Mohamed Abdel Hassanein - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at FORESEC
Reseller
Top 10
Provides accessible and responsive technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that Sophos SafeGuard provides excellent technical support."
  • "What would make Sophos SafeGuard better than competitors is if its management console also includes firewall management. In the future, I want Sophos SafeGuard to be more scalable."

What is our primary use case?

The use cases for Sophos SafeGuard include protecting customer data and securing customer premises.

What is most valuable?

I like that Sophos SafeGuard provides excellent technical support.

What needs improvement?

What would make Sophos SafeGuard better than competitors is if its management console also includes firewall management.

In the future, I want Sophos SafeGuard to be more scalable. The solution also needs a better management console. It would also be good if Sophos SafeGuard could surprise its customers a little bit more.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Sophos SafeGuard for three years now.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, Sophos SafeGuard is stable. I have yet to receive any negative feedback regarding stability from customers.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Sophos SafeGuard isn't one hundred percent scalable because sometimes, you need to replace the product to upgrade the bandwidth. It's more optimal for a small number of users because, to a certain extent, you may need to change the product if you have more users.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support for Sophos SafeGuard is excellent because it's accessible, and the response time is good.

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

Before working with Sophos SafeGuard, I worked with Forcepoint and WatchGuard. Forcepoint does a lot of marketing, so it sells, while Sophos SafeGuard though it's doing very well in the market, needs to concentrate a little more on marketing.

How was the initial setup?

I need to be more technical to deploy Sophos SafeGuard, but to my knowledge, it's easy to deploy, but you sometimes need to configure the policy. It could take three days to deploy the solution.

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

The pricing for Sophos SafeGuard is in the middle. It's not the most expensive, but it's not the lowest. In terms of size, the solution typically fits small to medium-scale customers.

Pricing for Sophos SafeGuard could be improved because it could reach a thousand dollars depending on the product, edition, and software key purchased. Sometimes, the price increases, and sometimes, Sophos SafeGuard is free for the first year. It depends on Sophos' strategies to compete with other solutions, such as Forcepoint.

What other advice do I have?

I have experience with Sophos SafeGuard.

The solution is for the customer. I'm a sales manager, and I sell Sophos SafeGuard to the end user.

If you're marketing Sophos SafeGuard, it's booming now as a cyber security appliance or product. Still, you'll need to concentrate more on marketing and rely on good distributors and partners.

My rating for Sophos SafeGuard is eight 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/Distributor
PeerSpot user
Customer Support Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Beneficial system scanning, effective malware detection, but memory intensive
Pros and Cons
  • "The malware protection and the scanning features are most valuable in this solution."
  • "There are times that this solution takes up too much memory that needs to be resolved. If it is not fixed it will definitely create issues in the future."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution primarily for email scanning.

What is most valuable?

The malware protection and the scanning features are most valuable in this solution.

What needs improvement?

There are times that this solution takes up too much memory that needs to be resolved. If it is not fixed it will definitely create issues in the future.

In an upcoming release, there should be more reports on the health status of the systems that we could fix, such as memory health, CPU utilization, and CPU health. These types of additions would be a great help.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for approximately six months.

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 solution has been scalable. Most of my clients are enterprise-size organizations using this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

Since I have been using the solution I have not had any errors or any issues I would need to contact support about.

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

I have used Trend Micro and Symantec antivirus previously. We have had a lot of issues with Trend Micro antivirus. We were facing so many issues related to the support and integration with some applications. There were times when applications would stop running. The solution also took up too many resources that were impacting the system's performance which is why we needed to move on from that particular antivirus.

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

It would be great if the price of the solution was lower than the current price. If we are to sell this particular solution to smaller businesses and not just enterprise businesses, it needs to be lower.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Sophos SafeGuard a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Sophos SafeGuard
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about Sophos SafeGuard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
772,567 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head of Security at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
The firewall is great but configuration and integration could be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "The intrusion detection system."
  • "The Office 360 integration could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I'm the head of security at our company and we are customers of Sophos SafeGuard. 

What is most valuable?

The valuable feature is the intrusion detection system, the firewall itself.

What needs improvement?

The Office 360 integration could be improved, it's not so straightforward. It's been a challenge. When I moved from my mail in-house, on-prem, to Office 360 on cloud, I had a lot of challenges getting my mail to pass through the firewall. That's something I'm currently working on.

Additional features I'd like to see would be more help results to the product. Maybe they could provide a way to train on the product, provide tutorials that could be easily accessed for people to easily understand the product quickly. I think that would help. The issue is not always the product but the configuration and the know-how to easily manage the system that sometimes make you not get the best out of the system. It's a matter of making resources available. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution, I haven't had any challenges except when I was doing the migration.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, we have over 500 staff using it. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We purchased the solution in Ghana through a rep who has not been helpful. The company doesn't provide any support, we do everything in-house. If necessary, I sometimes go to the community to see if somebody has reported something that can help us. 

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

The price could be lower. I think it's one of the disadvantages of the solution. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend that people choosing this solution find the right technical people or  vendor to provide support and assistance to ensure the product is working fine.

I would rate this product a six out of 10. 

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
Head of IT at Digital Oak LTD
Real User
Top 20
It's a user-friendly solution for protecting our clients' systems from external attacks
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to use. You have to pay extra for additional, but the basic product is fantastic. It will be a good solution for you, depending on your requirements."
  • "You have to pay extra for some additional features, like data extraction. It would be nice if everything was available in one bundle."

What is our primary use case?

I use SafeGuard to protect the end-user's system from any external algorithms. Users have to be ready for any attack, whether it's coming from within or outside the network.

What needs improvement?

You have to pay extra for some additional features, like data extraction. It would be nice if everything was available in one bundle.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Sophos SafeGuard for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SafeGuard is extremely stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SafeGuard is highly scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Sophos support seven out of 10. Sometimes, it takes them time to respond.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

Setting up SafeGuard is straightforward except the bandwidth and sync. It takes around five minutes to deploy one module, depending on your network environment. Sometimes, a client needs a strictly on-premises deployment instead of on the cloud. 

What about the implementation team?

I performed the installation by myself. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Sophos SafeGuard 10 out of 10. It's easy to use. You have to pay extra for additional, but the basic product is fantastic. It will be a good solution for you, depending on your requirements.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
System Administrator at GeoEnpro Petroleum Ltd
Real User
Good protection, stable, scalable, and the support is helpful
Pros and Cons
  • "It's the best solution on the market."
  • "It's a good product, but some are not happy with the boot BCN, and the point-to-point VPN requires the best protection."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to protect our devices in a data center environment.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is the protection. It offers many different areas of protection such as trade and virus protection.

It's the best solution on the market.

What needs improvement?

It's a good product, but some are not happy with the boot BCN, and the point-to-point VPN requires the best protection. Better internet protection is required.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are currently using Sophos XG 210.21 but it expires in August, so we are looking at the Next-Generation Firewall.

We are using the latest version of SafeGuard.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution. We have no issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can expand the product when we have the requirements to do so. For now, we have not explored this area.

We have 150 users in various roles using this solution in our organization.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is great. They are very good, and helpful.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex.

It took two months to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

Initially, we started to implement this solution but required some help from support.

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

Licensing is on a yearly basis and the pricing could be better.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others because it's a very good product.

We are satisfied with SafeGuard and I would rate it a ten 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:
PeerSpot user
Information Technology Project Support at Coastal Qatar
Real User
Great protection and encryption with very good anti-viral applications
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution has a great VPN."
  • "The dashboards lack sufficient information."

What is our primary use case?

We have several use cases for SafeGuard, primarily for its security features. We also use it for the VPN and plan filtering. We are customers of Sophos and I'm head of information technology product support.

What is most valuable?

Sophos SafeGuard offers one of the best VPNs I've seen. The solution is very good in terms of securities because all information is protected and encrypted with very good anti-viral applications. It's wonderful.

What needs improvement?

The dashboards currently lack sufficient information. For example, when we want to look for accessibilities we have to go in-depth and then run the scripts and only then access what we're looking for. It could all be available in the reports and save a lot of time. I want to be able to know who is using what, to check visibilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability depends on the parameters. The solution is scalable it's just a question as to what level. It will be different for every situation. 

How are customer service and support?

We are happy with the technical support team because they are accessible locally.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. We had some assistance initially but after we received guidelines from the technical team, it was easy. Anyone can do it with a couple of hours of training.

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

Licensing is reasonably priced, particularly when you compare it to a solution like Semantic which is more expensive. Sophos is an affordable product.

What other advice do I have?

SafeGuard is good for medium to large size organizations. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head of Information Security Service at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easy to set up and stable but needs better key management
Pros and Cons
  • "It's quite easy to integrate Safeguard with BitLocker"
  • "When you have the PPM chipset, you can have the power-on authentication, when you boot up your machine, you can set the six-digit passcode. As of right now, SafeGuard can't manage the six-digit passcode in terms of the expiration, and I need that added as a feature."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for endpoint encryption within our organization.

What is most valuable?

The management and the removable media encryption are two of the solution's most valuable features, in my opinion. They're very useful.

It's quite easy to integrate Safeguard with BitLocker.

What needs improvement?

In the latest versions, from Windows 8 onwards, everything is encrypted using BitLocker. What we require is key management, and in particular, policy management surrounding keys. There should be an option wherein I should be able to set the policy to exploit the BitLocker POA keys, and able to manage and reset the keys. Right now, the solution doesn't have this as an option.

From version eight, Windows 8 onwards, SafeGuard doesn't work 100% of the time. So we have to use BitLocker for the encrypting. Only the key management is done by SafeGuard. 

When you have the PPM chipset, you can have the power-on authentication, when you boot up your machine, you can set the six-digit passcode. As of right now, SafeGuard can't manage the six-digit passcode in terms of the expiration, and I need that added as a feature.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used the solution for maybe more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've found the solution quite effective in terms of stability. There aren't bugs or glitches. We don't experience crashes. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our organization hasn't run into any issues with scaling. If a company needs to expand its usage, it should be able to do so quite easily.

Currently, it's just my team that handles Safeguard in the company. Not everyone in the organization has access to it. We do use it daily.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have contacted technical support in the past, and so far I can say that we've been completely satisfied. They've been very helpful and we don't have any complaints to speak of.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was quite easy. We didn't find it to be complex.

Deployment doesn't take much time. It depends on the hard disk. Most installations shouldn't take more than thirty minutes at a maximum to finalize.

What about the implementation team?

Our team was able to deploy the solution ourselves. We didn't require an integrator, consultant, or reseller to assist us in this endeavor.

What other advice do I have?

We're merely a customer of the solution. We don't have a special relationship with Sophos.

We mostly deploy the solution on-premises, and only occasionally on the cloud.

I don't think I have much advice to give to other companies in regard to this product. We use it to manage BitLocker and find it very easy to set up. Organizations shouldn't have trouble implementing it into their business. We never have had issues with it in terms of implementation.

I'd rate the solution 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
PeerSpot user
Technical & Pre-Sales Manager at GateLock
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A stable, easy to scale solution with very good encryption capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of the solution are the fact that they are able to encrypt the hard disk and to encrypt USB sticks."
  • "The solution is not using other features like booting encryption, because it causes very heavy processing of the workstation. If they could find some way to handle the encryption and decryption to be lighter on the workstation it would be better."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of the solution are the fact that they are able to encrypt the hard disk and to encrypt USB sticks. 

What needs improvement?

The solution is not using other features like booting encryption, because it causes very heavy processing of the workstation. If they could find some way to handle the encryption and decryption to be lighter on the workstation it would be better.

It would be ideal if the solution could make the processing possible on an appliance, instead of having to install it on a machine. Also, it should be in the network layers and communicate with more workstations. The encryption and decryption processing should not be on the workstation; rather it should be on the appliance.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very, very easy to scale the solution. You do not need to make any upgrades. You just need to adjust the sizing to expand. You can expand at any time.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very good, but sometimes they take a while to respond. This solution's very complex and still in the development process. Sometimes customers will ask for items that need to be developed or are not easy to develop. The solution is putting out a lot of updates, however, so they're constantly working to create a better product.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straight forward. The settings are not complex. However, sometimes some encryption settings have a complex configuration.

What about the implementation team?

We are a distributor of the solution. We recommend users use professional services to assist us with the implementation.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

There's not a good market for this type of solution here in Egypt. It might be because here in Egypt there isn't a great need for this kind of solution yet. There are no compliance regulations from the government. However, the solution offers good features and I believe would be good for customers. There are so many areas where customers need encryption technology. 

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 SafeGuard Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Sophos SafeGuard Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.