The solution is primarily used as a firewall with all the "next Generation" functionality. We sell this solution to our clients.
Dipl. Ing. at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Easy to manage and lots of functionality
Pros and Cons
- "The user interface is very good. It's already quite simple and easy to use."
- "Recently, I've had a problem with updating things."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I prefer the solution to other Firewalls as it is very intuitive to manage.
The product offers a more complete set of security functionality at one price . It differentiates more in objects to protect like web server protection or email protection.
Troubleshooting is easy with XG Firewall because of clear arrangement of troubleshooting features in GUI. I like the ease of use.
The Base License includes already VPN, network protection and web protection functionality and you have a wireless controller on top. The data stream analysis and security features are built-in; these are the main features we need these days.
The user interface is very good. It's already quite simple and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
Recently, I've had a problem with updating firmware. Updates should be more stable . The last update I did was not successful and ended in a unusable device. Also the support case i opened for it could have been more effective.
I don't use all of the features and therefore it would be difficult to evaluate if anything is missing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been dealing with the solution for around 12 months or so. It's been about a year at this point.
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Sophos XG
October 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
From the update side, the last update didn't run successfully and this is not good for us as the customer needs this device to access the internet. If this device is failing and it has no connection to the internet it is a great problem for the customer.
It may be possible to implement a second device in a fail-over cluster and this would avoid such a problem as then if one device fails in the updating process, the other device could be take over, and so it would be not such a great problem. That said, in this scenario, you have to sell two devices. That would be the best way to ensure stability, however.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution is limited according to sizing. You buy one device with specific performance parameters, which should be equivalent to the customer's needs, and this device is not able to customize to a higher level. If you need to grow, you must buy another device with higher parameters.
In our case, the customers we work with have small setups. They aren't large organizations. Sophos told us about a sizing guide in the future.
How are customer service and support?
We are a reseller and our first and only support case was not very effective. It should not be used as a guideline.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also resell Cisco products.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not overly complex. The process is straightforward. A company shouldn't run into problems but need a understanding of the device and the functions.
The deployment process depends on the requirements. A good planning is beneficial.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is good due to the fact that you get so much functionality from one overall solution. The base license covers all features you need to protect against threats from internet. Setting up the device basically is intuitive and there are a lot of help from internet community.
What other advice do I have?
We are a reseller of both Cisco and Sophos.
We're using the latest version of the solution for our clients.
I'd rate the solution at an nine out of ten. We've been satisfied with the product, however, there is still more they could do in testing updates.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
IT Manager at a engineering company with 201-500 employees
Reasonably priced, implementation straightforward, but could be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "The stability of Sophos XG is good, it has good performance."
- "In the Sophos XG, the SD-WAN has all the rules done separately, such as net policy routing. In the previous version, they were all in a single rule and everything was done that way. The way it is now is difficult for us because we are not used to this newer version. The firewall rules should be easier to configure and create. Everything should be done with a single click."
What is our primary use case?
Sophos XG is used as a network firewall.
What needs improvement?
In the Sophos XG, the SD-WAN has all the rules done separately, such as net policy routing. In the previous version, they were all in a single rule and everything was done that way. The way it is now is difficult for us because we are not used to this newer version. The firewall rules should be easier to configure and create. Everything should be done with a single click.
In the next version, the solution would be more user-friendly overall.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Sophos XG for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Sophos XG is good, it has good performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Sophos XG has good scalability.
We have approximately 50 people that use the solution in my company.
We use this solution on a daily basis.
How are customer service and support?
We have contacted the support from Sophos XG but we do not require the support often.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Sophos Cyberoam and we switched to Sophos XG because it was the end of life for the Sophos Cyberoam and the bandwidth was poor.
How was the initial setup?
The initial installation of Sophos XG was not difficult.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator to do the implementation of Sophos XG.
We only require one person for the implementation and maintenance of the solution.
What was our ROI?
The solution is very good and we have received a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Sophos XG is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Sophos XG a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Sophos XG
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Sophos XG. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director at REDCO
Nice interfaces and good configuration
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are its nice interfaces and configuration. The endpoint is also very good."
- "Areas for improvement would be the access points and the on-premise version, which is very bad."
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are its nice interfaces and configuration. The endpoint is also very good.
What needs improvement?
Areas for improvement would be the access points and the on-premise version, which is very bad.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for two years.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very, very bad.
What other advice do I have?
Sophos is about three or four years behind FortiGate. I would score this solution nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Useful dashboards, good graphical interface, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are the reporting, dashboards, and graphical user interface. It gives a good overall picture of what is happening over the network."
- "There have been some issues when upgrading. For some reason, parts of the configuration become unconfigured, I then have to reconfigure it. I should not need to keep reconfiguring it after upgrades."
What is our primary use case?
I am using Sophos XG for network security.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the reporting, dashboards, and graphical user interface. It gives a good overall picture of what is happening over the network.
What needs improvement?
There have been some issues when upgrading. For some reason, parts of the configuration become unconfigured, I then have to reconfigure it. I should not need to keep reconfiguring it after upgrades.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
There needs to be more tutorials and documentation. I have not done a lot of configuration because I need more training.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were previously using Cyberoam.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not difficult to complete. I have not been trained as a Sophos administrator and it would have been easier if I had training.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution to others.
I rate Sophos XG a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Security Administrator at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Reasonably-priced and straightforward to set up, but instability has caused problems and customer support should be improved
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup was straightforward."
- "The first area that needs to be improved is customer support."
What is our primary use case?
We use the Sophos XG firewall as part of our security solution.
What needs improvement?
The first area that needs to be improved is customer support.
If I'm implementing a connection on the DMZ or WAN, I should be able to dive deep into the implementation, specifying what needs to be implemented or not. For example, I should be able to configure specific details for the DMZ, and not have to follow the templates that they provide.
We have had problems with the stability that affected business operations.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Sophos XG for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The issue of stability is the reason that I'm trying to move away from using Sophos as our firewall. There were times where Sophos randomly cut some users off of the internet, which adversely affected business operations. It is important because our business relies on throughput and service, like the uptime of e-commerce servers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability depends on the specifications during the time of order, prior to first implementing the firewall. With respect to my organization, scalability has been okay. It comes down to the amount of money that is spent.
We have 1,200 users in the company.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer support needs to be improved. The time they take to resolve issues is too long.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It took us less than 30 minutes. Normally, it depends on the size of your organization, so for mine, the installation was less than 15 minutes. By 30 minutes I was finished even with the setup and configuration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For our company, the price was reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
We are now thinking about incorporating the Fortinet next-generation firewall.
My advice for anybody who is considering Sophos is that a business with a lot of throughput and data traffic should look for another firewall.
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Engineer at FormatPC
User-friendly and helpful interface with good support that responds quickly
Pros and Cons
- "The VPN access for users is also a great thing, especially nowadays when working from home."
- "Having a web portal where you could make requests for the categorization of non-categorized items, would be beneficial."
What is our primary use case?
For the primary use cases, we use SSL VPN access for rolling remote access. We use web filtering and we use the intrusion prevention that comes with network protection.
What is most valuable?
The user interface is very user-friendly and very helpful.
The VPN access for users is also a great thing, especially nowadays when working from home.
What needs improvement?
Categorization or uncategorized websites is an area that needs improvement.
Having a web portal where you could make requests for the categorization of non-categorized items, would be beneficial.
The DLP rules don't cover countries such as Serbia. You cannot make custom rules. That could be added so that we could detect content that is not supposed to leave the company via email, and so that the rules could be customized by the clients.
We only have predefined rules and most of them are not for Serbia or countries from the Region.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Sophos from the time they acquired Astaro, before that it was UTM, then they released the XG firewall.
We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. We have not experienced any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable product. In the office, we have four users in our organization.
How are customer service and technical support?
Our experience with technical support has been positive.
We have support from the local distributor. We have rarely had the need to contact technical support but when we have, we have had quick responses from them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward and the implementation takes a relatively short amount of time. The fine-tuning takes a little bit more time but in general, it can be deployed and implemented quickly.
Also, the upgrades, backups, and recovery are very easy.
What about the implementation team?
We are Sophos partners, we sell them and implement them ourselves.
We only need one engineer to deploy and maintain this solution. If you have a bigger deployment then you need two engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing fees are on a yearly basis.
What other advice do I have?
I can recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
System Administrator Server and Networks at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Good filtering capability, but the interface is slow and it is difficult for beginners to understand
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is web filtering."
- "The reaction time of the GUI is terrible when compared to other manufacturers."
What is our primary use case?
We use this product to protect all of the connections to our sites and for web filtering.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is web filtering.
What needs improvement?
The behavior with the zones was a little bit tricky to understand and the beginning of the project.
Sophos XG is difficult to manage and it is difficult to understand when you first begin.
The reaction time of the GUI is terrible when compared to other manufacturers.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Sophos XG for about a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable product, although the web GUI is slow. We plan to use it for another couple of years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a small site, and we have 15 users.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Sophos XG was not straightforward. We already had experience with Sophos UTM, but they are completely different systems. The deployment took us one week to complete.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed this solution in-house.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I now have a proof of concept with a FortiGate firewall and we are trying some test cases on it.
What other advice do I have?
For now, this is not a product that I can recommend.
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network & Hardware Administrator at Nile Projects & Trading Co.
Secure and stable tunnels with web filtering and application control give us confidence in our security
Pros and Cons
- "It gives me a very good, stable connection in all tunnels."
- "I would like to have remote access to clients using a static IP for a certain period of time."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for connecting site-to-site and client-to-site VPN for two protocols, IPsec and SSL VPN. We use encrypted tunnels to achieve fully secure connectivity between sites and clients.
It gives me a very good, stable connection in all tunnels.
How has it helped my organization?
Of course, it improves my organization to achieve fully secure connectivity between sites and clients.
It has a good web filtering database and a good application control database in addition to intrusion prevention. Together, these give me confidence in our security.
What is most valuable?
All of the features in this solution are good. The most valuable is the IPsec VPN tunneling and SSL VPN tunneling, both site-to-site and client-to-site.
The log viewer is extremely helpful for analyzing all incoming and outgoing traffic.
What needs improvement?
I would like to have remote access to clients using a static IP for a certain period of time. This would allow me to log in to any client, remotely, with a known and fixed IP address.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for five years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This is the first solution that we implemented.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a suitable price and license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: October 2024
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