Case Study: South Oxfordshire District Council achieves rapid disaster recovery and PSN‑compliant secure networking with Sophos UTM

South Oxfordshire District Council turns to Sophos following a devastating fire

South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC), a local government authority serving roughly 400 users, faced ongoing challenges to meet Government PSN compliance, secure email and web protection, and support councillors’ BYOD Wi‑Fi needs — then suffered a devastating arson attack in January 2015. The council had worked with Sophos since 2010, deploying Sophos SafeGuard Encryption and later evaluating and adopting Sophos UTM to address those security and connectivity requirements.

Sophos, working with partner Axiom Secure IT Ltd, implemented Sophos SafeGuard Encryption and Sophos UTM to provide secure email and web protection plus integrated Wi‑Fi, enabling rapid remote access and compliance. The UTM was up and running within half a day after the fire, restoring services and allowing staff to work from home within days; the solution also delivered simplified vendor management and cost savings of up to £50k (Sophos quoted ~£25k versus competitors’ ~£75k), returning SODC to business as usual.

South Oxfordshire District Council

Simon Turner

IT Operations Manager