Sophos is betting that understaffed IT departments will want to use the cloud to deal with cyber attacks. Kris Hagerman, CEO of the computer security company, said SMBs often have small IT departments and may have no one dedicated to full-time security.

Sophos thinks the answer will be a cloud-based management console to work across its entire security portfolio, Hagerman said. The company’s UTM firewall product handles email security, endpoint and network protection, wireless, web filtering and web server defence.

The company has linked its UTM system to its endpoint protection product so the two can share data, which results in better overall security and easier management, Hagerman said. The system has been given the thumbs up from analyst outfit Gartner which said that its “ease of use consistently rates high. The interface contains general guidance on what each feature does, which is useful for SMB operators, who are not all security experts.”

Hagerman said Sophos’ end user and network businesses—it’s two main lines—are growing twice the rate of the market. There isn’t a magic formula to that growth, he said.