CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

Customer-at-a-Glance
James Donaldson & Sons Ltd

Industry
Timber processors, manufacturers
and distributors

Number of Staff
350 users

Sophos Solutions
Sophos Central
Sophos Endpoint Protection
Intercept X
Sophos Server Protection
Sophos Web Appliance
Sophos Sandstorm

Sophos Customer

James Donaldson & Sons Ltd
is a highly successful family
company that in the last 157
years has grown to become oneof the UK’s leading independent
processors, manufacturers
and distributors of timber andengineered timber products.
From one small branch in Fife,
Scotland, Donaldson’s has
become a nationwide group with
29 operating branches acrossthe UK as well as its Head Officein Scotland.

Since March 2017

‘We needed next-generation
capability, something that would
protect us from zero-hour threats
and ransomware attacks. We knew
our existing solutions could not do
this, yet Sophos picks them up anddeals with them straight away.’
Ryan Nelson
IT Support Analyst
James Donaldson & Sons Ltd A customer success story

James Donaldson & Sons Ltd A customer success story‘Together, Softcat
and Sophos
answered every
question we had,and were great
when we needed anurgent response.’
Ryan Nelson
IT Support Analyst

With an IT team of just three people
protecting 350 endpoints across 30
locations, James Donaldson & Sons
realised it was time to step up theirdefences. Acutely aware that their
existing IT security was ineffective
and outdated, they were concernedthat malware and ransomware
could bring their systems to a halt
at any time. Further to introducing
a number of Sophos products inMarch 2017, the team now feel they
have ‘an extra person on board’keeping them safe at all times.
Business ChallengeWith older web filtering and endpoint protection products due toexpire, Ryan Nelson, IT Support Analyst at James Donaldson &Sons, decided to take action and update the business’ security
stack. He wanted to work with a different vendor to completely
overhaul the existing security solutions due to reliability issues
and prevalent high-profile ransomware attacks – such as
WannaCry and Petya – which he knew the products he had inplace would fail to prevent. Ryan was also looking for IT security
that was simple to manage day to day, and easy to roll out
across multiple locations.

James Donaldson & Sons Ltd A customer success story

Technology Solution
Ryan approached Sophos partner Softcat for advice andthe team there drew up a shortlist of suitable IT securityvendors. He also looked at independent industry reports
such as Gartner that highly rated Sophos. Together, Ryanand Softcat approached a number of vendors, eliminating
those whose products didn’t offer the right functionality,
as well as those who took a long time to respond.
Following an Intercept X demo – where Ryan was able tosee ransomware simulated live and the actions Intercept
X took to back up and restore files – he decided to move
forward with Sophos and began installing products onto
computers within just one week. The products that thecompany has rolled out across their locations – from Kent
to Inverness – include:ÌÌ Cloud-based Sophos Central
A unified console for managing a range of Sophos products
ÌÌ Sophos Endpoint Protection
Blocks malware and infections by identifying
and preventing the handful of techniques andbehaviours used in almost every exploit
ÌÌ Intercept X
Signatureless anti-exploit, anti-ransomware,and root cause analysis that protects
endpoints from advanced threats
ÌÌ Sophos Server Protection
Integrates anti-ransomware and application whitelisting,along with advanced anti-malware and a host-based
intrusion prevention system (HIPS) providing easy,
centralised management of server security
ÌÌ Sophos Web ApplianceIntelligent dashboards and alerts thatoversee all web activity on a network
ÌÌ Sophos Sandstorm
Sandbox technology providing an extra layer ofsecurity against ransomware and targeted attacks‘We now know we havecomplete ransomware
protection across all
servers and computers.’
Ryan Nelson
IT Support Analyst

James Donaldson & Sons Ltd A customer success story

Business Results
Ryan is particularly pleased that Sophos products havebeen so easy to deploy and manage. “The rollout wasa straightforward process due to cloud-based Sophos
Central,” he says. “When we think about how we haveinstalled other vendors’ products in the past, there is justno comparison.” Further benefits include:ÌÌ Instant access to information and faster
response times due to alerts
ÌÌ The ability to log in and take action from anywhere
ÌÌ Sophos Sandstorm that quickly and accurately
detects, blocks and responds to evasive threats using
cloud-based, next-generation sandbox technology
ÌÌ UK-based support from both Softcat and Sophos
ÌÌ An almost invisible footprint that makes nodifference to system performance“We needed to invest more in order to keep pace withthe threats in the industry, yet we didn’t want a cheaper
product that we had no confidence in,” concludes Ryan.
“We can now act quickly if we are ever faced with apotential attack, and having Sophos in our product line-up
just feels like we have an extra person in our team keeping
an eye on everything.”‘We were able to support andadvise James Donaldson& Sons with their IT
security upgrade, fromshortlisting suitable vendors
and identifying the rightproducts through to productdemos, decision making
and installation. Our close
partnership with Sophos
has meant we were able tooffer exactly the right mixof products to meet thecompany’s needs and ensure
total protection, even in theface of increasing malware
and ransomware attacks.’
Jez Bahia
Account Director, Softcat

To find out more about Sophos solutions,call (0)8447 671131 or email sales@sophos.com

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2017-08-02-DSNA (NP)Australia and New Zealand Sales
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