Sophos Cloud Optix vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

Sophos and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category. Sophos is ranked #31 with an average rating of 7.0, while Broadcom is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.1. Sophos holds a 0.5% mindshare in CSPM, compared to Broadcom’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Sophos users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Sophos Cloud Optix

Read 4 Sophos Cloud Optix reviews

451 Views
437 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Automation

Read 171 VMware Aria Automation reviews

7,662 Views
230 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Sophos Cloud Optix

VMware Aria Automation

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Sophos Cloud Optix and VMware Aria Automation based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Sophos Cloud Optix vs. VMware Aria Automation Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Cloud Optix vs. VMware Aria Automation

September 2025

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Helped 869,566 peers since 2012

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

Sophos Cloud Optix

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

31st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Automation

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

171

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (2nd), Configuration Management (6th), Network Automation (3rd), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of Sophos Cloud Optix is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 0.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware Aria Automation	0.3%
Sophos Cloud Optix	0.5%
Other	99.2%

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Featured Reviews

Jean Desir

Sr Network Engineer at Raptor Trading

DLP is a valuable feature that we use a lot for info audits.

The dashboard and the process for applying policies could be more intuitive. Cloud Optix isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it, but the IT folks managing this want it to be more user-friendly. Deploying the agents could be more seamless, too. Ideally, Cloud Optix would automate adding agents into your environment by integrating with Active Directory or some policy.

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Le Quang Long

Cloud Engineer at BIDV - Ngân hàng TMCP Đầu tư & Phát triển Việt Nam

Significantly streamlined operations with good automation that helps with simplifying workflows

It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users. It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method. I do not meet many people to operate it live beforehand. It operates for both of my products, but as a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I find Cloud Optix to be a valuable solution since it provides a single, unified dashboard to monitor cloud assets, such as AWS and Azure."

"The most valuable feature of Sophos Cloud Optix is the simple way to manage my devices on the network. Additionally, it is easy to navigate and has a user-friendly interface."

"DLP is a valuable feature that we use a lot for info audits."

"The most valuable feature for me would be the solution's endpoint protection."

"The most valuable features are the metrics and reporting aspects. The historical data and extraction enable us to tell where the trends are and where contentions may exist in the future."

"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to provide environmental security."

"It's much more stable than the highest available variant."

"The blueprint functionality of the product is intuitive and user-friendly. The concept of the blueprints is visual and easy to use."

"Even with the virtualization, it would take us at least three or four days to create a VM. With vRA we have brought that down to seven minutes. The solution has helped increase infrastructure, agility, speed of provisioning, time to market, application agility. Everything got super fast."

"It benefits the speed of our development, and the speed of anything we test and send through to production."

"SaltStack has given us the ability to deal with systems at scale and rectify issues at scale."

"I find the system to be intuitive and user-friendly. In general, I'm quite happy with the entire setup. Once you configure the system, navigating the portal is pretty simple. They use a lot of the vSphere UI interface structure so it's intuitive, especially if you have used anything vSphere-related before."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

Cons

"The setup was a little bit complex."

"Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection."

"The dashboard and the process for applying policies could be more intuitive. Cloud Optix isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it, but the IT folks managing this want it to be more user-friendly."

"There are times when the devices are at maximum capacity, and it takes a while before the device is updated. For example, if the device has a virus, and it's not aligned to connect to the network, even after you've scanned the device, and cleaned out the virus, once the management clears the system to allow it back on the network it takes some time. It can be frustrating when you have your line manager or in management affected trying to access the network."

"Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection."

"We would like them to improve the automation part. This is an upcoming area that we would like to focus on."

"It has a learning curve."

"Its configuration process could be better."

"We are migrating from vRA version 7 to 8, but the migration is really hectic and time-consuming. There are no straightforward paths to migrate. We are doing an entirely new deployment to go to vRA version 8.0, then somehow get all of the VMs to vRA 8.0. Therefore, it would have been great if VMware had some solutions to upgrade from vRA 7 to 8 seamlessly. This includes the management of all the objects or VMs from the older version. Unfortunately, it is not there."

"Normally, on the first call to technical support, you don't get the right person. The log analysis takes a long time. This is something which should be improved."

"The solution is intuitive, but not necessarily user-friendly. In particular, it's the documentation. It's a lot of going-through-the-weeds types of scenarios. There is just an abundance of information, so it's a matter of understanding how the objects or the relationships exist, and then, obviously, being able to access that information and knowing how to make use of it."

"I would like to see more out-of-the-box blueprints and workflows for the rest of VMware's products and its portfolio."

"Our primary challenge is upgrading the product to the latest version. This process requires careful communication with the vendor to mitigate risks."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding the pricing for Sophos Cloud Optix, I would say that it was a very good price."

"The pricing is very high."

"There is confusion between licensing levels. There are three different licensed versions of vRealize Automation, and there are different things which can happen in each of them."

"This is an expensive product and the high price is starting to become an issue for us."

"It is an open-source product."

"A simplified version for small businesses would be good."

"I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with ten being very expensive."

"The solution is pretty expensive but provides good workload management."

"Better pricing is always handy, but I feel it's at the right price point."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions are best for your needs.

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869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	130

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Sophos Cloud Optix?

Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection. The solution focuses on cloud security posture management. Fortinet, having acquired Lacework, seems to be a step ahead...

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What is your primary use case for Sophos Cloud Optix?

One primary use case for Sophos Cloud Optix is cloud visibility. I use it for compliance requirements and improving end user experience. The solution provides a unified dashboard for multi-cloud en...

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What advice do you have for others considering Sophos Cloud Optix?

I rate Sophos Cloud Optix seven out of ten overall. I recommend it for any size of company, considering their current ecosystem and workload. It's particularly suited for those in a Sophos ecosyste...

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What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?

vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...

See all answers

Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?

When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...

See all answers

Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?

I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...

See all answers

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Compared 22% of the time

AWS Security Hub vs Sophos Cloud Optix

Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 13% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 10% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 7% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

October 2025

Download Sophos Cloud Optix product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

September 2025

Download VMware Aria Automation product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack

Overview

Easily identify cloud resource vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, and respond to threats faster.

Sophos

VMware Aria Automation is a cloud management tool that allows companies to simplify their cloud experience through a modern automation platform. The solution is designed to deliver self-service clouds, multi-cloud automation with governance, and DevOps-based security and infrastructure management. It helps organizations improve IT agility, efficiency, and productivity through its various features.

VMware Aria Automation has multiple use cases that include the following:

Self-service multi-cloud: VMware Aria Automation can be used to deliver consistent self-service consumption. Another use case in this area is for delivering infrastructure across VMware Clouds as well as public clouds.
Multi-cloud governance: The solution can be used to manage cost, performance, networking, configuration, and security at scale for multi-cloud environments. VMware Aria Automation offers all this with an everything-as-code approach.
DevOps for infrastructure: Through VMware Aria Automation, companies can enable a powerful infrastructure as code platform with support for iterative development and infrastructure pipelining.
Kubernetes automation: Users can utilize VMware Aria Automation to automate the management of Kubernetes clusters and namespaces with support for vSphere with Tanzu.
Security operations: VMware Aria Automation facilitates event-driven automation to deliver full-service IT system compliance enforcement and vulnerability remediation.

VMware Aria Automation Features

VMware Aria Automation has various features that allow users to easily perform operations. Some of the solution's capacities include:

VMware Cloud agnostic template: This feature allows organizations to use a single cloud template to deploy with Infrastructure as a Code. Deployment options include VMware Cloud as well as major public cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and more.
Extensibility and customization: This VMware Aria Automation feature allows users to get full extensibility and customization. This can be achieved through Aria Automation Orchestrator, Action-Based Extensibility (ABX), and built-in integrations with common third-party tools.
Self-service multi-cloud: This feature enables users to request and provision infrastructure resources. It can be done across clouds using a unified and consistent Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consumption layer, idempotent REST API, and self-service catalog.
Centralized policies and governance: VMware Aria Automation offers a feature for users to manage multiple clouds with templatized cloud and policy definition, automated remediation, and cloud environment visibility.
Configuration management: Through this feature of the product, day 1 and 2 control can be achieved for virtualized and cloud environments. This can be done with intuitive configuration automation, compliance enforcement, and vulnerability remediation.
Infrastructure pipelining: Through this feature, organizations can access user-friendly release automation pipelines. They can be specifically tailored for CI/CD in infrastructure use cases.

VMware Aria Automation Benefits

VMware Aria Automation offers its users various benefits. Some of the biggest advantages that the solution brings to companies that utilize it include:

VMware Aria Automation provides faster time to market for companies through offloading manual tasks with advanced workflows and agile templating.
The solution offers high levels of security and control.
This product is suitable for beginners, as it offers a self-service consumption experience for users.
VMware Aria Automation accelerates innovation through Infrastructure as Code and DevOps principles.
The product provides users with flexibility, as it is compatible with the most popular public cloud solutions.
The solution offers fast deployment because of all natively integrated functions.

Reviews from Real Users

Awais J., CTO/CEO at a tech services company, likes VMware Aria Automation because it saves a lot of time, provides more visibility, and has extensive automation capabilities.

An IT consultant at a government rates VMware Aria Automation highly because the product gives you flexibility to analyze and consume resources.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Cloud Optix vs. VMware Aria Automation

September 2025

Free Report: Sophos Cloud Optix vs. VMware Aria Automation

Find out what your peers are saying about Sophos Cloud Optix vs. VMware Aria Automation and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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