What it sells: Sophos

What Sophos Fusion does[6][7][10]
Sophos Fusion integrates natively with Sophos solutions and 500+ third-party technologies. The Sophos Fusion dashboard consolidates all alerts. Fusion AI is the intelligence layer within Sophos Fusion.
What Sophos Firewall does[1][10]
Sophos Firewall includes built-in policies for CIPA and predefined activities. Sophos Firewall includes features like SafeSearch, YouTube restrictions, and keyword filtering. Sophos Firewall uses dynamic firewall rules and lateral movement protection to isolate a compromised host.
What Sophos Managed Detection and Response does[7]
Sophos quotes simple per-user and per-server pricing with no hidden extras. Sophos describes three Response Modes.

Questions about Exaforce and Sophos

What do Exaforce and Sophos sell?
Exaforce sells Exabot Triage, Exabot Investigate and Exabot Respond. Sophos sells Sophos Fusion, Sophos Firewall and Sophos Managed Detection and Response.
Are Exaforce and Sophos in the same category?
They share MDR and managed SOC. Exaforce's primary category is AI SOC analysts and Sophos's is EDR and XDR.
Where are Exaforce and Sophos headquartered?
Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Who owns Exaforce and Sophos?
Exaforce is privately held. Sophos is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2020.
Which customers do Exaforce and Sophos name?
Sophos publicly names Jotun, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, London South Bank University, Town of Gilbert and DFS Group.
Who are Exaforce and Sophos sold to?
From its own pages, Sophos sells mainly to distributed and growing enterprises with complex networks, which its XGS 2U firewalls target.
What have Exaforce and Sophos announced recently?
October 1, 2026: Sophos launched CISO Advantage, an agentic AI service that links security operations to security strategy, rolling out across North America, the UK and Europe.

About Exaforce

Exaforce sells a platform built on a unified data layer and real-time knowledge graph, with agents that help security teams detect, triage, investigate, and respond to threats. Four Exabots cover detection, triage, investigation, and response on a unified, real-time view of the customer environment. Exaforce lets customers run the platform with an in-house team, or have Exaforce run it with its analysts and Exabots working as an extended SOC.[1][3][4][5]

Exaforce pairs its agentic AI with a global team of experts to deliver MDR. The global Exaforce SOC pairs responders with agentic AI to deliver hands-on monitoring, investigation, and containment around the clock.[5]

Exaforce builds on a dedicated data layer that ingests logs and configuration across identity, cloud, endpoint, code, and SaaS. Exaforce ingests logs, alerts, and telemetry from over 100 sources, including GitHub and Google Workspace, and normalizes them into a single security data layer. Exaforce stores all raw data in real time, then normalizes and enriches telemetry. Exaforce's data platform uses storage tiering to keep hot data accessible while retaining full history for audits. Exaforce connects through agentless, API-based connectors that pull telemetry from cloud, identity, SaaS, endpoint, and code platforms. Exaforce has prebuilt integrations for AWS, Google Cloud, Okta, GitHub, Microsoft 365, CrowdStrike, Wiz, and more, each mapped to a common schema. Exaforce reads from where customer data lives, so customers can start without re-routing pipelines.[3][4]

At the core of Exaforce is a Multi-Model AI engine that combines data semantics, behavioral baselining, machine learning, and large language models. Exaforce's Multi-Model AI separates data relationships, anomaly detection, and expert reasoning into dedicated models. In the Exaforce platform, the Semantic Model transforms raw data into actionable intelligence, and the Behavioral Model separates real threats from normal activity.[3][4]

Exabot Detect monitors IaaS and SaaS environments with the Multi-Model AI engine to identify breaches that evade traditional rules and UEBA. Exabot Detect correlates behavioral baselines and contextual intelligence to surface attacks across environments like AWS, Okta, OpenAI, and GitHub. Exabot Triage investigates security alerts across SIEM, EDR, phishing tools, and Exaforce detections. Exabot Triage classifies alerts as False Positive, Benign, or Needs Investigation. Exabot Investigate supports natural language search, visual exploration, and simplified queries across data sources. Exabot Investigate operates independently of any SIEM. Exabot Respond executes response across endpoint, identity, IaaS, SaaS, and email, with out-of-the-box playbooks for common scenarios. Exabot Respond can isolate cloud instances, quarantine or delete malicious emails, block IPs, disable endpoints, reset MFA or passwords, suspend users, and revoke sessions.[1][4][5][6][7]

Exaforce provides an inventory of human, non-human, AI agent, and third-party identities, with their effective permissions, credentials, and actions. Exaforce monitors collaboration, version control systems, and other apps with ML-based detections. Exaforce detects threats in Google Workspace without manual rule creation. For insider threats, Exaforce combines cloud logs, permissions, and HR data into one insider threat narrative. For phishing, Exaforce supports triage and investigation of phishing incidents across the email ecosystem.[8][9][10][11]

Exaforce can either be a customer's primary SOC tech stack or augment an existing SOC investment. Many teams deploy Exabots alongside their current SIEM, EDR, and security stack to handle high-volume tier-1 triage and tier-2 investigation. Exaforce ingests alerts from existing tools, enriches them with unified context, and delivers investigated findings with recommendations. Exaforce is audited and certified by third party standards.[1][2][4][6][7][12][13]

Exaforce on the record

Sources

Exaforce full record

  1. [1]exaforce.comExaforce · exaforce.com · undated page, accessed November 6, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Exaforce unveils 75 million in series a funding to revolutionize security and operations with agentic aiExaforce · exaforce.com · published April 17, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Exaforce — Agentic SOC and MDRExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Agentic AI SOC Platform Overview | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Find an MDR Partner | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Exabot Investigate | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Exabot Respond | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Identity Attack Surface | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]SaaS Attack Surface | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Insider Attack Surface | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Agentic AI SOC Platform & MDR Solutions | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Exaforce MCP Connector for ClaudeExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]AI for SOC | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Sophos full record

  1. [1]ProductsSophos · sophos.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Sophos completes secureworks acquisitionSophos · sophos.com · published February 3, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Sophos announces completion of take private acquisition by thoma bravoSophos · sophos.com · published March 2, 2020 · Tier A
  4. [4]Case studiesSophos · sophos.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Sophos launches ciso advantage bringing ciso level security strategy within reach of every organizationSophos · sophos.com · published October 1, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Sophos fusion ai native cybersecurity defense systemSophos · sophos.com · published July 15, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Sophos: Cyber Resilience for the Agentic AI EraSophos · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Sophos Firewall Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier C
  9. [9]Sophos Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]School Protection | SophosSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]XGS Series Firewalls - Distributed Edge - Enterprise & Campus - 2U ModelsSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Compare 200 and 1000 Series Sophos Switches - Multi-gigabit ModelsSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Free Quote: Sophos MDR for Microsoft DefenderSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

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