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Jitender_Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT at Somani
Real User
Good threat detection and prevention but scalability needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Sophos XGS' most valuable features are protection and intrusion prevention detection."
  • "Sophos XGS's response to zero-day attacks could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Primarily, I use XGS for security and authentication.

What is most valuable?

Sophos XGS' most valuable features are protection and intrusion prevention detection.

What needs improvement?

Sophos XGS's response to zero-day attacks could be improved. In the next release, Sophos XGS should include signature filtering, hybrid cloud support, and the ability to scale without replacing the hardware.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Sophos XGS for four to five years.

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Sophos XGS
November 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Sophos XGS is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Sophos XGS can scale up and down to 1,200 users, but if you want more users, you have to change the appliances too.

How are customer service and support?

Sophos' technical support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Sophos XGS is easy to set up if you have knowledge of the system.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Sophos XGS costs around $6,000 for a basic license.

What other advice do I have?

I would give Sophos XGS a rating of seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Vikram_Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at HCLTech
Real User
Top 20
Enhances network security and has good threat intelligence capabilities, but doesn't notify users about downtime or errors
Pros and Cons
  • "The threat intelligence capabilities of the tool are good."
  • "I do not get notifications regarding ISP downtime."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution as an antivirus gateway and internet gateway.

What is most valuable?

All the features are effective in enhancing our network security. I am satisfied with the product. The threat intelligence capabilities of the tool are good. It has contributed to reducing our overall security costs by approximately 90%.

What needs improvement?

I do not get notifications regarding ISP downtime. It would be better if I could get notifications related to the critical errors occurring in Sophos. The product is difficult to use. The administrators must be notified of the errors occurring in the firewall through emails or messages. It will help organizations take proactive measures instead of taking action after the incident happens.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is weak. The support team is not responsive. The support people do not follow up or call us back.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

How was the initial setup?

The implementation is not difficult. The service providers help install and implement the firewall in our network.

What other advice do I have?

I will recommend the product to others. However, I would not recommend it to organizations that do not have technical people who deal with networks. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Sophos XGS
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Sophos XGS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1417110 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Security Engineer at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Reseller
Top 10
An affordable solution for SD-WAN to connect the branch’s site with antivirus

What is our primary use case?

Users have distributed networks. They use it as an SD-WAN to connect the branch’s site or multiple locations. We are using RED channels or devices for branch-to-branch connectivity.

What is most valuable?

You don't need an additional subscription for IPS or an antivirus. It has an engine of antivirus applications for IPS. You have an email gateway for people who are still using on-prem exchange. Comparatively, other firewalls might need multiple subscriptions separately for each feature.

What needs improvement?

Sophos might discontinue the UTM features, as they've been promoting the newer XGS Series appliances. While the XGS offers great features like detailed logging and audit reports, it currently lacks essential functions in the UTM. For example, the XGS doesn't provide basic audit tracking for configuration changes, which is crucial for understanding who made modifications, what was changed, and when. Sophos claims they'll add this functionality later. Its absence significantly hinders the usability of the new firewall.

Additionally, while XGS offers decent day-to-day management, there's room for improvement. Many users transitioning from UTM find the XGS interface less intuitive, causing a learning curve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Sophos XGS as a reseller for a long time. We are working with the latest version of the solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The newer version is stable. Earlier versions, like V8, were quite unstable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight-point five out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution’s scalability is good. We cater the solution to small, medium, and enterprises.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Support is mostly good, but sometimes it takes too long to escalate the solution.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy. It depends based on the scale of the deployment. There are different use cases according to the customers. Based on the requirements, the deployment can take between one day to a month. We have a small customer with a few hundred users. We can configure that within two to three days and finish the deployment quickly. It requires meticulous planning, and doing it then takes time based on the size of the customer , especially if it's a big customer. A small deployment is very easy. Larger deployments take time based on the customer requirements and different timescopes of the customer and downtime.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Sophos is comparatively cheaper than other products. The total cost of ownership is better in Sophos.

I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the solution an eight-point five 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: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Data Center Engineer at Emerging Communications Limited
Real User
Has security synchronization, a user-friendly setup, and competitive pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is very user-friendly because they have graphical user interface options and command line interface options. I would give the initial setup a rating of five out of five."
  • "It would be nice to have features like the network access control (NAC) that Cisco has for Identity Services Engine. In the next release, I would also like to see an increase in the performance of the processing units."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to secure the enterprise endpoint devices, whether they are servers, laptops, or mobile phones.

What is most valuable?

Security synchronization is one of the best features because it integrates the firewall with the endpoint devices.

What needs improvement?

It would be nice to have features like the network access control (NAC) that Cisco has for Identity Services Engine.

In the next release, I would also like to see an increase in the performance of the processing units.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good. They have a support portal where you can log in a case and have direct support from one of the experts.

They are responsive and follow up closely, so I would give them a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very user-friendly because they have graphical user interface options and command line interface options. I would give the initial setup a rating of five out of five.

It has three modes of deployment. You can have it deployed as physical hardware, as a virtual machine, or as software in the cloud.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it through an in-house team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing for Sophos is much better compared to that of Fortinet and Check Point. On a scale from one to five with one being expensive and five being competitive, I would rate Sophos' pricing at four.

The pricing can be for the hardware appliance and the license, or it can be subscription-based. It can be around 3000 USD up to 25,000 USD per year depending on the model or series of the hardware you choose to buy.

What other advice do I have?

Sophos XGS is suitable for enterprise customers and SMBs.

Overall, I would rate Sophos XGS at eight 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.
PeerSpot user
Muhammad Nouman - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Sales & Operations at Supernet
Reseller
User-friendly solution with good built-in reporting
Pros and Cons
  • "Sophos XGS' best features are simplicity and its built-in reporting tool."
  • "Sophos XGS could be improved by adding a built-in hyper-converged solution."

What is our primary use case?

I mostly use Sophos XGS for URL and web filtering and application control.

What is most valuable?

Sophos XGS' best features are simplicity and its built-in reporting tool.

What needs improvement?

Sophos XGS could be improved by adding a built-in hyper-converged solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Sophos XGS for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Sophos XGS is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Sophos XGS is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Sophos XGS' technical support is very responsive.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was quite simple, and the configuration took around an hour and a half.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing for Sophos XGS is around $150 per unit, split into $100 for the hardware and $50 for the license. Sophos XGS is competitively priced.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Sophos XGS eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Customer
PeerSpot user
Md Masud Parvez - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Assistant Director Information Technology at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Well priced with good features but needs technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable and reliable."
  • "In Sophos, the user portal is not user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

Basically, we are using these products for our waste filtering, then application filtering and bandwidth management purpose.

How has it helped my organization?

The major benefit is that I can shape my bandwidth, basically. In Bangladesh, we do not have a lot of bandwidth management or bandwidth capacity. We have a limited capacity and we share the many people in this capacity. I can shape my bandwidth using this Sophos file, so everyone gets a minimum level of bandwidth. If the user is higher-end, then getting the lower end and the user has the minimum level or less than 1000 or 500, and they're getting better than that.

What is most valuable?

Sophos has a feature for user credentials, which means if users are not logging into the capital portal of Sophos, they're not using any internet. We can advertise some products and features using these portals for our university. Basically, I am working at a university, so the university's different features and the different departments are using this portal. If students see this advertisement and then after they log in to the credential in the capital portal and use the internet.

What needs improvement?

Sophos is good for a mid-level company, not a large-level one. If the user level is very large, Sophos is not capable of handling such a high level of users. It, therefore, needs to improve the devices so that they work in larger organizations and with a large number of users.

When we use the hardware level of the device, the RAM or other storage capacity is fixed. We could not change the memory or other capacity of this device. If we need some improvement in capacity, we get different types of problems. If RAM usage is too high or capacity moves higher, the Sophos device does not work properly.

Sophos has a number of additional features, however, the user graphical interface, the graphical interface when we are using CyberRoam, the user portal, or user interfaces, are so much smarter than Sophos. In Sophos, the user portal is not user-friendly. This needs to change, the UI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've worked with the solution for the last four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. I'd rate the performance at 75%. Some improvements could be made. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 4,000 or 5,000 people that are connected in Sophos.

It is not easily scalable as it has fixed capabilities and that means C2 RAM is fixed. That makes it not easily scalable.

We use the product on a daily basis. 

How are customer service and support?

Sophos' technical support is not good. I have not been getting better support from their technical people. The response time needs to be better.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I am also using the Cisco Firepower model 4110.

The main difference is basically Sophos is not like a Firepower. Sophos we can call by the UTM device management. For security purposes, we are using a Cisco firewall for different types of attacks. For bandwidth management with filtering and other activities, just normal activities, we are using Sophos.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment is not complex, however, it's mid-level. You do need some experience. It depends on the device model. If we purchase the higher model, then the price or other investment is also more.

The deployment takes a maximum of one month. We do maintenance on the devices maybe once a year. 

What about the implementation team?

For the deployment process, the partner helped us deploy the devices and three people were working on the deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The initial price is high and we purchased a three-year licensing model. Every three years, after every three years, we need to renew Sophos. Everything is included under the license. 

The pricing is quite low, and we are quite happy with it.

What other advice do I have?

We're a customer and end-user.

We are using the hardware version of the product. It's the latest version. 

I'd rate the solution a seven 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.
PeerSpot user
Creative Head/Director at WitBuz
Real User
Used for website blocking, application blocking, and site-to-site VPN
Pros and Cons
  • "Compared to other products, Sophos XGS is a user-friendly solution."
  • "It would be useful if Sophos XGS included DDNS-based features."

What is our primary use case?

We use Sophos XGS mostly for website blocking, application blocking, and site-to-site VPN.

What is most valuable?

Compared to other products, Sophos XGS is a user-friendly solution.

What needs improvement?

It would be useful if Sophos XGS included DDNS-based features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Sophos XGS for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Sophos XGS is a scalable solution. We have more than 50 users in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

Sophos XGS provides good technical support. The support team has good knowledge of troubleshooting and fixing our issues.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is complex.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented the solution through an in-house team. The solution’s deployment takes half an hour to one hour.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Sophos XGS is a cost-effective solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Sophos XGS to other users because it is more cost-effective than other products.

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Oludare Oshodi - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Administrator at Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc
Real User
Top 20
Provides extreme protection

What is most valuable?

All security solutions are the same. It depends on the size of the network and license. They have the same features. Brands provide extreme protection.

What needs improvement?

The solution is expensive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Sophos XGS for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is suitable for small and medium businesses.

How are customer service and support?

Customer support is great.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy and takes around 30 mins to complete.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product’s pricing is average compared to other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the solution an eight 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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Sophos XGS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Sophos XGS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.