Most of the clients use it for web filtering, application control, SSL inspection, and VPN. We have on-premise and cloud or virtual environment deployments. On the cloud, Sophos XG is on Azure or OVH.
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Synchronized security with Sophos endpoints, easy to configure, and easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable is the synchronized security between Sophos XG and Sophos endpoint because it provides a lot of visibility about unknown applications. The endpoint shares the information of unknown applications, and you can learn about those applications and create policies to allow or block those applications."
- "Everything is working as expected at this moment, but the anti-spam solution in Sophos XG needs to be improved. It needs more granular features and more stability. The anti-spam solution currently doesn't have many features, and we would like to have more features. At this moment, there is no expression filter for anti-spam. We need something to be able to filter subjects or attachments in emails based on the keyword. Sometimes, there is an issue with anti-spam, and Sophos XG suddenly stops processing incoming or outgoing emails. The only solution for this issue is to restart the appliance. Their support should be improved. It takes a long time to escalate a support case from level one to level two."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable is the synchronized security between Sophos XG and Sophos endpoint because it provides a lot of visibility about unknown applications. The endpoint shares the information of unknown applications, and you can learn about those applications and create policies to allow or block those applications.
What needs improvement?
Everything is working as expected at this moment, but the anti-spam solution in Sophos XG needs to be improved. It needs more granular features and more stability. The anti-spam solution currently doesn't have many features, and we would like to have more features. At this moment, there is no expression filter for anti-spam. We need something to be able to filter subjects or attachments in emails based on the keyword. Sometimes, there is an issue with anti-spam, and Sophos XG suddenly stops processing incoming or outgoing emails. The only solution for this issue is to restart the appliance.
Their support should be improved. It takes a long time to escalate a support case from level one to level two.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Sophos XG for six years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable, but sometimes, there is an issue with anti-spam, and Sophos XG suddenly stops processing incoming or outgoing emails. This is the only issue that I have with the anti-spam solution on Sophos XG.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. Most of our clients are small enterprises. We also have some medium enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
Their support should be improved. When we open a support case on their support portal, it first goes to their tier-one support. When an issue is complex, it takes a long time to escalate a support case to a level-two engineer, which is frustrating. Their response time is slow.
How was the initial setup?
Its deployment and setup are very easy. It is not at all complex to set up. The deployment duration varies. It can take around three days for a deployment with anti-spam, application control, IPS, and VPN with filtering.
What about the implementation team?
For its deployment and maintenance, usually, there are two of us, but sometimes, there is just one person.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Most of the customers here evaluate FortiGate against Sophos XG. Some of them also evaluate WatchGuard Firebox. In the past, FortiGate had the advantage of having an SD-WAN solution, but now Sophos also has an SD-WAN solution with a graphical user interface.
Sophos XG is very easy to follow and easy to configure, which is something very valuable for me and our customers. It is also very easy to use a site-to-site VPN with certificates, which is another pro. SD-RED devices are one more advantage that Sophos has over other vendors. These devices are very useful for those customers who don't have IT personnel in branch offices. With SD-RED devices, they can connect to the central site. The connection is automatically established with Sophos XG on the site. There is no need to have an IT person on the site.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution because it is really easy to implement. Sophos XG is very focused on cybersecurity. Its ability to synchronize information with Sophos endpoint is a very good feature when you are concerned about security. Other vendors or firewalls are more focused on establishing the connection and policies.
I would rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten. It is very good, but it could be better.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
IT Support Executive at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
A stable and economical solution but there's room for a more customizable graphical interface
Pros and Cons
- "I recommend the solution due to its ease of use and pricing."
- "An area of improvement would be the reporting as diagnostic graphs take a long time to load and refresh. If there could be an option to show only select graphs, it may speed up the graphics."
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case of this solution is to support internal clients with virus scanning on laptops and on critical processors.
What needs improvement?
An area of improvement would be the reporting as diagnostic graphs take a long time to load and refresh. If there could be an option to show only select graphs, it may speed up the graphics.
Most of the time we don't use the disk usage, memory or CPU graphs. The main graph we watch is the bandwidth usage.
Additionally, their previous update contained many bugs. They need to ensure that, before releasing a new version, there are not so many bugs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Caveo Systems, but that was about 10 years ago.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. The licensing and setting up of firewall rules takes some time, but the full deployment took about an hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is economical.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution due to its ease of use and pricing.
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
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Operations Manager at iBound
Excellent endpoint protection and easy filtering but needs a slightly better UTM
Pros and Cons
- "The filtering is very easy to do. You can segment and create profiles for usage very easily."
- "The UTM itself needs improvement. When you're navigating it seems like it takes forever to load anything. The hardware is okay. It's just the software that could be more responsive."
What is most valuable?
The endpoint protection plan is the most valuable feature of the solution.
The filtering is very easy to do. You can segment and create profiles for usage very easily.
What needs improvement?
The UTM itself needs improvement. When you're navigating it seems like it takes forever to load anything. The hardware is okay. It's just the software that could be more responsive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We do updates periodically, but the solution is very stable. We haven't had to go back to the site to reconfigure it or anything like that.
How are customer service and technical support?
At the moment, we haven't had a reason to contact technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We tend to go for the bundle because it's pricing is competitive. If a unit comes out and they bundle the hardware with the software, it seems to work for us. I've seen that with future upgrades coming up, that features like this will be taken away. The option to get a combo with hardware means the software portion is mostly free, and then you pay upfront for the three-year license for everything.
However, with the changes, I don't think that's going to be available anymore. It might sway our clients away from Sophos. Maybe there's something that can be worked out. Other than that, we've been happy with the price. It's competitive if you compare it to the competition, from a price point of view.
What other advice do I have?
We use a variety of deployment models, including public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises.
For what we are using the solution for, its practically perfect. We don't need other features added. The solution offers exactly what we need.
I would rate the solution seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Easy to set up with good technical support but takes a while to load
Pros and Cons
- "Technical support is responsive."
- "The user interface could be better."
What is most valuable?
The solution is mostly a good firewall.
The initial setup is pretty easy compared to other options on the market.
The product has been stable.
The solution can scale.
Technical support is responsive.
Sophos offers pretty good pricing.
What needs improvement?
The user interface could be better.
We find that the solution takes too long to load. It's slow.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been dealing with the product for six or seven years at this point. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution has been stable. We haven't had any bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have customers of every size, including medium and enterprise-level.
The product can scale and if a company needs to expand it can do so.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is pretty good. We've been happy with their level of responsiveness. I have no complaints.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't too difficult or complex. It's pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We find the pricing to be reasonable and not overly expensive.
What other advice do I have?
We are a Sophos reseller.
I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. If the graphical user interface was better and the performance was stronger, I would rate it higher.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Network Administrator at OM Networks Pvt Ltd
Offers up-to-date security updates
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is a next generation firewall and we have gotten good customer feedback."
- "SD-WAN features should be added."
- "The solution is more cost-effective than FortiGate, Cisco and Palo Alto, which have very expensive licenses."
What is most valuable?
The solution is a next generation firewall and we have gotten good customer feedback. It is a very good appliance. The daily, up-to-date security features of the solution's updates and device answer customer IT needs concerning security, network and web protection and new protections, such as those concerning data.
What needs improvement?
The box needs to be fixed
Moreover,the bugs need fixing. I also think that SD-WAN features should be added. The intelligence feature should be improved and Sophos needs upgrading and updating.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Sophos XG since 2015.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
Both Sophos XG and XGS offer a host of cloud-based security features.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable.
Our IT-related infrastructure allows us to scale up. This is a good feature of SD-WAN, which affords easy scalability to modern networks and many data center advances. The SD-WAN features are the most important part of Sophos XG's scalability. When it comes to the scanning power requirements, we have the ability to scale over it.
How was the initial setup?
While the solution proved to be user-friendly and to offer an easy deployment we faced many issues involving its registration. This posed an issue when it came to scaling. However, we found it to be easy to configure and implement.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is more cost-effective than FortiGate, Cisco and Palo Alto, which have very expensive licenses.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is very user-friendly.
I would recommend the solution to my customers because it costs a fraction of its previous price and most of them cannot afford an expensive EDR backup.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
System Engineer at Dhanush Infosol
Useful reporting function, priced well, but configuration complex
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature I have found to be the reporting function."
- "Some of the firewall rules are complicated for us to understand, they should be simplified."
What is our primary use case?
We manage other companies' IT infrastructure and some of them use this network solution.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature I have found to be the reporting function.
What needs improvement?
Some of the firewall rules are complicated for us to understand, they should be simplified.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have used many different versions. In some of the older versions, the refreshing time took approximately 20 min which is too long, and in other versions, we experienced other stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We have approximately 25 clients using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support was very good before. However, now it is very difficult for us to reach them. There are crucial times when we need to speak to support but they take up to three hours to resolve or to address the issue. Sometimes it takes them 45 minutes to answer the call. When you are with a client you cannot wait this long.
The technical support needs to improve their response time in answering the calls and finding a solution.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is easy. However, configuring the permissions or rules in the new version is difficult and in the older version, it was simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution is reasonable when comparing it to other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Sophos XG a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Director at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Feature rich, useful QoS function, and straightforward installation
Pros and Cons
- "The valuable features of this solution are the VPN, load balancer, and the QoS for splitting the ISP band."
- "The reports could improve, they do not seem complete and more information could be added."
What is our primary use case?
I use this solution for a firewall and proxy server.
What is most valuable?
The valuable features of this solution are the VPN, load balancer, and the QoS for splitting the ISP band.
What needs improvement?
The reports could improve, they do not seem complete and more information could be added.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I am very happy with the stability of the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are currently five people using this solution in my organization.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is good and they provided me assistance through email.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It takes approximately three hours to install.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license required for this solution that is priced well and all the features are included.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution, it is very good.
I rate Sophos XG a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
Head Of Network & Technical Support at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Plenty of features, easy to use and simple install
Pros and Cons
- "In my experience, the solution was easy to use, has lots of features, and is easy to configure."
- "There are issues with electricity with this solution."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution as our HQ main firewall.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, the solution was easy to use, has lots of features, and is easy to configure.
What needs improvement?
There are issues with electricity with this solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have found the solution to be stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability could be better. We have 500 to 1000 users using the solution at my company.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is easy.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment only took an hour for one person to do it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The hardware is inexpensive but the license is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I am going to continue using this product and I recommend this product to others.
I rate Sophos XG a nine 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.
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Updated: October 2024
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