CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Sophos vs Third Wave Innovations

Sophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection. Third Wave Innovations helps growing businesses understand cyber risk, reduce exposure, stay insurable, and recover when something goes wrong. 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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  • Sophos
  • Third Wave Innovations
Sophos vs Third Wave Innovations: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
SophosSophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection.sophos.comThird Wave InnovationsThird Wave Innovations helps growing businesses understand cyber risk, reduce exposure, stay insurable, and recover when something goes wrong.3rdwave.io
What it sells
  • 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.
  • Security Awareness Training[1][5]Training that builds employee cyber knowledge and meets compliance training requirements.
Categories
Headquarters
Oxford, United Kingdom[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Owned by Thoma Bravo since 2020[3][7][8][9]Not stated on its pages
Named customers
  • Jotun[4]
  • National 9/11 Memorial & Museum[4]
  • London South Bank University[4]
  • Town of Gilbert[4]
  • DFS Group[4]
Not stated on its pages
Recent news
  • 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]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[8]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From 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.From its own pages, Third Wave Innovations sells mainly to growing businesses, including small and midsized organizations without a full security team. The pages describe customers such as a mid-sized technology company operating in the healthcare space, a services-based organization, and a manufacturing company. Third Wave Innovations aligns security controls with what insurers expect, so organizations that want to maintain cyber insurance coverage and pass underwriting are part of its audience. Security Awareness Training addresses the training requirements of compliance standards including SOC2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA. Automated Detection & Response works with existing tools for network, identity, cloud, endpoint, and office productivity.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 19, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Sophos and Third Wave Innovations are both filed under MDR and managed SOC.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Sophos's primary category is EDR and XDR; Third Wave Innovations's is MDR and managed SOC.
  • Sophos is also filed under Firewalls and NGFW. Third Wave Innovations is also filed under Security awareness training, Vulnerability management and Third-party risk and security ratings.
  • Sophos lists Sophos Fusion, Sophos Firewall and Sophos Managed Detection and Response. Third Wave Innovations lists Security Awareness Training.
  • Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom.
  • 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: 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.

What it sells: Third Wave Innovations

What Security Awareness Training does[1][5]
Security Awareness Training offers a library of over 200 short videos available in multiple languages. It includes customizable phishing simulations and pre-designed courses with dashboards and reports for tracking employee progress. It addresses training requirements of compliance standards including SOC2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.

Questions about Sophos and Third Wave Innovations

What do Sophos and Third Wave Innovations sell?
Sophos sells Sophos Fusion, Sophos Firewall and Sophos Managed Detection and Response. Third Wave Innovations sells Security Awareness Training.
Are Sophos and Third Wave Innovations in the same category?
They share MDR and managed SOC. Sophos's primary category is EDR and XDR and Third Wave Innovations's is MDR and managed SOC.
Where are Sophos and Third Wave Innovations headquartered?
Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Who owns Sophos and Third Wave Innovations?
Sophos is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2020.
Which customers do Sophos and Third Wave Innovations name?
Sophos publicly names Jotun, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, London South Bank University, Town of Gilbert and DFS Group.
Who are Sophos and Third Wave Innovations sold to?
From its own pages, Sophos sells mainly to distributed and growing enterprises with complex networks, which its XGS 2U firewalls target. From its own pages, Third Wave Innovations sells mainly to growing businesses, including small and midsized organizations without a full security team.
What have Sophos and Third Wave Innovations 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 Sophos

Sophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection. Sophos describes Sophos Fusion as a system that sees everything, connects everything and enables defenses to respond as one. Sophos Fusion is accessible from anywhere, on any device, at any time, with nothing extra to deploy or pay for. Sophos Fusion integrates natively with Sophos solutions and 500+ third-party technologies.[1][10]

Fusion AI is the intelligence layer within Sophos Fusion, and Sophos says human experts remain accountable. Sophos says every new threat seen across the 625,000+ organizations it defends elevates protection for all, automatically. Sophos says its solutions stop AI- and human-led threats before they can impact a business. Sophos takes a prevention-first approach, blocking ransomware, phishing and credential-based attacks before they spread. Sophos describes capabilities to discover and manage AI usage across an organization and reduce AI-driven risk.

On the network side, Sophos says its next-gen firewalls serve distributed and growing enterprises with the most complex networks. Sophos Xstream Flow processors in XGS 2U appliances provide dedicated hardware acceleration. All 2U rackmount models are powered by a high-speed CPU plus an Xstream Flow processor for traffic acceleration. All 2U appliances come with two standard Flexi Port expansion bays plus one or two bays for larger high-density modules. Maximum port density is 48 on the XGS 5500, 68 on the XGS 6500, or 70 on the XGS 7500/8500 using optional modules. Sophos says Flexi Port modules let customers adapt an appliance rather than purchase new hardware mid-term. Sophos describes sufficient headroom for key threat protection features such as TLS inspection, sandboxing, and AI-driven threat analysis. All 2U rackmount appliances are supplied with rackmount sliding rails.[11]

Sophos Firewall includes features tailored to the IT needs of higher education, K-12, and primary and secondary institutions. Sophos Firewall includes built-in policies for CIPA and predefined activities. Sophos Firewall includes features like SafeSearch, YouTube restrictions, and keyword filtering to enable child safety online. Sophos Firewall lets administrators add Chromebook users to its authentication options for user-based policy and reporting. Xstream TLS inspection in Sophos Firewall addresses encrypted traffic passing through firewalls unchecked.[10]

Sophos Firewall and Sophos Endpoint work together to share health information over Sophos Security Heartbeat. Sophos Endpoint shares the application path and executable with Sophos Firewall over Sophos Security Heartbeat. Sophos Firewall uses dynamic firewall rules and lateral movement protection to isolate a compromised host. The Sophos Fusion dashboard consolidates all alerts.[10]

Sophos also sells 2.5 and 10 GE multi-gigabit switches. The 200 Series models are equipped with 2.5 GE and 1 GE ports, and 8, 24 and 48-port models are available. The 1000 series currently consists of a single 8-port model with 10 GE ports plus SFP+. The multi-gigabit switches include Power over Ethernet on all models, with PoE++ support on some. Sophos sells a cloud-managed Wi-Fi solution that supports the Wi-Fi 6/6E AP6 Series. Sophos offers integration with Sophos MDR/XDR or third-party solutions via API to block compromised hosts.[12]

For managed services, Sophos describes fully managed, 24/7 detection and response. A customer quote says Sophos Managed Detection and Response helps look at every single endpoint and activities and spot something potentially malicious. Sophos quotes simple per-user and per-server pricing with no hidden extras. Sophos describes cloud-based delivery with no big upfront infrastructure costs and no maintenance fees. Sophos describes three Response Modes for flexible deployment.[1][11][13]

Sophos on the record

Sources

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

Third Wave Innovations full record

  1. [1]3rdwave.ioThird Wave Innovations · 3rdwave.io · undated page, accessed October 19, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Us | Third Wave InnovationsThird Wave Innovations · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Home | Third Wave InnovationsThird Wave Innovations · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Case Studies | Third Wave InnovationsThird Wave Innovations · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Security Awareness Training | Third Wave InnovationsThird Wave Innovations · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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