Sophos XG Reviews

The primary use case of this solution is to protect the perimeter, the edge of the network, as well as providing anti-virus protection. There are also RED devices that can be deployed and connect to Sophos and they go back to VPN connectivity. We've mainly worked with schools which is different to working with companies because they have particular guidelines to follow. I'm an engineer/revenue development manager and we partner with Sophos. 

In terms of hardware, I think Sophos is definitely the easiest to work with. It's very intuitive and easy to learn how to use. The reporting feature is great and they have great customer support. 

In terms of improvement, I think the UI could be faster. Sometimes the system freezes and there's a lag. It seems there were some issues with the firmware but it's not a big problem. The user interface could also be improved. It would be great if they could include a little bit more bandwidth management. If they would integrate FatPipe into their product, it would be closer to what Fortinet does.

I've been using this solution for 12 years. 

This is a very stable solution.

Sophos has different size appliances, so they're scalable regardless of whether you have 10,000 workstation nodes to any device down to the 1/10, which will provide up to 100 nodes. It's very scalable. I have implemented this mainly in K through 12 educational institutions and some other types of accounting businesses as well as in a wide variety of organizations and companies. In terms of physical maintenance it's a matter of once every six months blowing out the fans. The rest is done for you with Up2Date, which carries out all the firmware upgrades, and rolls it back if there's a problem. Once in a while, an update will get stuck and you'll have to manually push the update. 

Dealing with Sophos technical support is a very easy process, from the regional business directors all the way up to the president. They have very good people and their customer support is amazing. That's one of the big things I love about Sophos. Their customer support and the group of people that run that company are amazing people, great people. I've never seen the support on any other platform that I've seen with Sophos.

The initial setup was very straightforward. They give you an 800 number to call. The licensing portal has improved greatly over the years. So Sophos now has a new license platform which makes things a lot easier than previously and you can now buy individual licensing. 

I haven't evaluated other options but I know that Fortinet does much more in terms of protection and uses AI. They do a lot more now they have another platform that sits in the cloud and provides clients with AI, whereas Sophos only recently implemented AI. Fortinet has a much better reporting function, but Sophos has stepped up and is now providing the customer with the information they need to feel secure in the product. 

My advice would be to download the VMware and get to know the interface because running one of these devices is probably not as difficult as you'd think. If you have an onsite level one user, YouTube has online training and Sophos support will help you through it. It's a very easy device for a level one engineer to manage. My advice is to download the free VMware for 30 days and then either buy the platform or install the VMware product.

I rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

We are using the solution as a firewall to protect all the computers in our financial organization, we did not have one before.

I have found the feature allowing you to manage everything from a centralized location beneficial.

I am using the Azure Active Directory in my company and it was complicated to integrate this solution with Azure. I had to use an internal VPN and had to do many configurations to get it operating. This process should be easier to implement.

I have been using the solution for the past six months.

The solution has been stable in my experience.

One of the main reason I chose this solution was great scalability. I have approximately 150 people using this solution in my company.

The technical support is very good. Two months ago we needed help with implementation and they helped us with the configuration of Azure and this solution. You are able to find everything in the documents for the solution, it comes with easy to follow information with photos.

I was using Cisco products before and we decided to switch to this solution because of Sophos Central and it is easier to manage. 

The setup was easy to manage for this solution.

It has taken us six months to implement the solution and I am still deploying my system. We used another company to help us do the deployment and maintenance is done by a team of three.

I paid for a license for the solution for three years costing approximately $11,000. Additionally, I received the Web Appliance fee for paying for the full license. 

All my experience with this solution has been good. I would recommend this to others and already have.

I rate Sophos XG a nine out of ten.

I was using the Sophos XG firewall in my last job, where it was part of our security solution.

We had multiple locations with the internet being provided from a central location. Each of our locations was connected point-to-point using MPLS lines. Using Sophos meant that we didn't need to have a router.

The default templates are helpful because if you want to create new policies, they make it easy to do anything you want.

Sophos XG is a very robust technology.

This solution is very user-friendly and even a non-professional can configure the policies.

There are unlimited SSL VPN clients and it is free with Sophos.

The cloud support needs to be improved. As it is, they only have support for Microsoft Azure. They should expand it to include providers like Amazon and Alibaba.

I have not heard complaints of bugs or glitches occurring.

Sophos is a scalable technology that is being regularly updated.

I have been in contact with technical support many times and they are very good.

Currently, in my new company, I am using Fortinet. This is a very basic firewall and ultimately, I would like to update them.

The initial setup is not complicated. For somebody with an intermediate level of knowledge, it will take between three and four hours to deploy. For a more experienced person, it may take two or three.

I am currently in the process of evaluating the different firewalls that are available in India.  One of the options is Sophos, and I am also considering others such as SonicWall and Palo Alto.

With Fortinet and SonicWall, there is a limit of 10 people who can simultaneously connect using the VPN.

Sophos XG is a firewall that I would recommend for people who are looking for good security in a medium-scale organization.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I use the solution in my company as an edge device on our network.

The solution's most valuable feature stems from its ability to protect our organization's web servers.

In Sophos XG, the throughput for larger networks is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I hope the product comes up with some better prices and offers for the tools provided to academic institutions.

I have been using Sophos XG for two years.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

There are around 200 to 300 users in our institution.

Though our institution plans to increase the solution's use, we are unsure about the vendor we want to approach.

I rate the product's initial setup phase a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult process and ten means it has an easy setup phase.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in two to three days.

The product is expensive.

My company considers Fortinet as an option against Sophos XG.

The product has improved network security for all the networks in my organization. The product also offers endpoint security since my organization has been using the anti-virus software from Sophos for the past ten years.

Sophos XG's interface is very user-friendly.

The performance of Sophos XG's VPN to meet the organization's remote access needs is an area that cannot be discussed due to security concerns. Though the product can meet our organization's current requirements, we are considering alternate solutions since we have plans to improve our network.

The reporting and analytics functionalities helped identify security incidents in our company.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it because it is easy to manage and solve network-related problems.

I rate the product a seven out of ten.

The product’s most valuable feature is the user management system.

The product's technical support services could be better. 

We have been using Sophos XG for three to four years.

I rate the product’s stability an eight or nine out of ten.

We have 15 to 20 Sophos XG users. I rate its scalability an eight or nine.

We do not receive enough technical support services from Sophos XG.

Neutral

The initial setup was complicated because we didn’t have executives with proper expertise. It took us two months to complete.

I rate Sophos XG’s pricing a seven out of ten.

I rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten.

Network Security

Performance has been as per expectations and productivity has greatly improved as there are no downtimes experienced.

All of Sophos XG's features are valuable.

Sometimes when you roll out a new firmware, you find that the rules you already have in place are broken, so it's difficult to migrate to a new firmware without going through release notes and user reviews. That's the only downside I've experienced in Sophos.

I've been using Sophos XG for about four years now.

So far, so good. Sophos XG has been stable, and we have not had any challenges.

I find Sophos XG to be scalable. I only have one site, so I still see room for that kind of deployment. I don't see a challenge when it comes to the scale. I have around 150 users.

I rate Sophos support 10 out of 10. When my device was freezing, I contacted them, and they sent me a replacement. I didn't have a redundant device, so it was urgent. It only took a couple of days for Sophos to ship the device to Kenya. 

Positive

I rate Sophos UTM eight out of 10 for ease of deployment. We didn't have any serious issues. The only challenge we had was migrating from Sophos UTM to XG. There was no direct migration, so we had to do a manual configuration. 

After deployment, the solution doesn't require much maintenance. So as long as my connections are up and running, I don't need to do any maintenance. All the updates are automatic.

Both teams were involved. The in-house team was more familiar with the network environment and requirements. I would rate the vendor team's expertise 8 out of 10.

Sophos XG's price is affordable for most organizations, so I rate it six out of 10 for affordability.

We looked at FortiGate to see how it performs compared to Sophos. I wouldn't speak for the other vendors because I'm mainly using XG, so I will praise Sophos.

I rate Sophos XG eight out of 10. I recommend Sophos XG. If you subscribe to the enhanced support, you get 24/7 customer service, so you can get help any time you need it. I wouldn't hesitate to advise people to implement Sophos.

I am a system integrator. We integrate SG, XG, and XGS.

We are also deploying it on Azure on-premises for our clients.

Sophos XG is a firewall. It can protect your internal users if it is on-premises. It can publish applications such as websites, it can also protect your internal networks like IPS, and IDS. It provides you with VPN Access, and it gives you reports on the consumption of the internet.

If you have deployed the endpoint between the antivirus in Sophos, it can also communicate with your endpoint and protect your users if infected.

It's a complete firewall solution that has everything.

It is very useful.

It competes with the majority of the market's products, including Palo Alto and Fortinet.

We always strive for more features.

We could see the bandwidth use right away with the prior version, which was the SG version. The current bandwidth consumption is no longer shown in the XG and XGS.

They are nearly a complete solution. However, they are missing this feature with the ability to view the current bandwidth usage. We have requested this, but have not had a reply yet. It was in SG before but it was removed in XG.

We have been working with Sophos XG for six years. 

We started with SG, then XG, and now XGS nine years ago.

It can be deployed both on the cloud and on-premises. 

Sophos XG is very stable. We haven't had a single issue with stability in the nine years we have been using Sophos.

All electric appliances rely on a stable electric current, which requires the use of a UPS, and a backup power supply. The main issue is the stability of the power.

All Sophos appliances are SSD-based, which means the hard drive in the appliance is solid-state.

we have deployed more than 50, 60 for our customers in Kuwait and we haven't had an issue or, any RMA.

When purchasing a firewall, as a customer, you must first plan, consult with your partner(s), and decide on the sizing. If you buy an XGS 230, for example, it can support up to 200 users and 50 VPNs. If you buy the wrong product, you won't be able to scale it up.

You should always size upfront. If you have a hundred users, you buy an appliance that can support 150. The license is the license.

It's all about the hardware. If you purchase small hardware and you know that after one year you're going to have more employees then it is wrong.

It's not a server, where you can just add more drives, It only has expansion units for the network. If you need to add fiber, for example, you can. There are expansion units, but you can't expand the architecture of the firewall.

We have more than 50 customers.

We haven't required any technical support. I have however heard from my peers that they have not had any issues with the customer support.

They have offices in India, Dubai, and even in the United Kingdom. As we are certified Gold partners in Kuwait, we haven't had any issues with the Sophos team. They are quite responsive when you have a tender to submit. I have no complaints at all.

in the past, we also integrated Palo Alto.

The initial setup is easy and straightforward. As certified partners, this is something that we do every week. If the customers provide you with the network details, you can have it up and running in 30 minutes with no issues.

It's a problem if you don't know your firewall, or how to deploy it, or know how to put the proper rule in place. It is very important that in any firewall if the customer doesn't know what rule should be in place, it is possible they will create the wrong rule and expose the network.

You have to have a certified person to maintain the solution. How many you will need depends on the number of customers. If you have a lot of customers, you will need two technical people. It also depends on the size of your business. One is fine but as you grow with more customers, you will need at least two to deploy and maintain the solution.

I don't have any issues with the price. The price varies depending on the market. The price of Sophos in Europe differs from that in our region, GCG, and from that in the United States. You will notice that each region has a different pricing structure. 

Customers will always try to minimize the cost. When compared to other products, Sophos licensing is very affordable.

They have already released the XGS. If you are referring to the previous version, XG. It is still in production and available for purchase. They have already released the XGS, which is the next generation of the XG. It has a more advanced architecture. Now that we have passed XG, there's XGS on the market.

Remember to size your customers. You'll need to know how many web applications you will be publishing, how many end customers the company has, and how many of them will need to connect to the VPN. It's a formula that, based on the data, that will determine which appliance you require. You can start with a little one, but it's best to understand the requirements first.

We are very happy with Sophos products.

I would rate Sophos XG a ten out of ten.

I primarily use the solution as a firewall. It's running on our data centers and all of our offices.

It has a simple GUI, which is good. 

The initial setup is pretty simple.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few negatives with them.

Their tech support is not great. 

The features on offer are lacking.

Basically what they don't have is proper bandwidth management for multiple WAN ports and multiple WAN ports to multiple VPN WANs. Meaning, if I have it on both sides on both the main side and on the secondary side, two internet connections, I can't bond the two of them together into a single VPN and have bandwidth managed between the two of them.

If I want to go ahead and make a VPN, right now, I have two internet connections on each side. I have to make a failover a group of four VPNs for it to go ahead and failover between them.

You're getting into a lot of rules. It's a lot of extra rules, et cetera, that has to be done. They don't have simple pointing systems where you could go ahead and make rules saying, "Hey, here's the route". They're not fully route-based VPN rules yet. You literally have to take down all the routes all over the place in order to make updates. It's tedious. 

Basically, we had the problem where we moved certain ranges from one data center to another data center. It took us about an hour of downtime to do that. We had to go ahead and we had to reset VLANs and we had re-setup all the VPNs in all the different places we reconnected. We don't have two sites, we have 25 sites. It was a lot of work.

I've used the solution for about three years at this point. 

It has its bugs and we can't get answers due to the fact that technical support is outsourced. There are some bugs that we keep running into that tech support can't figure out what to do. The bigger problem is the log systems aren't big enough for them to actually capture all the logs that happen.

Technical support is an issue. About six months after we bought it to a year after we bought it, they outsourced all their tech support to India. Literally beforehand, they were an American-based tech support company and they actually had full product knowledge. The Indian-based tech support doesn't have the product knowledge and there was a language barrier. They could speak English, however, they didn't understand us very well.

We were told that they stopped doing outsource and they are rehiring their own internal staff again for tech support. We're hoping that we're going to be able to get better tech support again.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward and simple. It's not overly difficult. I don't consider it to be complex. 

We bought it as is. We bought it with four years of support. However, I can't speak to how much it costs. 

I'd advise users considering the solution that, if you have quite a bit of sites, it's going to get a lot of work to do, to fix things up. It makes more sense if you have minimal sites. 

I'd rate the solution at a six out of ten.