Sophos Central Reviews

We use the solution to protect our network.

The policies and the management of the services and computers are valuable features. The product is easy to use. It is flexible and simple.

The solution must provide a separate app for Tamper Protection. Now, we have to go to Sophos Central to look for the station and take the passwords to disable the antivirus for PC maintenance. If we had an app where we could get the Tamper Protection password for admins, we could work more easily with it. It would be easier for administrative purposes to have a universal app where I can see all my stations with the Tamper passwords.

I have been using the solution for four to five years.

We have had no issues with the tool’s stability. It runs well. We can see all the problems on Sophos Central and correct or fix them.

The tool is scalable. The only thing we have to do is talk to our partner to buy more licenses, and we get the licenses one day later. About 25 people use the solution in our organization.

Before Sophos Central, we used Avira. It had a management center similar to Sophos Central. Sophos is better. Avira doesn't support networks anymore. Avira only serves private people. That is why we moved to Sophos.

The product is easy to install. The deployment takes a few minutes per station. I just double-click on the setup, and everything works on its own. The solution is cloud-based. It is easy to maintain. One person is enough to maintain the tool.

The solution is moderately expensive. We pay the licensing fee every three years. There are no additional costs associated with the product.

Overall, I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

My clients have 120 firewalls. They are all on Sophos Central. The tool can be used for firewall management.

I appreciate the fact that all my firewalls are in Sophos Central. Some of our customers do not have public static IPs. They're on DHCP through service providers, and I can manage and monitor my firewalls through it. It makes my life a lot easier. The tool enables me to see the security of my customers’ PCs at a glance.

The product must be made a little bit quicker. It sometimes takes me up to three to five minutes just to log in and see my dashboard. Once we’re in, it’s alright. The initial login is time-consuming.

I have been using the solution for more than five years.

The tool is very, very stable. We have had no issues.

The tool is very, very scalable. Our customers are medium to enterprise-level businesses.

We had a small language barrier with the support staff. The call center is in India. They have great knowledge, but they have very heavy accents. A lot of times, we struggle to understand what they are saying. Normally, I ask them to put it in an email to me and do my research about everything.

Positive

I have worked with Symantec. Broadcom and Veritas bought it. However, none of these solutions are anywhere near Sophos. When I used Symantec, I struggled to log in to the enterprise console in the cloud. Symantec used cookies to authenticate my browser.

Once, the cookies were changed and were not updated on my side. So, I had to re-authenticate and run through the whole process again to find the latest version of the software and download it. I had to physically log a support call just for them to point me in the correct direction of where I could download the latest software. It became a very tedious and time-consuming operation every single time I had to do an update.

The solution is very easy to install. One person can install the product in about five minutes. When I deploy the tool, I copy the initial setup file onto my server. I go through all the PCs and click on the setup. Upgrades and version updates are automatic. I don't have to worry about anything. When there's an alert on my email, I log in to Sophos Central and do some checks.

The tool is a little more expensive than other solutions. However, we get more value for money from Sophos. We pay an annual license fee for the tool. The monthly licensing option is more expensive than the annual license.

I would recommend the solution to others. Anyone who wants to do a trial with Sophos can engage with the software support people. The team will help do a case study, which will help convince the management to choose the product. Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Private Cloud

We use Sophos Central for endpoints on Android and iOS, shared endpoint servers, email servers, phishing campaigns, and mobile device management.

Since the last review, Sophos Central has seen significant improvements. The claw back features for email, improved detection systems for phishing and malicious mail, and unique features for compliance assessment have enhanced organizational compliance visibility. Additionally, the anti-virus signatures are regularly updated, ensuring that anti-virus capabilities remain effective.

The phishing campaign training could be more engaging with real-life scenarios. Customization of campaign templates would be beneficial. While Sophos Central excels in detecting malicious attachments, Microsoft offers superior capabilities in this area. Enhancements in email detection would be advantageous, particularly for small to medium industries.

I have been using Sophos Central for over eight years.

The deployment process for Sophos Central is smooth and not complicated. Even without expertise, we have successfully implemented the solution without issues.

I would rate the stability of Sophos Central as nine out of ten, acknowledging room for growth.

I would also rate the scalability of Sophos Central as nine out of ten.

Sophos Central's technical support is excellent, always available, and responsive. The support team is swift in their responses and very helpful.

Positive

While I have worked with other vendors, I have not explored other options in the past eight years due to my satisfaction with Sophos Central.

The initial setup of Sophos Central is straightforward, involving no complicated steps.

Being a not-for-profit organization, we find Sophos Central's pricing reasonable without specific knowledge of the cost.

Customization, particularly in phishing campaigns and training, would enhance the user experience. Outdated training materials should be updated with real-life scenarios to highlight the impacts of phishing campaigns. For the overall solution, I give Sophos Central a rating of nine out of ten.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

It is very useful to deploy policies centrally and monitor the status of our appliances, especially given that we are the main branches. With Sophos Central, you can centrally manage and deploy security policies and updates, saving time and eliminating the need for the technical team to travel to each branch individually.

The product needs to improve monitoring since it gives false positives. It needs also to improve pricing. 

I have been using the product for four years. 

Sophos Central is stable. 

Sophos Central is scalable. My company has 300-400 users. 

We contact our partner for support. 

Sophos Central's deployment is easy and takes one month to complete. 

Our three in-house resources and one partner resource managed the deployment. 

Pricing is on a device basis. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use Sophos Central to manage Sophos Endpoint integration and Sophos Firewall.

The platform provides smart integration between Sophos Endpoint and Firewall. It is easy to manage and configure. We do not require any technical assistance for integration. We can execute the process with the help of activation code.

There could be more integration included in the product.

I rate Sophos Central's stability a ten out of ten.

Sophos has a helpful support team. However, we have never contacted them.

The initial setup process of the cloud solution is easy. It is a two to three-step implementation and takes an hour to complete.

I rate Sophos Central a ten out of ten. I recommend it to others as it enables users to work with Sophos Endpoint and Firewall. We can manage the operation through one dashboard.

For me, it's a great solution for endpoint management features like responding to threats and monitoring.

When I worked with large call centers, the most important thing was the device control feature. It provided reports on which devices were being used in the company area, and it prevented unauthorized devices from connecting to the computers. This was especially helpful because certain devices could be dangerous.

The most important feature is definitely the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) tool. It allows us to track malware and other incidents in our environment.

The product feels very complete in terms of providing information and functionality.

Maybe the license pricing could be improved.

I have been using it for a year and a half. 

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

I started with the on-premise version, then I switched to the cloud version when it became available. I've been using the cloud version for a year and a half now, and I much prefer it.

The cloud version is definitely easier to set up. The documentation online is also helpful, so we didn't have any trouble getting it up and running.

It was my first product tested in terms of antivirus and firewall. 

I strongly recommend the usage of this product. Have proper licenses in place. Sophos XG Firewall and Sophos Central because those are good products to use.

Overall, I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

My customers choose to use Sophos Central for centralized management of their cybersecurity. A key scenario is combining Sophos Endpoint and Sophos Firewall, using features like Synchronized Security. This ensures that if an endpoint is compromised, the information is quickly shared with the firewall, allowing for automatic protection of both endpoints and the network. The convenience of managing these security aspects together is a major benefit for organizations.

I have noticed a significant improvement in how Sophos Central functions for our organization. With recent upgrades, the automatic synchronization of licenses in firewalls stands out. This eliminates the manual hassle of entering license renewal details, making the process seamless and worry-free for our customers.

One of the most valuable features of Sophos Central is its Synchronized Security.

One area I would like to see improvement in Sophos Central is the multi-factor authentication process. Currently, it involves multiple steps with email, phone, and Sophos Authenticator, which can be cumbersome. I faced issues when I lost my phone, making it challenging to log in. Finding a more user-friendly MFA solution would be great. Overall, apart from that, Sophos Central has made significant improvements in the past year and is now a competitive and reliable product.

I have been working with Sophos Central for a year.

We have not had any stability issues so far.

I find Sophos' technical support to be very good. I would rate it as an eight out of ten.

Positive

Besides Sophos, I have worked with Zoho, Check Point, Kaspersky, ESET, and CrowdStrike.

The initial setup process for Sophos Central is straightforward. You sign up at Central.Sophos.com, confirm via email, and provide the required information. It is a quick and simple process, typically taking about 10 to 15 minutes for the initial account creation. One person is sufficient for deployment, and it doesn't require a lot of time or resources. Maintaining Sophos Central is generally straightforward, requiring about 5% maintenance. This includes monitoring events and addressing issues flagged by Sophos Endpoint. The IT admin may need to manually intervene in cases where the endpoint detects a file it cannot remove independently. Overall, maintenance is minimal but involves occasional attention to ensure optimal security.

No, there are no additional fees for creating a Sophos Central account. It depends on the services needed. We can connect a limited number of firewalls to Sophos Central without extra charges. However, for managed endpoint centers with Cisco, there may be auto-query license fees in some scenarios.

My advice for new users would be that for those managing both endpoints and firewalls, especially in scenarios where comprehensive security is crucial, I strongly recommend Sophos Central. The use of Synchronized Security provides data visibility and protection, ensuring that malicious activities on endpoints are promptly detected and isolated by Sophos firewalls. This significantly reduces the burden on IT admins and enhances overall network security. Overall, I would rate Sophos Central as a seven out of ten.

We use it to centralize, manage, and upgrade our security infrastructure. This includes applying policies, revoking access, and working within established guidelines, all without the need for physical access.

It streamlines our operations, allowing us to remotely handle tasks, saving time and eliminating the need for running around to different locations.

The primary benefits include complete control over hardware devices and the valuable assistance provided in log shipment. Additionally, the analytics tools proved instrumental in effectively utilizing and interpreting data related to these aspects.

There were challenges we faced with generating reports for the physical firewall in certain instances. Despite escalating the issue through tickets, we haven't received a fully satisfactory resolution. Additionally, accessing user logs on the central platform is not as straightforward as we'd prefer.

I have been working with it for approximately five years.

I haven't encountered any significant downtime while working, ensuring a stable experience.

I would rate its scalability capabilities nine out of ten. Currently, there are five individuals responsible for overseeing and managing approximately twenty-five to twenty-eight firewalls.

The technical support in India is somewhat slow. They often require a considerable amount of time, and contacting them sometimes involves odd hours, which can be challenging, especially when it falls outside regular business hours.

We collaborate with two other vendors, Fortinet and Palo Alto. We recently adopted Palo Alto about a year ago, and while they make promising claims, we are still in the process of familiarizing ourselves with their offerings. Fortinet, on the other hand, has been part of our operations for the past two years, with our team gaining experience and expertise. Among the three, Sophos is the longest-standing partner.

The initial setup was straightforward and user-friendly.

It offers the most competitive pricing compared to other vendors. When considering security effectiveness, Sophos stands out as a cost-effective choice, especially in comparison to other prominent solutions available in the Indian market. It provides a comprehensive package that includes most features, making it more scalable and accessible for security needs in smaller organizations like ours. I would rate it one out of ten.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Public Cloud

We use the solution primarily as ransomware. It is a good ransomware. Most organizations tend to choose Sophos Intercept X, which is an endpoint security solution.

The tool improves security and saves time. It shortens the time taken for the management of nodes. It also shortens the time taken to respond to incidents.

Sophos Central is a management panel. We use Sophos Intercept X for endpoints and Intercept X Advanced for servers. If we need extended detection and response, we can take it with EDR. The solution provides good management capabilities. It enables us to manage the firewalls and endpoints. We can change the policies from Sophos Central, which reflects on the firewalls and endpoints.

The product does not have a dedicated MFA. It uses third-party authenticators. We will face challenges if we use a mobile phone because there might be issues with the local carrier. So, we have to use Google Authenticator or any other cloud-based authenticator to shorten the authentication time.

I have been using the solution for six years.

The tool is perfectly stable because it is cloud-based.

The tool is scalable.

The technical support is pretty good. The turnaround time is pretty perfect. It is nice.

Positive

I am a service provider. Different clients have different solutions. We propose solutions based on our customer’s environment. Our clients have used solutions like McAfee and Fortinet and have changed to Sophos.

The initial setup is not really difficult. However, the endpoints are challenging. It cannot be done centrally. We have to go to the individual machines or deploy through an AD. The solution is cloud-based. It takes less than five minutes to deploy the tool.

We create accounts and define the policies. Once the policies are defined, we deploy the individual endpoints. It depends on how many nodes we are working with. If we are working with 1000 nodes, it will take time.

The product is expensive compared to other products like Fortinet and Microsoft Defender.

Trend Micro is a competitor.

Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

It acts as a central management platform that connects to all our mobile devices and laptops.

One of the standout features is its highly detailed and user-friendly graphical interface. In comparison to other device control software I've used, it provides a comprehensive and intuitive dashboard, and I can easily locate the information I need within the software by accessing the built-in help feature. Even users who are not familiar with Sophos can navigate the dashboard with ease.

Having a mobile app for Sophos Central would be a highly valuable addition. With the current hybrid work environment and travel requirements, having a mobile solution would greatly improve our ability to access and navigate Sophos Central on the go, enhancing the overall user experience and making it a more portable solution.

I've been working as an infrastructure engineer at my current organization for the past two years, but the organization has been using Sophos Central for about three to four years now.

Overall, it's a reliable and stable product.

It is indeed a scalable product. Whenever we required specific features or solutions, we engaged with Sophos sales and our trusted third-party provider. They have been instrumental in helping us scale up our existing solutions, whether it's related to firewalls, networking, or other technical aspects. The ease of scalability has been a notable benefit, allowing us to adapt to our evolving needs effectively. We have approximately two hundred users working with it.

The support service has been of good quality in my experience.

Our company primarily focuses on providing training services, with a specialization in firewall training. Our journey with Sophos began when we initially acquired Sophos firewalls. Subsequently, as we sought a comprehensive solution for managing various devices, including laptops, computers, and mobile devices used by our employees, we discovered Sophos Central Dashboards. This product offered the device control and management features we needed, complementing our existing use of Sophos UTM and firewalls.

The initial setup was relatively straightforward, and I found it to be less challenging compared to configuring other server software. I attribute this ease of setup to the well-structured and easy-to-follow documentation provided.

It's not considered a cheap solution and falls more in the moderate pricing category.

I would recommend exploring alternative solutions and assessing them to determine if Sophos Central is the right fit for your needs. While there may be other options available that could potentially be simpler, I still believe that Sophos is a strong choice. It has proven to be relatively easy to both install and configure, making it a viable and convenient option. Overall, I would rate it six out of ten.

On-premises