Sophos UTM Reviews

We primarily use the solution for perimeter security in order to protect content. We also use it for the XG firewall.

The content filtering is the solution's most valuable aspect.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

The solution is pretty easy to manage.

There needs to be some improvement in the IPsec VPN. There is implementation only support. I have version one. I'd be most interested in having IP version two from the protocol.

I've been using the solution for about five years or so at this point.

The stability of the product is quite good. We haven't had any issues with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze on us. We trust its reliability.

We don't really have scalability in mind right now. I need proof of all that. It's a single device that we have.

We don't plan on increasing usage with this device. In fact, we're considering a switch to Sophos XG.

We've never directly worked with Sophos' technical support. We've always dealt with the Sophos partners.

We also don't really have any experience with online community support or documentation.

I previously worked with Microsoft BMG. At the time we switched, Sophos was the better option. We needed a solution that was easy to manage and Sophos fit the bill in that sense. Microsoft didn't really offer any support. Sophos also was integrated with a directory and a single sign-on.

We're actually looking at switching to Sophos XG in the near future. The main difference between the two lines of Sophos products is the level of support provided. XG offers more of what we need. We may also eventually move to a Huawei firewall.

The initial implementation is not complex. We found it to be very straightforward. It was easy.

The deployment took approximately one week. It didn't take too long.

We had two people on staff that handle deployment and maintenance.

We had a consultant help us manage the implementation. hey were very good and quite knowledgable. We were satisfied with the assistance they provided to our team.

We pay for the service on a yearly basis. The last time we paid was in June, for a year. At the time, it was about $20,000.

There are no costs above a standard licensing fee.

We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with Sophos.

I can't remember the exact version of the solution I am currently using, however, I believe it to be around version 9.

It's a good product, and I would recommend it, however, I would advise other potential users to instead maybe consider Sophos XG.

Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

We mainly use it for web filtration — we have a number of small websites. It's also a VPN — that's filtering, firewalling, and IPS.

Within our organization, there are roughly 250 people using Sophos UTM. Also, we have around 15 XG users.

We plan on using XG for the next few years, but we are going to stop using UTM on our main site.

I think the behavior with the zones was a little bit tricky to understand at the beginning of this project. It can be hard to manage at first, but overall, we don't have many problems with this solution.

I have been using this solution for one and a half years.

It's stable, but the reaction time of the GUI is terrible; however, in my opinion, UTM is more stable than XG.

Sometimes, It can be quite a time-consuming process to book a session with Sophos' support.

The initial setup was not straightforward because we had experience with UTM, but not with XG. It's a completely different system. 

We had it up and running within one week.

We installed it on our own.

I would recommend UTM over XG because it's easier to manage.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give XG a rating of 6. Conversely, I would give UTM a rating of nine.

SMB firewall.

Protected it against malware and allowed us to serve our servers safely.

Application layer filtering.

Setup: Getting an exchange server to work behind Sophos is incredibly difficult with rules invoked that are simple numbers (e.g. 9054).

Reverse proxy, SSL VPN, web & email protection

For me, those features were most valuable from a security point of view;

• Reverse proxy is very important for shielding application frameworks.

• For VPN, we all knew that PPTP was broken and is not secure anymore. For Ipsec, you need to have opened ports, and if you are in a hotel who only has ports 80 and 443 opened, you can’t do anything.

SSLVPN is one of the solutions. Yes, you can use DirectAccess, but there are some limitations, too.

For DirectAccess, you need to have all those computers joined in one domain.

• Web & email protection is a nice feature because you have all of those controls in one dashboard. This is of course for small and maybe some mid-size companies. For larger and enterprise, it’s another story.

Less and faster administration, full control of traffic, and a lot of futures included in the base price.

The goal for small companies is to have one administration dashboard -- from where you can manage antivirus for computers, firewalls, IDS, IPS, mobile phones, tablets, etc.

Sophos UTM is on the right path to getting there.

Sophos UTM 135 = two years.
Sophos UTM 115 = one year.

No problems with stability.

No problems with scalability.

The technical support is really good and the representatives are very responsive.

Cisco (didn’t achieve expectations), Microsoft TMG (end of life).

The setup is straightforward, but I suggest hiring an expert for integration. This is your first line of defense, and there is no room for mistakes.

Sophos UTM’s are not the cheapest but they are not the most expensive. Create a checklist of what you need, and go through it with a sales representative. They will advise the right license for your company and I’m sure you can get some discount.

Cisco, CheckPoint UTM-1

Create a checklist with your requirements, test the solution, and if it passes everything, implement it.

Firewall and Web Protection

Advanced Threat Protection is a good "dashboard" feature to see if there is any network issues

Its a key point of keeping your network secure which once setup requires minimal ongoing monitoring. Also this unit can act as the whole security suite so everything in your network is protected.

Its identification of users without the need of setting up Proxies or Identity software could be better, that is probably the trickiest section to setup.

2 years

No issues other than ensuring what has been configured matches the requirement of the company/client.

The only stability issue we have encountered was an update caused the unit to over process things. Everything kept running but it did slow down Internet access because of this.

I have only done basic High Availability setup which is very good but not Scalable solutions. However, as long as you follow the sizing guides and get the right UTM for the company there has been no issues.

Excellent

Not outstanding but I have noticed significant improvements over the last 12 months

We used to use SonicWall. I still think its a good product though its web filtering and SMTP filtering were no where near as good as Sophos UTM. The reason we switched was the partner relationship between Dell and the IT Solutions company soured.

You can setup the unit in simple mode and get 90% of what you want done. That is very straightforward

You can also setup each component manually. This requires understanding of the unit but even that is not difficult.

Probably the only difficult part of the Sophos UTM is the WebControl as this can be setup many ways. Ensuring you have mapped out a solution that is adaptable to the company is probably the most complex part.

As we are a supplier, we bounce off ideas with their sales engineers. They are excellent.

Unsure as I don't deal in the money side of things but I think the clients get excellent returns as their security is totally covered if they include EndPoint protection.

Most companies I have dealt with handing them a unit find they don't have to do much ongoing work on the unit. Once its working, its working and adjustments to rules and policies are easy.

No, we had a good relationship with Sophos and after comparing it to our previous solution (SonicWall) we were convinced it was a good product.

If you are a IT Consultant shop, become a partner and do the training.

If you are the IT of a company, you can either get a IT Service company to set the unit up for you or if you are confident with firewalls you can purchase premium support to get assistance for troubleshooting purposes.

Sophos UTM gives good visibility and prevention against ransomware attacks because they focus on unknown threats, so it's successful in protecting customers.

Sophos UTM's best feature is SIM in the cloud, which combines the gateway solution and endpoint solution to send telemetry data to the cloud and provides full contact visibility regarding security.

Sophos UTM's firewall is a bit weak, and some of its features lack depth compared to other products like F5.

I've been using Sophos UTM for about eight years.

Sophos UTM is quite stable.

Sophos UTM is quite simple to scale.

Sophos' technical support is good.

The initial setup takes around seven to nine days.

I would rate our ROI from Sophos UTM as three to four out of five.

Sophos UTM's pricing is on the cheaper side.

I would advise starting with the basic firewall before adding other features. I would give Sophos UTM a rating of seven out of ten.

During the pandemic, telework grew, however, so did attacks. There was a higher degree of ransomware and so on. With Sophos, we have not had any incidents this year. The security provided has been good. It has proven to be okay for our needs.

The initial setup is very simple.

The solution is stable.

the scalability is good.

The solution needs to do better at covering mobile devices, although they may have an integrated solution for that purpose. 

I don't really know how it behaves when it comes to web server protection. We have no web servers of our own. I don't know how it behaves if we open our servers to the outside. My sense is that the degree of protection must be higher.

We haven't used the solution for very long. We've been using it for less than a year at this point. 

The stability has been good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

The scalability on offer is quite good. If a company needs to expand, it can do so. 

We are not a big company. We have about 70 or so people. 

Technical support is okay. It is provided by a local company, not Sophos directly.

Previously we did not have any integrated solutions. We had an antivirus of one kind, and a firewall of another. It was a good step for us to integrate all these features into one solution.

The initial setup was simple and straightforward. The deployment was fast. It only took about a week or so, maybe less. 

The pricing is reasonable. Of course, the customer would always like it to be lower, however, the quality to price ratio is positive.

I'm also aware of Fortinet options, however, they are more expensive if you look at Fortinet vs Sophos. 

We are customers and end-users. We came into the pandemic situation needing a VPN and the one offered by the Sophos behaves quite well. From the point of view of our users, it has been a positive experience.

I don't quite know by heart the version of the solution, however, it's quite recent. It's not the newest one. I saw that the brand new one which came out this year and we don't have that.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

• Firewalls
• Developer access
• VPN traffic
• Rerouting and routing.

I am using it to route traffic for developer access or regular traffic for my instances. I have a web application, and I control access to and from it in one of my environments.

All my needs are met at the moment.

Our policy is launch and forget. It works well without any maintenance. So far, it has worked pretty well regardless of the traffic.

The product could be simplified and made more self-explanatory.

I am stressing it quite a bit, and the stability is great. I haven't performed any maintenance on the instances in quite a while now. It works. I am happy because everything works well.

My throughput is moderate versus high throughput applications.

I am always holding a predefined number of instances, so I haven't had any issues.

I have not used the technical support.

The configuration was pretty complex on my side compared to OpenVPN. However, this might imply that Sophos has more use cases and capabilities. It depends.

I am also using OpenVPN. 

Partially, for historic reasons, things were built prior to me being able to evaluate stuff. At the moment, we are using both solutions. In terms of pricing, when I need to spin up anything small with smaller requirements, I am using the free OpenVPN instead of Sophos UTM.

Do your homework. Compare products. Use what you need depending on your needs.

We are only using the AWS version of the product.