Sophos XGS Reviews

We primarily use the solution as a firewall.

Sophos XGS is okay. It’s excellent for firewall purposes.

For me, the platform is stable. It's very stable. It works when it's configured. Also, when you're checking, the logs, the graph, and the graphs are easy to read.

I can also use it for other purposes. For example, it's got a DSCP from there. It can be a distribution. I can have other functions work there, so I can do a lot more than just the firewall components.

It gets easier and easier to set up.

It works. However, Sophos configurations are a bit complex. It's not very user-friendly. I don't find it user-friendly when it comes to setting up the firewalls.

The user interface for the technical admin can be better. It should be set forward to configure a firewall. if a firewall has complexities. I don't know why they did that. However, you should be able to quickly set up a rule to minimize the mistakes that a security administrator or a firewall administrator can make and configure. If not, that becomes an issue. One mistake on a firewall could result in a bridge.

It should be more straightforward. If you compare it with GFI Carrier Control Firewall, which is very straightforward, you can see why it’s helpful when it's easier.

I’ve used the solution for about three years now.

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn’t crash or freeze. It’s reliable and the performance is good.

The solution is scalable. However, it depends on the model of the physical appliance. There are virtual and physical appliances, so it depends on which one you use. Obviously, there could be a limitation on the number of interfaces you need to use since you may want to have additional services plugged in. Then, the number of ports available may only be two, and yet you actually need to have 10. Maybe you need to buy a module that plugs in; however, there could be a challenge there.

In our organization, we have three to four security administrators.

I've never spoken to technical support directly the way I've been talking to the Fortinet team. I was working with a local partner to get it set up.

In our case, since we were doing it for the first time, we took about a week to complete everything. We were doing a lot of other things and learning as we went. If I had to redo it now, it wouldn't take me a week as I know exactly what I need to do after learning over a period of time. Also, I have backups that allow me to back up and restore, so I just restore the configuration. It’s much more manageable. The first time there’s a learning curve.

We work with a partner and distributor. We are working with the sales party since it was the first time we used them. They offer us professional services.

I found the solution to be expensive. I pay close to $10,000 per year, which I find to be expensive compared to the other similar solution or equivalent solutions.

It's just that one cost, and it's an annual license. As long as my appliance is working okay, I don't need to replace it. However, it's just that. Of course, within that, there are also support services. You might have technical support costs depending on which one of the tiers you pick.

I'm a customer of Sophos.

We’re using the most up-to-date version of the solution. It’s around version 18.

A new user needs to get trained on the appliance to understand how to implement rules and fully appreciate how to work with it. It's not that straightforward. You need to understand what the different areas are. It's complex in the way the rules are set up. My colleagues in the industry have similar comments about Sophos. It’s more complicated than it looks.

I’d rate the solution a seven out of ten, mainly due to the complexity. If I make a mistake, then that firewall is of no use. It needs to be easier to set up so that it provides me or guarantees me that what I want to set up is what I've set up to secure my environment.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 

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. 

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

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

We primarily use the solution as a firewall. 

We have multiple clients. The use case is based on their requirements, for example, as a site-to-site VPN or maybe as an FSL VPN for end users to promote the network access of company systems. Apart from that, it is used for web filtering and URL blocking. Apart from that, it's on a regular day-to-day basis used as a firewall.

It covers most areas that are needed.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The solution is scalable. 

It's stable. 

We've had issues with support. If they improved on the support part, that would be great.

They should customers who are facing issues with their product reviews; they found bots in it. If they can do their proper research and use the user analysis and testing, that would greatly help the clients.

The software release has been giving us problems.

Other firewalls provide better reporting. We need admin and activity logs to be populated for the firewall. 

For the Sophos XGS, I've been working with it for the last four years. Overall, for firewalls in general, I've been working with solutions for more than ten years.

The solution is stable. We haven't really had any issues until a bug hits the firewall. 

We are the service provider to the client, so we have a total of 28 people, excluding the team lead and the presale technical support or maybe a presale technical person. They are working directly on Sophos XGS. e tend to deal with enterprise-level customers. We don't have small-scale organizations under our portfolio. This solution is best suited for mid-range companies and larger. 

The solution is pretty scalable. I'd rate it a three out of five in terms of ease of scalability.

Support has been very poor.

Neutral

We have three major products, which we offer to clients. They are Palo Alto, Cisco ACI, and Sophos XGS.

There are many major differences between Sophos and Palo Alto. This product is not comparable to Palo Alto right now. Maybe the basic models of the Palo Alto can be compared with the Sophos XGS firewall, however, not the higher-end ones. Palo Alto is much more advanced. 

The solution is straightforward to set up. It is not overly complex.

How long it takes to deploy depends on how the implementation is requested. It won't take more than one hour if it is a basic implementation like setting up the firewall with ISP connections and all those things. However, if it is a complete setup with implementations, other tests, and all those things, it takes around six to seven hours.

After the installation, we do the software updates periodically along with the model which the client has purchased Apart from that, we also do the maintenance of the various policies and other configurations. We do make changes to the firewalls based on changing industry standards, et cetera.

I'd rate the ease of implementation a four out of five. 

If the customer requests assistance with the initial setup, however, we will provide an engineer to them. They'll come to the implementation site and assist.

I don't take care of the licensing part. There is a separate team.

We are a Sophos Gold partner. 

We have multiple firewalls on multiple OS versions. Basically, we do have two major pieces of software installed in the firewall, which are 1854 MR4 and the latest release, 1801.

There are multiple criteria when making a decision about whether to go with Sophos or maybe another firewall. It depends on the client's requirements as well as their budget. 

I'd rate the solution five out of ten.

The interface is great.

It's a very easy-to-use product.

The product was easy for us to install. 

The pricing is okay. 

We've had many problems lately. We're having issues with its firmware, now, and we are trying to fix it with the supplier, the Sophos supplier in Turkey. 

It has recently started to suddenly block and crash. We don't know what will happen. We're not sure if it is the device or something else. We're trying to fix the problem with Sophos. 

It's not extremely scalable. 

I've been using the solution for six months. 

I'm not sure what the issue is, however, it has been crashing and we're trying to find a fix or a solution. 

I don't find the solution to be very scalable. 

We have 300 people using it right now. 

We're working with a Sophos supplier in Turkey. When we run into issues, we reach out to them. We're dealing with them right now. 

The installation process was very simple and straightforward. It wasn't overly complex or difficult. For us, the deployment took about two days. 

You only need two people to maintain the product. It's not labor-intensive. 

I'm not sure of the exact amount we paid, however, compared to other firewalls, the pricing isn't too bad. 

I'm a customer and an end-user. 

We bought three devices from Sophos. We're just dealing with some issues with crashing right now.

I'd rate the solution five out of ten. 

Potential new users should clearly investigate other firewall models. They need to be sure of what they pick before they pay for any solution.

We use Sophos XGS for web security and web policies, it's our primary solution. authentication VPN site to site, SSL VPNs installations. Sophos Firewall designed its extreme protection IT Rules and policies security level Authentication is good sometimes it's tricky and very helpful. Sophos Firewall delivers advanced threat protection to instantly identify bots and other advanced threats while defending your network from today's sophisticated attacks. current live user activities diagnostics to generate logs and objectionable site restrictions, daily reports are a great solution for the work environment.

With the increase in cybersecurity threats, this solution has helped us at an organizational level. We have always been hit by someone at the end of our desk or hidden somewhere ex:- spoofing attacks, a man in the middle attacks, and ransomware new era of cybersecurity pain full concept, Mail spoof attacks, all these have to improve DMZ and secure the firewall policies and server-client Antivirus solutions. Daily monitoring manually or trusted third-party vendors monitoring tools. finally, we are worried about how strong we are at the cybersecurity level.

This is a great solution for security, authentication, hashing, and encryption level. Sophos is good at ACL rules, Port forwarding, SDWAN route policies, IT Rules and policies as well as Natting rules. It's a reliable product to secure web securities. whenever we want we switch to the ports securely Heartbeat monitoring live user activities is great to execute on a production level. Bandwidth control sometimes referred to as traffic shaping is one of the best firewall features. Link aggregation and SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network) are great features for businesses that need multiple links to the internet. thank you

There are occasional issues when we update an operating firmware there's some lag time. Updating requires us to reboot the firewall, in this scenario 24/7 organization will be the most effective. In addition, I'd like to see more focus on customer support calls we were waiting for hours to connect with them. In some cases, Sophos's team is extraordinarily helpful to solve any issues in the firewall. Sophos needs to focus on customer support through a chatbot or call management quickly so we can find some help on the client side. Thank you

I've been using this solution for five years. 

The solution is stable despite having to restart when we update. 

The solution is very scalable and we're able to handle all the pressure in our organization. We have over 100 VPNs and it all works well, Authentications, port forwarding, and all kind of security levels are much appreciated. 

Customer support needs to be improved. They're very helpful once you get them on the line but sometimes take up to an hour before we can speak to someone who can fix a problem. when a problem occurs at the production level we freeze and everything goes blank so a faster customer support call is much more appreciated.

Positive

The initial setup is complex. Sophos has some features like rules and policies, NATing, and PATing so deployment might take more time than if we were using an alternate solution. Deployment can take up to two weeks because every policy and VPN requires checking and that takes time. I've been working for the past 10+ years experience in network engineering and firewall configuration so we deployed in-house but we contacted Sophos for assistance when we needed it.

The Sophos or any kind of firewall is worthy to buy when we have dedicated servers and switches to implementation.

There are some very good features in this firewall and also some areas that need improving. I rate this product seven out of 10. 

I use Sophos XGS as an alternative gateway and we are using all the new generation firewall functionalities, such as EPS and antivirus.

We are using the WAF functionalities of Sophos XGS which has helped the organization.

Sophos XGS could improve by having a Network Access Control(NAC). This feature is a basic function in other firewalls and should be added, such as Palo Alto.

The SD-WAN functionality should be reviewed because there are some devices that don't work well. For example, in Palo Alto, the SD-WAN functionality is more efficient.

I have been using Sophos XGS for approximately four years.

Sophos XGS is a stable solution.

The technical support from Sophos XGS is good. We reach out to them if there is a serious problem. We have opened approximately four tickets with them.

I rate the support for Sophos XGS a two out of five.

I have used many other solutions, such as Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco. Sophos XGS rates are at the bottom of the list compared to many solutions.

The initial setup is straightforward.

I would rate the initial setup of Sophos XGS three out of five.

We have a team of three or four people who administer Sophos XGS.

Once you pay for the Sophos XGS hardware there is no license required. There are additional costs if you want the support. We have purchased support for three years.

I rate Sophos XGS a six out of ten.

The major support that my company gets from Sophos is in the areas of web and content filtering. Users are able to filter out the web traffic, so they can consume whatever they need, and they can stop at the gateway level whatever they don't need. If social networking websites are not required for my company's developers, I can stop them right away. The categorization of the websites is pretty good, and people are very happy when they can do the customization. If users need to have some kind of exceptions, they can go for the exceptions very easily without any disturbance to the other end users. The best part of the product is associated with its web and content filtering features.

As my company does not cater to the needs of customers with very large networks, I haven't faced any challenges with Sophos XGS and my company is happy with the solution till date.

When it comes to the telemetry data, which comes under what you call the tool's service part, better known as MDR, I feel Sophos should add more telemetry data to its products. The tool should support multiple vendors and multiple OEMs. Right now, I think there are only less than a dozen vendors or OEMs supported by Sophos. I feel Sophos should support tools from more vendors.

I have been using Sophos XGS for four years.

When it comes to the process of scaling up, it is okay upto 5,000 users that I manage. Sophos has the appliances to cater to the requirements of 5,000 user networks and I know it because it is the customer range in which I deal. I don't go to a customer or a client that has more than 5,000 user networks.

The solution's technical support is excellent. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

My company does deal with other vendors in the market, but we feel that Sophos XGS is much more customizable and a readily available solution. A good thing about my company is that we have very good hands-on expertise, especially in areas like pre-sales and post-sales, where we have tech teams that are well-versed in areas like technologies, training, and modules while also ensuring that they stay up-to-date so that the team has all the sufficient knowledge to support themselves and also our customers' networks.

The product's initial setup phase is very straightforward. The GUI and everything else associated with the product are very straightforward.

The solution can be implemented in a couple of hours.

Only very large enterprise customers will have an edge with a tool similar to Sophos XGS because they have that kind of device and hardware, which can cater to around 10,000 or 20,000 user networks. My company does not deal with any large enterprise-sized customers, and so we are happy with Sophos.

Speaking about how the tool is deployed in our company's customers' network environment, I would say that it is done at the gateway level. With the gateway-level firewall, my company protects the network of our customers by applying the firewall, as well as the endpoint security, both provided by Sophos.

Speaking about the tool's threat intelligence capabilities on security posture, I would say that after content filtering, it obviously comes to threat monitoring. Sophos has SophosLabs, and it always gets updated. Users need not worry about the new threats or new landscapes coming in, as Sophos will take care of the aforementioned areas by default. Users need not depend on any third party for threat intelligence as the tool is sufficient to manage any kind of threat.

Sophos XGS has contributed to the reduction of the overall security costs of our company's customers. The biggest good point about the tool is related to the area of sizing. Sophos offers firewall tools for each and every size of the network. Irrespective of whether I have a small network in a branch office or a large network, I can get the appliances from Sophos to fit any size. I need not worry even if I am a company with just 25 users, as I need not spend lakhs of rupees. If I have a large network, even then, my hardware will be sufficient enough, and the cost offered by Sophos is obviously very competitive compared to the solutions offered by competitors in the markets.

Considering the sales, support, and post-sales services, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Positive

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.

We implemented it through an in-house team.

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.

Sophos XGS is suitable for enterprise customers and SMBs.

Overall, I would rate Sophos XGS at eight out of ten.