Sophos XG Reviews

1. Internet security, where we have one single point of console; where I can manage my endpoint and my gateway. 
2. Any messages coming in, I am getting the intermission immediately. 
3. If my endpoint is getting infected, I get to know. 
4. If my file is getting infected, I get to know from a single pane point of view.

The product has been upgraded, and one of the features we were looking for has been incorporated into the newer version. It has allowed me to customize for my needs as well.

The past six months.

Nothing. No issues. It is quite stable.

This is a little bit of a challenge. Scalability is one issue with the hardware device and hardware files. Any kind of hardware file which has been delivered has been a challenge.

Sophos is being preferred only because of their technical support. The tech support there is very good. It is a five-star support system that they have there.

Our previous solution was Check Point. I switched to Sophos just because of the pricing issue.

It is very user-friendly to set up. Very straightforward.

Pricing is very competitive in the market.

Only Check Point. That was the one product which I evaluated.

The support is awesome. QA is very simple, and the administration is very straightforward.

We use the latest version.

We are very familiar with the solution. It's pretty straightforward, our personnel is properly trained and we use it efficiently. The solution integrates very easily with other brands.  I've done VPN tunnels with other brands, and that was fine as well. The solution is quite stable and we don't have any issues with it. The VPN is easy and has good logging, monitoring and notifications.

When compared with Sophos XG, Fortinet lacks the notifications and reporting features. 

When it comes to improvements that the vendor can make, we see that the cloud integration for managing all the firewalls is essentially a replacement of the on-prem version we had. It's not mature yet, being still in its infancy stage. That would require some improvement. As I have many firewalls, having the ability to delegate access to use, such as exists with Microsoft CSP or other services, would be a nice feature to see. 

Also, as a tech person, I know that executives do not wish to receive complicated reports, so a simplified executive report for executives would be a nice improvement. This would save us from having to explain issues which are beyond the scope of their knowledge. 

Sophos XG is basically a mix of UTM9, Check Point and several other technologies. It is essentially a merging of technologies. We've been using it since version UTM9, at which point we switched to Sophos XG..

The solution is quite stable. 

The solution is scalable, but an organization should assess in advance its size based needs. Say, for example, a company utilizes the XG 125 version, but grows rapidly. At this point it may need to switch to the 210 version. Yet, switching from one version to another would not really present an issue. One can restore the backup configuration version on the new hardware and be up and running. 

Technical support is pretty good, although I did have some issues with its availability during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though this seems to have been a challenge faced by all major support companies. There were delay issues owing to their teleworking, but the support they offer is quite supportive and they have all the necessary documentation.  The truth is that I have a need for many cases, although the ones I require have to do with things that are out of my control, such as licensing or the occasion of a new app that failed to show up in the console. I have many sub-sites and I did face a serious issue. Technical support was pretty helpful even though I had to redesign the typology of one of my sites. They actually tried assisting me with the original design and I found them to be quite helpful and to possess a good base of knowledge on the site. 

It is important for a person to properly learn the features of any product so that he can optimize its utilization. The setup of the solution is pretty straightforward. What is truly important for a person with only a basic network background is to undergo proper training, so that he may learn about all the features and how to configure them. 

For any product a person uses, it is a good idea to do a test run. Sophos allows for its product to be evaluated without any financial commitment. It offers a free virtual machine for home use testing of the features. 

At present, Fortinet seems to have a slightly higher rating than Sophos XG, so if it were also to turn out to be more cost effective this would affect my rating of it. The reason is that this factor does have an impact on the decisions reached by CEOs when it comes to cost-benefit analysis.

This said, I rate Sophos XG as a nine out of ten, because we are very happy with it and don't really have any issues. We have actually been replacing Cisco normal routers, not sets, with Sophos and we're very happy with them.

You can use Sophos XG in small or large companies. In a small company we are using it as a router and firewall. In larger company, like in the Bangladesh government, they are using Sophos Firewall in various sites, including the Bangladesh Navy. Many of the sites are using Sophos Firewall as a router and firewall and also for security purposes.

Sophos XG Firewall is for security purposes and we are also using it as a router. Wherever we are deploying it as a router we are mapping and also port forwarding. More clients take it as a router and also a firewall.

Sophos XG Firewall is very usable, very easy to install, and very user friendly.

The features that I have found most valuable are the infiltration prevention and data protection. We provide immune security. There are also many features on the VPN. We provide a social VPN. We deployed so many features.

We are facing some problems on this firmware version, version 18, that require improvement. We want to improve the email security because it doesn't give proper security with the data protection. Also, our clients are facing some problems where most of the sites which they're accessing are getting blocked. I want to improve those sites, that email security, and the data protection on the Firmware version 18. Also, sometimes it gets frozen and we cannot access it. After we shut it down and restart, then it's perfect. That's a point that we want to improve. 

In the next release, I want them to please improve version 18 so that it has more features and is more user friendly and it should have a VRF option.

We are using Sophos XG for five years. 

Sophos XG is stable.

Maintenance, once it is established on the network, requires about two to three people dedicated to Sophos Firewall. We have to give about two to three days monthly.

Scalability is good.

We have about a thousand or more users and have plans to increase usage of this product.

The Sophos support team is good now.

Initial setup is easy. It took about one hour to do the initial setup.

I am an implementer so I deployed it by myself.

Sophos XG is on a subscription basis. We can take a one year or two year subscription.

On a scale of one to ten, I will give Sophos XG a seven.

It is a firewall. It is used in my defense line. It provides defense and a form of security for my internal network.

IPS and advanced threat protection (ATP) are the most valuable features. I am able to segment my network traffic and block incoming connections. It is also easy to use.

I would like to have better SSL decryption and HTTPS decryption. There should be filtering of SSL and HTTPS traffic.

Sophos XG consumes a lot of endpoint resources. It consumes a lot of RAM and CPU resources, and they should look into this.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is stable.

Its scalability is fine. We have about 40 users. We don't have any plan to increase its usage at the moment. However, it depends on recruitments and other things. If required, my company would change my box to a bigger one for better processing speed.

Their technical support is okay. Sometimes, during the webinars, when I have some questions, they respond to them, but sometimes, I don't get any response.

I have worked with Check Point before. Check Point is very expensive. At this time, we are not thinking of switching to another solution. If we were switching, Cisco Firepower would have been an option, but my colleagues, who have good experience with such solutions, would prefer to stay with Sophos XG. Cisco Firepower is a little bit complicated to use. It is also expensive. Cisco and Check Point have different boxes for different things, whereas Sophos brings everything into one box.

It was straightforward.

Its price is fair. It is cheaper and way better than others.

I like this solution. I would rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten.

We use it for VPN and for filtering direct traffic. We are using XG50.

The VPN feature is the most valuable. It has come in handy during this period when people are working from home.

The filtering feature is also valuable because you can easily filter the sites that you don't want to visit. You can also set timely surfing quotas.

They made some changes to the firmware update sometime last year, which moved some of the policies from where they were before. Some of the policies, such as NAS policies, were separated, which made it a bit hard for people to trace the policies they had configured.

I have been using this solution for three years.

It has been very stable. We haven't had any outages. It has been seamless.

I am not quite sure about that. In terms of the number of nodes, we have around 200 nodes. All the internet traffic has to go through Sophos XG. In terms of the number of people who handle the support, we have two people.

Their technical support is good. Whenever I have contacted them, they have given us support. They have been quite fast.

We were using Cyberoam. When they were acquired, we just upgraded to Sophos because, at that time, they were providing the hardware and support to transfer your configs to Sophos.

Its initial setup was done by a contractor. We just maintain it. We have an expert, and we also have access to an IT department.

In terms of price, it is a mid-range product.

I would recommend this solution. I would rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten.

Right now, we are using this product as a perimeter firewall just to deal with emails and to protect servers, as well as other equipment that is on the network.

What we found valuable is the way they deal with emails, as well as the way the bandwidth usage is shown. I find this information to be very interesting.

We are having challenges with social media because ever since this issue of COVID-19 came into existence, the idea of using online discussions has become relevant. Before this, they were not made the priority because they were not considered to be important. Now, we've discovered that we need to use a lot of these online applications.

We are having challenges when using Zoom with Sophos XG deployed. Our wireless network is not stable through the connection. More work needs to be done there, since the FW is doubling up as a wireless controller.

I would like to see improvements made to the display and visibility. I'm also using Sophos XG firewall as our wireless controller, but as it is now, I can't see my access points on the firewall. My wish is to see the Wireless network and reports also on this firewall cum- controller. 

We have been using Sophos XG for almost three years.

Sophos XG is stable and we have no problems with it.

I think there is a limitation on the issue of scalability, and it is related to the interfaces that we bought. Right now, all of the employees are using it. The traffic that passes through it covers close to 2,000 users.

For us, our bandwidth is growing so we may have to scale further, in terms of the hardware networking components.

We are constantly in touch with the distributor in Zimbabwe and they are excellent.

Prior to Sophos XG, we were using Cyberoam for our firewall. We switched because Cyberoam was acquired by Sophos.

The initial setup is very simple. It takes perhaps an hour to complete, which included importing rules from Cyberoam.

We completed some certifications for using this product, but for the implementation, we were assisted by IDSS. In some instances, we are doing the maintenance on our own. When we have a challenge, on a case-by-case basis, we might contact the vendor and may require them to come in and assist.

The issue of a recurring license is a hassle because every year, we have to subscribe. It causes us problems in our organization.

We are expanding and setting up a new data center, and I want to put a new firewall in. We have an interest in diversifying, in terms of vendors, so that we do not create a single point of failure in case one product fails. Ideally, we want to have different products.

This is a product that I can recommend for anybody who is looking for a firewall.

I would rate this solution a eight point six out of ten.

We use this firewall as part of our security solution.

The most valuable feature is the intrusion prevention system.

The two main areas where this product needs improvement are routing and reporting.

The security can be improved, as well.

I have been using Sophos XG for more than two or three years.

Stability has not been a problem for us.

I am satisfied with the scalability.

The technical support from Sophos is excellent.

I previously used the Microsoft Firewall. It is easy to use but it doesn't the IPS and malware detection capabilities that Sophos has.

The initial setup and configuration are not difficult for somebody with firewall experience. However, for somebody who has not worked on one in the past, it will be complicated.

We had assistance with the deployment.

The price is cheaper than that of some competing vendors.

Prior to implementing Sophos, I tried using a solution by Fortinet. However, it was much more expensive.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to ensure that somebody with firewall experience handles the deployment.

Overall, I find that this is a good product. That said, there are improvements that need to be made in the routing, reporting, and security.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

• URL Filtering: because of the importance of controlling what and individual might access from the organization’s network. Sophos XG has 90+ categories, providing a level of granularity that eliminates the need to create customized categories.
• IPS (Intrusion Prevention System): because of the importance of preventing hackers from using exploits and other mechanisms that might compromise the network
• Anti-malware: Sophos XG comes with two anti-malware engines: its own and Avira, making the UTM more effective at catching malicious code.
• Control Center: an interface crammed with the most vital information like security issues, appliance performance, and Internet link status.

With a very intuitive and easy-to-use interface, it made it much easier to setup access and business rules, VPNs and to identify issues like Internet link outages and security issues.

Sophos XG lacks link load balancing options like ratio and spill over, both useful in some scenarios.

I also think they might consider improving the RAM of some of the appliances, since there are processes that are very memory intensive.

Lastly, I would say packet monitor is another area for improvement as it lacks capabilities like exporting the capture from inside the GUI tool.

A year and a half.

Yes, on the SFOS Version 15, I had to upgrade the firmware of an appliance since it had a problem with the JAMVM process (an apparently known issue in which that process consumes almost all of the CPU resources).

No.

I would say that Sophos Brazil has an excellent support team.

No.

It was very straightforward. And I credit that to the great job Sophos did on its OS interface, providing different ways of accessing the same option, hiding some of the complexities of a firewall system, and deploying it with many pre-built policies, objects and rules that for most of the environments makes it unnecessary to spend hours tuning the system.

Sophos is clearly trying to position itself as the market leader in the UTM niche. One way they are doing this is by having an aggressive pricing policy and this makes it a good moment to start using their products.

Yes, FortiGate.

Try to have the help of a Sophos Partner for the correct sizing and purchasing of an adequate licensing bundle.

In addition, I would recommend having a PoC in place in order to make sure that the solution is what the organization needs.

It is important to notice that the XG is available for a 30 days free trial and that there are virtual appliances available for the main virtualization platforms on the market.