Sophos Cyberoam UTM Reviews

I use it for security, web management, content management, VPN, and site-to-site VPN. I use many features of the firewalls, like intrusion prevention system, antivirus, anti-spam, etc. I use almost every aspect of the firewalls.

It has performed perfectly fine, so far.

The benefits are the firewall.

The performance and security are the best features.

The security options are great. We never had an attack, which is pretty good. We use it from a standard location, and they are connected to each other. 

I am not sure there will be a another release of Cyberoam because it will be Sophos going forward. What could be included going forward though? I would like to see a better content management pack and also the website searching should be better.

We have never had to restart a firewall. The firewalls have all worked perfectly fine.

Scalability is good, if you get good models. I have never had a problem with scalability.

The technical support from Turkey is very good. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

Cyberoam still supports their old product. Though, the NG theories are not supported anymore.

We started with Cyberoam. We did not switch from anything else.

Before it was Linux machines, but for the service, we switched over to Cyberoam for performance purposes. 

The initial setup was done before my time.

After I started at the company, I have continue doing set ups with my assistants. Sometimes, we get external help. Mostly, we do the setup that we want, because previously it was straightforward and easy to use.

Prices are very high.

There were quite a number of vendors in our original shortlist. We chose Cyberoam because it was the leading firewall brand in the world. It still is. We chose it because of its worldwide usage and wide knowledge base on the Internet, and also the positive reviews of its users.

Now, we are trying to evaluate the different brands because Cyberoam was acquired by Sophos, and we are not sure how Cyberoam will evolve in the next few years. Usually in five years, the acquiring company completely acquires their technology and adapts their technology into their own brand and keep on with their brand. So, it seems like Sophos will keep on providing the firewall solution instead of Cyberoam and the Cyberoam brand will eventually disappear.

This is why we are trying to find a proactive solution to get the most support, upgrades, product improvements, etc. This is why we are evaluating whether to migrate over to Sophos or Fortigate, and I have been having a hard time choosing whether to replace all of my Cyberoam products with Sophos or move them over to FortiGate.

I am rating it a 10 out of 10 because it has never failed us.

Talk to people who are actually using it. Actual experience always differs from the product advertisement.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

• Market share
• Ease of use
• Best practices
• Comments of different users from different companies of the product.

Before I purchase anything, I go onto web and do thorough research about:

• What the product can offer.
• What are the challenges.
• What are the properties of that product that makes our IT people's lives easier.
• What happens if something goes wrong.
• How fast I can get support.
• What are its internet support options?

Sometimes, if a product is used widely, you do not even have to call anyone in support. The answers are all over the Internet. For example, if you are using a Microsoft product, you don't even have to call Microsoft, because the Internet is growing with Microsoft articles about how to do and what to do when there are issues. If you are using a very limited operating system, like a Mac operating system, Mac OS. It's not very common, so you need to get professional help.

Primary use is monitoring. Having a reporting console to monitor the usage of bandwidth. That's the prime concern.

Let's talk about connecting the branches to the central headquarters. That has really improved our functioning, because we were really facing trouble with remote locations. What we had before was a decentralized mechanism in our organization, but after having this product we were able to get the remote locations into the same LAN. We were able to control the bandwidth and were able to take virtual access of those machines and give them the support, as and when required.

The best feature is the flexibility the product offers, in terms of remote access. We have bout 35 locations across the kingdom, and connecting those remote locations with the minimal bandwidth was a challenge. A few of my branches are connected via 3G. So that is the most advanced feature I like about Cyberoam, the flexibility the solution offers.

There is a lot or room for improvement, because it is still not a fourth or fifth generation firewall. It lacks security features. I would say security is something that is not that appealing in this product, so that's where they can improve.

There were no issues with stability.

I'm not sure about scalability because the number of users I had was approximately 250 and the headquarters model, which is CR300iNG, supports about 350 users. The threshold was good, so I did not find any major issues with it.

Average, average, average. Their customer service has to be improved a lot, especially the ticketing mechanism they have. First we do have to first raise a ticket, wait for their availability. And the people, I found they don't have much knowledge, so normally a lot of escalations after which the issue gets resolved.

Earlier, I was using Cisco ICER. I switched because it's not a UTM box, and it requested a lot of add-ons, when it comes to flexibility of those devices. For example, if I needed to extend my user limit, every time I need to purchase a slot and increase the firmware. That was not so appealing. That is the reason I switched to the new, next-generation UTM firewall.

It was very user friendly. It was a straightforward integration. We had no issues. In fact, no system integrator deployed it. We did it ourselves.

It is worth the value. 

I did evaluate FortiGate.

The first drawback is that Sophos has acquired Cyberoam. So, if I was a new customer who wanted to choose between Cyberoam and Sophos, I would definitely go for Cyberoam because it has additional features in it. I don't understand the strategy behind it, because the same owner has two different products under one umbrella. It's a bit confusing.

Six out of ten is the best I can rate Cyberoam at this moment. To get it to a 10, it's up to the manufacturer. They need to really upgrade their firmware to match up with the fourth or fifth generation firewalls that other vendors have to offer. My advice would be that the manufacturer needs to focus on security.

Site to Site VPN, and local web filtering.

The ability to have a site to site VPN, yet have the users use their local internet rather than sending all traffic back to our main site is crucial to their day to day operations. Remote VOIP phone system routing through the VPN we have extension connections to those remote campuses.

We have issues with IPS and DoS attacks taking down a couple of our sites. I've changed the IPs of the external interfaces yet the attacks still happen and the Firewall will disconnect the VPN connection as well as stop all internal traffic from flowing externally. I am still able to HTTPS to the external interface, but it takes a full reboot of the appliance to get any traffic flowing again.

Deployment only has one snag. Our VOIP system initially tried to communicate over the internet before the VPN connection is active. Once that happened, unsuccessfully, the phone switch stops trying. But support was able to diagnose the problem and come up with a solution to keep traffic blocked going to the internet, causing it to wait for the VPN to be active and traffic flow successfully.

Seems like the main instability I have found is with my Austin site and the DoS attacks that take down the VPN and internet ability for the local site. I have 7 remote sites and this is the only one that has these issues regularly.

Yes, currently with the Sophos buy out of Cyberoam. My CR15iNG models show not to be upgradable to the new Sophos IOS. Meaning I have to purchase new equipment to get any of the new features and performance. Causing me to investigate other firewalls.

I have always had great luck with customer service. I have been with them for so long that they know me and are pretty responsive to any issues I've had. I have had hardware issues in the past and received a replacement the next day. I've also been on the phone for quite some time for them to diagnose an issue I have and come up with a good solution. While their support is not in the US, I have not had a problem getting someone on the phone when I call.

There is always another level. First level of support is very capable of helping with configuration issues. While when something more complicated is in need they have engineers to speak with and view your appliance to be sure they have all the information and diagnose appropriately.

We used Cisco firewalls prior. They worked great, were more complicated to setup and cost significantly more initially and to renew each year.

Very straightforward for setup. I had a few issues with my VOIP setup but once that was figured out setup for all other sites was a snap.

In-House deployment.

Much less travel expense. Even when I have issues, as with my Austin site, I'm able to rectify them remotely in most cases. With the Cisco I had to travel if I was needing to change the configuration.

These, CR15iNG remote/small office firewalls, units are pretty inexpensive and renewal pricing is well worth the support cost. They do not have a hardware replacement support agreement at this time with Cyberoam. I do believe Sophos is changing that portion of the support agreement though.

Not really, we had the Cisco in place. We had a vendor at the time that was really high on Cyberoam as they have done the evaluation of others for us.

I liked the product so much I purchased one for my home as well.

Prior to Sophos taking over I had a great sales support staff and technical staff. Since that has lagged a bit. I'm hoping that with my upgrade to the Sophos OS that will change, if I stay with their product.

I'm using Cyberoam in close to nine locations.

We are using, for example, IP sets from Kenya to Somalia, a place where we could not get MPLS connectivity. 

We have a secondary server in the Somalia office. I also use it from the Nairobi office to the Dubai office as the MPLS is very expensive and I need to do a backup daily. That is for the IP sec. 

For the VPN, we use it to access our ERP systems remotely from everywhere. Close to a hundred users use it and it has been stable.

The VPN is excellent on the solution. 

The reporting aspect of the solution is very good.

The initial setup is straightforward. A company should have any troubles setting it up in their organization.

The reports are not very detailed, or, at least, some aspects of it are not that detailed. They need to improve the reporting and to bring in greater detail.

The policy is a bit too vague. The solution needs to be much clearer when they go about making policies.

I'd like to see better documentation in the future.

I've been using the solution for the last five years.

Overall, the stability has been excellent. I've only had an issue with one device which had a power surge that destroyed it and I replaced it. So far, so good. I've never had it with latency issues with the memory going down. It has been good. It has served me well.

We have many offices. There may be 300 to 400. So far, it hasn't been an issue.

The technical support is good. Our license is the eight to five, not 24/7. Once you raise a ticket through the chat, you open it with another ticket with the account. Anytime when you open a ticket, they're very efficient. I've never had an issue with them. We're quite satisfied with their level of service. 

The initial setup is not complex. It's straightforward. I haven't had an issue with the process at all. It's been easy.

Basically, for most of the machines, we take a backup of it. Once I get a new machine, I install the backup with all my policies and everything set, and I only change the IP. 

We are thinking of getting another firewall. I'm currently comparing Cisco Meraki, Fortinet, and Sophos. We're trying to see the cost and comparing them on a few points.

Any past evaluation was a long time ago. Before I joined the organization, the organization evaluated Cisco. Nowadays, Cisco, Meraki, and other options came out, and they might not have as many features. 

We are a customer and end-user.

We are using various versions, including 100iNG, 50iNG, and 25iNG.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. There's always room for improvement, although mostly we have been happy with it.

We use the solution solely to configure the web app filter. 

Security comes with multiple default IPs, which allows things to be done immediately, within only two to three minutes. 

The solution has very good performance. 

The solution is user-friendly. 

While the security features are excellent, they could be improved. 

We have been using Sophos Cyberoam UTM for around four to five years.

The solution is already scalable.

Technical support is excellent.

It took around 30 minutes to complete the entire configuration.

The same team is used for the deployment and maintenance. 

The solution is cheap in comparison with Sophos. 

It comes with a yearly licensing fee. 

We have around 20 clients using the solution, but have migrated 10 of them to Sophos.

We recommend the solution to others. 

I rate Sophos Cyberoam UTM as a ten out of ten. 

We are using Sophos Cyberoam UTM for network protection.

There are plenty of features available, such as Full Guard and WAN. 

The solution is at its end of life and some of the appliances are finishing.

I have been using this solution for approximately 15 years.

The solution is stable, we have not had any bugs or issues.

The solution is good for medium-sized businesses.

I have used many other network protection solutions, such as Fortinet.

I rate Sophos Cyberoam UTM an eight out of ten.

We are a solution provider and Sophos Cyberoam UTM is the main product that we sell. We also use it as part of our own network security solution as well.

The primary use cases are setting data quotas on a per-user level, web filtering, and granting or denying access to resources. In Sri Lanka, the data is always limited, which is one of the biggest problems that we have.

In some companies, productivity is not as good because people are using sites like Facebook and YouTube. This can consume a lot of data without the organization being aware of it, and Cyberoam is really good in these kinds of cases.

Having a firewall solution with a data quota is very important when the bandwidth is limited, which really distinguishes it from other products. When it comes to small and medium-sized organizations, one of their main concerns is that their data quota is not exceeded. It is quite an advantage for the administrators.

There is training material available on the website for the administrators to learn how to set it up and use it. This is very helpful and can be done easily with a one or two day course.

When it comes to web filtering and application filtering, it does not contain enough signatures to determine all of the sites that need to be blocked. This is something that higher-end firewalls are better at.

I have been working with Cyberoam for the past four years. My company has been using it for at least five or six.

Prior to the acquisition of Cyberoam by Sophos, the product was not very stable. Currently, it is really stable and we are happy with it.

One of our clients has 200 employees and they are all relying on protection from Sophos Cyberoam UTM. Nonetheless, it is all on-premises and it does not work through the cloud, so I don't consider it to be a highly scalable product. I would say that it is better for a company with a single branch, rather than for one with multiple branches or with branches connected to a head office.

Although we have people who are knowledgable about the product, if there is a level of configuration that we are not used to then we contact our distributor for help.

I have also worked with similar products from Cisco and I find them quite difficult to set up compared to this. Cisco also has training available, but I think that you will need two weeks or a month to learn how to set it up and maintain it.

The initial setup is between easy and intermediate. For a basic configuration, it is straightforward. I would say that compared to a Cisco product, it is easier.

We have engineers who are qualified and we deploy Cyberoam for our clients.

For companies with approximately 200 employees, having two or three system administrators is enough to maintain it.

This is a cost-effective solution compared to other vendors, such as Cisco.

Our customers look at many options but they normally choose Cyberoam because of the data quota, as well as the competitive pricing. After you buy the device, you can get subscriptions for different features. Companies normally buy it for one year or three years at a time.

There are also basic features that are available without purchasing a license. An example is that web filtering is not available without a license, but the data quota management is. That comes with the appliance itself.

When we transitioned from Cyberoam to Sophos Cyberoam UTM, we were able to back up the rules and then upload them into the new solutions. It was easy to do and within a few hours, it was set up.

If your company does not have a network administrator then this is a good option because the training makes it very easy to use. For larger, enterprise-level organizations, people will look for different solutions.

If I were rating this product only for the Sri Lankan market then I would score it an eight out of ten. However, the majority of other countries do not have the issue of bandwidth limitations, and without the quota being important, I cannot rate it as high.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

• Easy to deploy.
• Great IPS
• Managing APs is now easy
• Infected machines cannot connect the ERP until it is clean, so my internal servers are protected. 
• Great reporting tool
• User, app, and protocol all are in control.

It has many features that no other competition has in single box so far, such as:

• Dual AV engine for web and email.
• Optimized three-clicks-to-anywhere navigation.
• New unified policy model enabling all business.
• User and network policies to be managed on a single screen with powerful filtering and search options.
• Policy Templates for common business applications, like Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and many more defined in XML enabling customization and sharing.
• Custom IPS, Web, App, and Traffic Shaping (QoS) settings per user or network policy on a single screen.
• Sophos Security Heartbeat connecting Sophos endpoints with the Firewall to share health status and telemetry to enable instant identification of unhealthy or compromised endpoints
• Policy support for Sophos Security Heartbeat to automatically isolate or limit network access to compromised endpoints
• Application Risk Meter provides and overall risk factor based on the risk level of applications on the network
• FastPath Packet Optimization
• Hotspot support for (custom) vouchers
• Password of the day
• T&C acceptance

Other valuable features include:

• Wireless guest Internet access with walled garden options
• Time-based wireless network access
• Wireless repeating and bridging meshed network mode with supported APs

• Advanced Threat Protection (detect and block network traffic attempting to contact command and control servers using multi-layered DNS, AFC, and firewall).
• Sandstorm Cloud Sandbox Protection
• Patent-pending SPX encryption for one-way message encryption
• Recipient self-registration SPX password management
• Hundreds of on-box reports with custom report options: Dashboards (Traffic, Security, and User Threat Quotient).
• Applications (App Risk, Blocked Apps, Search Engines, Web Servers, and FTP)
• Network and Threats (IPS, ATP, Wireless, and Security Heartbeat)
• VPN
• Email
• Compliance (HIPAA, GLBA, SOX, FISMA, PCI, NERC CIP v3, and CIPA)
• Robust hardware
• Huge RAM
• SSD

On-box sandstorm should be available. As of now, it is from their cloud.

No issues.

No issues.

Customer Service:

Very nice.

Technical Support:

Very good.

Used cyberoam iNG firewall/UTM. 

The new model is Sophos XG and I am upgraded to that, which is a great solution.

The initial setup is very easy.

Very good.

Almost 100%. It saves a lot of man hours and bandwidth. Management loves its reporting.

The price is very competitive and the licensing is easy.

Cyberoam iNG.

• Value for money
• Easy deployment
• Sophos has a great vision, works on information security, products are available like endpoint, mobile mgmt., encryption, WiFi, server protection, email gateway, web gateway, and many more. 
• Sophos Cloud is great.