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F5 Distributed Cloud Services vs Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

F5 Distributed Cloud Services
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
CDN (7th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th), API Security (9th)
Sophos Cybersecurity as a S...
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
AWS Marketplace (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

F5 Distributed Cloud Services and Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. F5 Distributed Cloud Services is designed for CDN and holds a mindshare of 2.1%, up 2.1% compared to last year.
Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service, on the other hand, focuses on AWS Marketplace, holds 0.3% mindshare, down 0.3% since last year.
CDN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 Distributed Cloud Services2.1%
Cloudflare14.7%
Akamai11.3%
Other71.9%
CDN
AWS Marketplace Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service0.3%
True PACS SaaS0.3%
CTG Cross-Border VPC Connection (Asia Pacific:Seoul-China:Beijing)0.3%
Other99.1%
AWS Marketplace
 

Featured Reviews

Mohan Janarthanan - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Novac Technology Solutions
Centralized security has protected APIs and optimized multi‑cloud traffic management
F5 Distributed Cloud Services has been used for two years for DDoS protection, and there is a particular feature called API protection. Within API protection, there is malicious user mitigation, which is one particular technology that has been implemented. This is a kind of advanced bot attack prevention. Malicious user mitigation is an AI/ML-based technology that was introduced by the F5 team, and this particular MUG protects rate limiting. If some users are having anomaly detection or someone is trying to do a bot attack, it will create a CAPTCHA challenge for that particular user alone and not for all users. For example, if someone is trying to act as a rogue, it will create a CAPTCHA challenge in the backend system on that particular system, so they cannot try again and again at the same time. It is for a concurrent session, and it will give the CAPTCHA challenge. This MUG, malicious user mitigation, prevents bot attacks. F5 Distributed Cloud Services includes the real-time intelligence feature, which helps with threat response strategies from a threat intelligence perspective. For example, if there are geo-restrictions or geo-based restrictions, sometimes people may come in through proxy-based servers, and it will prevent that. The load balancing feature optimizes application performance. Observability is the basic piece where F5 got introduced. This observability piece provides end-to-end visibility on the application performance. It gives complete end-to-end visibility across network latency and application performance issues. Sometimes when it is getting more than 200 pages, it throws errors such as 300, 400, or whatever has been configured, including 500 errors. F5 Distributed Cloud Services has helped improve traffic management efficiency. Most applications are hosted in the Check Point and F5 firewall, F5 web application firewall, where applications and traffic management can be accessed in a single dashboard. Automated threat detection is a basic feature of F5 Distributed Cloud Services meant for that purpose. There are two scenarios with automated threat detection, which is provided by F5. It is a completely machine learning solution that came from the bot defense, and it automatically protects against sophisticated attacks.
SR
Director at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Integrated defenses have enabled rapid ransomware prevention and streamlined incident response
Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service is a mature platform with strong endpoint protection, MDR, and integrated security capabilities. However, areas exist where it can continue to evolve. I see opportunities around AI-driven automation, cloud-native security, identity protection, third-party integrations, executive reporting, and proactive risk management. Sophos already provides a strong integrated security platform with MDR, XDR, endpoint protection, and firewall integration. The next evolution is to become even more predictive and autonomous. I would like to see deeper AI-driven response automation, enhanced cloud and identity threat detection, broader third-party integrations, executive-focused risk dashboards, automated compliance mapping, and continuous external attack surface management. These enhancements would not only improve security outcomes but also help CISOs better demonstrate cyber risk reduction and business value. To make it a ten, I would like to see cloud-native workload protection and identity security deeper compared with some specialized competitors. Some enterprises with highly customized SOCs may prefer broader native integration and automation available from platforms such as Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, or CrowdStrike. Further enhancement in executive reporting and exposure management capabilities is also needed.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Elastic environments are the most valuable features because I can pull these apps and migrate the on-premises environment to the Distributed Cloud environment, and this capability is very strong and the security regarding the apps is really very powerful."
"F5 Distributed Cloud Services has positively impacted my organization from the security point of view, as all our applications are in a very stable, safe mode."
"F5 Distributed Cloud Services is the market leader in load balancers and manages traffic really well."
"The main benefit is Web App Security, offering a complete security package from DDoS to web application firewall, API protection, and bot mitigation."
"F5 Distributed Cloud Services provides a single unified console for security operations, network operations, and DevOps across all environments."
"Overall, I would recommend it; it is very easy to use and effective, and you can immediately configure the policies and configurations you need, with results appearing in seconds."
"F5 is known for being the best load balancer in the market. Customers with an existing module can easily adopt additional modules without investing in new hardware."
"In a multi-cloud or distributed cloud, there are many protection possibilities from data to web application or API protection, including bot mitigation."
"Sophos Heartbeat and the Sophos AI-driven ransomware protection for Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service are significant benefits."
"Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service has positively impacted our organization by providing management with confidence, knowing we have one of the best MDR services overseeing our entire ecosystem."
"Overall, I find Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service to be very great and very fast."
"Since the day we started using Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service MDR, there has not been a single incident."
"Support comes not only on problems in terms of security, but also on other matters such as concerns, questions, or inquiries about the license and inquiries about the best way to deploy it."
"Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service offers very tight security and compliance; if anybody applies Sophos at their premises, the environment is completely secure and sound."
"Enhanced Threat Hunting and Forensics help my organization address cyberattacks."
"There is definitely a return on investment when using Sophos products; it all comes down to how deployment is managed, as policy is crucial."
 

Cons

"Sometimes this does not work and I go import them manually."
"The pricing could be adjusted to better meet the needs of typical customers in regions like Poland, where the product is considered too expensive."
"The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF. There are some problems, mainly from the perspective of implementation and customer expectations, which sometimes differ from reality."
"F5 Distributed Cloud Services still does not have the same flexibility as BIG-IP. It does not have iRules."
"Last year there was a downtime of 30 minutes across the cloud distributed console, and that was the only impact observed."
"For small players, it is completely not worth it."
"An improvement for F5 Distributed Cloud Services could be in usability."
"The worst experience is that with so many solutions available, it is very complicated to know all of the solution modules, and the offers from F5 Distributed Cloud Services are vast."
"The disadvantages of Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service include that the support, specifically after-sales support, needs to be improved."
"Unfortunately, Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service doesn't provide that kind of visibility into what software or tools are installed on a particular system."
"To make it a ten, I would like to see cloud-native workload protection and identity security deeper compared with some specialized competitors."
"The issue is that I am mentioning the need for more education because customers are using the solution, but I do not think they are maximizing the use or the functionalities of the solution."
"There are a lot of technical issues with the implementation of Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service, particularly because we are currently implementing the XG series, where Citrix is the endpoint, leading to a lot of confusion."
"There are a few areas where Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service could be improved."
"In terms of improvement, Sophos testing after implementation is quite difficult."
"Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service could be improved by adding features such as patch management and file encryption, as these are currently missing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Construction Company
30%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Security Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Distributed Cloud Services?
Regarding pricing, I believe the prices are much higher than I expected, but for the time being, the customer is still paying. It is not really a cheap product. From a pricing perspective, there sh...
What needs improvement with F5 Distributed Cloud Services?
An improvement for F5 Distributed Cloud Services could be in usability. It is very powerful, but it can also be quite complex. When you have many applications and routes, the troubleshooting proces...
What is your primary use case for F5 Distributed Cloud Services?
Our main use case for F5 Distributed Cloud Services is the application traffic management and security for our web applications. We rely on F5 Distributed Cloud Services primarily for load balancin...
What needs improvement with Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service?
The R&D team is very good in doing their task and continuously conducting research. I cannot comment on what could be added in future updates of Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service that they need...
What is your primary use case for Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service?
I want to discuss the experience with Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service products. I have familiarity with the service in general, but I do not have specific experience with Sophos. Sophos Cybersecu...
What advice do you have for others considering Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service?
Most of our customers are very cautious about the data that they are keeping, so they prefer buying Sophos Cybersecurity as a Service directly from Sophos or third-party vendors to building their i...
 

Overview

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