Sophos XG Reviews

I primarily use the solution as a firewall. It's running on our data centers and all of our offices.

It has a simple GUI, which is good. 

The initial setup is pretty simple.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few negatives with them.

Their tech support is not great. 

The features on offer are lacking.

Basically what they don't have is proper bandwidth management for multiple WAN ports and multiple WAN ports to multiple VPN WANs. Meaning, if I have it on both sides on both the main side and on the secondary side, two internet connections, I can't bond the two of them together into a single VPN and have bandwidth managed between the two of them.

If I want to go ahead and make a VPN, right now, I have two internet connections on each side. I have to make a failover a group of four VPNs for it to go ahead and failover between them.

You're getting into a lot of rules. It's a lot of extra rules, et cetera, that has to be done. They don't have simple pointing systems where you could go ahead and make rules saying, "Hey, here's the route". They're not fully route-based VPN rules yet. You literally have to take down all the routes all over the place in order to make updates. It's tedious. 

Basically, we had the problem where we moved certain ranges from one data center to another data center. It took us about an hour of downtime to do that. We had to go ahead and we had to reset VLANs and we had re-setup all the VPNs in all the different places we reconnected. We don't have two sites, we have 25 sites. It was a lot of work.

I've used the solution for about three years at this point. 

It has its bugs and we can't get answers due to the fact that technical support is outsourced. There are some bugs that we keep running into that tech support can't figure out what to do. The bigger problem is the log systems aren't big enough for them to actually capture all the logs that happen.

Technical support is an issue. About six months after we bought it to a year after we bought it, they outsourced all their tech support to India. Literally beforehand, they were an American-based tech support company and they actually had full product knowledge. The Indian-based tech support doesn't have the product knowledge and there was a language barrier. They could speak English, however, they didn't understand us very well.

We were told that they stopped doing outsource and they are rehiring their own internal staff again for tech support. We're hoping that we're going to be able to get better tech support again.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward and simple. It's not overly difficult. I don't consider it to be complex. 

We bought it as is. We bought it with four years of support. However, I can't speak to how much it costs. 

I'd advise users considering the solution that, if you have quite a bit of sites, it's going to get a lot of work to do, to fix things up. It makes more sense if you have minimal sites. 

I'd rate the solution at a six out of ten.

Firewall is not our expertise, but we do sell it as per the requirement of the customer or if they ask for it. 

Most of the firewalls are on-prem. What we deliver is the hardware. It is appliance-based.

Sophos firewalls are scalable. They are pretty strong in security. So, when they provide any kind of firewall, they provide all the features such as anti-spam, antivirus, etc.

Its price should be improved. Its features are pretty okay, but the price is the area where we have to fight more. They should do something about the price structure.

It has been a couple of years.

It is stable. Its performance is very good. They have now stopped calling it a firewall. They're calling it a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution.

It is scalable in the sense that if they are using a small model or a small box of firewall and there is an increase in their network and the number of users, they can move that small box to a bigger model. So, if they are using a firewall and they want to scale it up, they can go to the next model.

Sophos has more than 1,000 customers.

Our clients have a good system of support over here. They have full support. They get support from the distributors, from the partners, and then directly from Sophos.

We are a partner of Sophos and Fortinet. We work with Sophos much more than we work with Fortinet.

If it is a small model and a small network, it takes about two days. You need at least two people for its deployment and maintenance.

Its price should be better. Initially, the clients have to pay for the appliance. Then, they have to pay for the software that is installed on the appliance. Depending on whether they have a one-year, two-year, or three-year license, they just have to renew the license of the software after it expires. They don't have to renew the appliance license. So, they have to pay for the appliance only once, and after that, they just renew the software license. That's all.

I would definitely recommend Sophos to others. I would rate it a nine out of 10.

The solution is mostly used for setting up a firewall and policies. 

The solution is very easy to understand. 

It's simple to set up the firewall and policies. Setting rules is very easy on Sophos as compared to other solutions. 

The product offers many great features. 

Technical support is very good. 

The initial setup is easy.

We have found the solution to be very stable.

A company can easily scale the product if they need to. 

When upgrading the firewalls, the process could be easier. 

While we do have network control, we don't have network monitoring. If I have 200 nodes and I want to see what's happening, I don't have visibility, especially if people are working remotely. 

If we could control roaming users through the firewalls and make it so that it's more of a  complete security solution, which we prefer, that would be ideal. If we have to install some clients on these machines, that's fine. The only concern is the DLP. We want to protect our data from being stolen. We'd also like to monitor activities from the perspective of productivity. We want to be able to track and calculate what users are doing on their machines.

I've been using the solution for more than ten years. 

Earlier, Sophos was known as Cyberoam, Before that, I use Cyberoam and now this has turned into Sophos.

The stability is very good. It does not crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. the solution is reliable. 

The level of scalability depends on the box. We do have the option to scale if we need to.

I have found the technical support to be very helpful and responsive. I am pleased with the level of support I can get. They always provide proper solutions to all issues, whatever we face.

It is not difficult to set up the solution. One ISP, internet service provider, is required, and that is sufficient. If you do have a landline, some switches are available, and we can add to that a firewall. That is secondary. However, the initial requirement is nothing. It is just a plug-and-play setup that is very straightforward.

We had a vendor assist us with the installation. 

There's no additional cost for installation. The provider from which we purchased, the vendor, himself arranged all installation and configuration. They helped us. However, even through customer care, a company can ask for assistance. 

I'm not providing any services. I'm using the product as a customer only. The company, one day, would like to become a partner, however. 

I would recommend the solution to other companies. 

I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten, specifically if I compare it to other options on the market. It's pretty good. 

We primarily use it for web content filtering, spam filtering, and VPN.

The setup and the control management are easy enough. For the most part, the features that it offers work well. 

Web filtering is easy enough to deploy, manage, or make exceptions to. 

The logging side of it could definitely be better. Some of the logging lacks, and the information that they provide you, especially in the spam filtering section, could be better.

We're going into our third year.

For what we use it for, it does what we need to do with little to no issue. It is not overly complex for us to be able to deploy what we need.

We're a school. We have 150 staff and 700 to 800 students.

I haven't had any problems with their technical support. Every time we've had to call them, they have been fairly reliant. They have been able to solve the issue or the question that we had.

I've been through a few.

Its setup is easy enough. 

Because we're in education, Sophos gives us a very competitive price for it.

When we first got it, we were on version 17. We have now upgraded to version 18. There was a significant change between versions 17 and 18. Once you get your head around those differences, it is not that complex. Now, version 18 does some stuff that some of my older firewalls used to out of the box. So, that in itself was more of a nicety. It makes things a lot easier. 

I would rate Sophos XG a nine out of 10.

I like their firewall and the intrusion detection feature. This is also a scalable solution.

Their reporting needs to be improved.

The initial setup is not straightforward.

Technical support could be improved as well.

Integration to the cloud is also a challenge. It's not straightforward, especially while I move my mail from on-premises to cloud 365. I had to go to the cloud to research certain routes with it.

I've been using it for five years.

It is scalable. We have over 500 users.

My experience with technical support has been poor because I have not had any support. When I have had issues, I have gone to their help files but have not had any technical support.

The initial setup is not straightforward. You have to do a lot of reading to do something new. So, you have to really understand it or have prior knowledge to be able to find your own way out to whatever you want to do.

We currently have two people who manage this solution.

The cost could be lower especially if you want to add other features. For example, if I want to activate the advanced threats feature in Sophos Central, there will be an additional cost. There are features that I wish I could have, but because of the cost, I currently don't have them.

I think technical competence is much needed, so if you are not familiar with Sophos firewalls, you would need to be trained. You need to have knowledge to be able to work with this solution. It's not straightforward like other firewalls. It's not easy; you may understand the concept, but you need to have technical knowledge regarding the interface and the movement.

So, I would rate Sophos XG at seven on a scale from one to ten.

The solution has a variety of very good, very useful features. We take advantage of a lot of them.

The initial setup isn't overly difficult.

The stability is good.

We found the initial setup to be straightforward.

Technical support is helpful.

The pricing is reasonable.

The VPN device could be improved upon.

The firewalls could be strengthened.

The solution could be more scalable.

I've been working with the solution for four or five years or so at this point. It's been a while. 

The solution is very stable. We haven't dealt with bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's pretty reliable.

I wouldn't describe the solution as overly scalable. It's limited.

We have 100 to 150 users on the product currently.

Technical support has been oaky. When we have needed them, they have been helpful and responsive. We're satisfied with the level of support we receive.

The initial setup was okay. It wasn't too complicated or difficult. It was pretty straightforward overall.

We have ten to 20 people on staff that can handle deployment and maintenance. We look at the solution monthly to see if there's anything we have to do.

We find the pricing to be reasonable. It's not too expensive.

We purchase a new license every three years.

I can't speak to the exact pricing of the product, however.

We're satisfied with this solution currently. We aren't evaluating any others or looking for a replacement. 

We're a customer and an end-user. We don't have a business relationship with Sophos.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

I prefer the advanced Sophos models. they are reliable and work well for us.

We use it for the protection of our network. We also have a product from Sophos for ransomware protection using which we are able to protect our network from ransomware. All of our solutions are from Sophos, and we have everything integrated. 

We can define which systems can be accessed from outside of our company. We can define the connection rules for inside and outside of the company. It is easy to implement or modify rules.

It is very easy to use. You can configure and monitor everything from one unique dashboard. It is also easy to install.

Its price should be improved. It should be cheaper. 

In terms of features, I am happy, and I don't need more features. The firewall is perfect, but the antivirus could be better. It would be useful if the antivirus was less heavy and had better performance.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is stable. We receive the updates online. They provide the updates at a good frequency. 

It is scalable to a limit. If the size of the network grows, you will have to buy new equipment. If you need just a few more connections, you will able to work with the existing system.

Currently, we have 16 users who are using it. We don't have any plans to increase its usage because our company is in liquidation. If the government decides, we can have more projects, but, as of now, we are in liquidation. We are keeping things working for now, and we plan to keep using this solution, but there are no investments.

We have support from the supplier of our firewall, and if needed, we also get support from the people who develop our software.

It is easy to install. Our company is at three locations. It takes two days to install it at all locations. It takes one day for one location and another day for the other two locations.

For the first installation, we took the help of the supplier. Since then, we do it ourselves. We don't have teams attached directly to the system. We have two or three IT guys who work with this system, but we can have support from the maintenance team.

Currently, we have a contract for three years. It would be good if its price is reduced before we renew the contract. We will buy the equipment if it is cheaper.

I'm happy with what I am getting. I haven't faced any problems. Everything is integrated, and it is easy to install and easy to control. 

I would rate Sophos XG a nine out of ten. I am very satisfied with this solution.

Network Security

Performance has been as per expectations and productivity has greatly improved as there are no downtimes experienced.

All of Sophos XG's features are valuable.

Sometimes when you roll out a new firmware, you find that the rules you already have in place are broken, so it's difficult to migrate to a new firmware without going through release notes and user reviews. That's the only downside I've experienced in Sophos.

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

So far, so good. Sophos XG has been stable, and we have not had any challenges.

I find Sophos XG to be scalable. I only have one site, so I still see room for that kind of deployment. I don't see a challenge when it comes to the scale. I have around 150 users.

I rate Sophos support 10 out of 10. When my device was freezing, I contacted them, and they sent me a replacement. I didn't have a redundant device, so it was urgent. It only took a couple of days for Sophos to ship the device to Kenya. 

Positive

I rate Sophos UTM eight out of 10 for ease of deployment. We didn't have any serious issues. The only challenge we had was migrating from Sophos UTM to XG. There was no direct migration, so we had to do a manual configuration. 

After deployment, the solution doesn't require much maintenance. So as long as my connections are up and running, I don't need to do any maintenance. All the updates are automatic.

Both teams were involved. The in-house team was more familiar with the network environment and requirements. I would rate the vendor team's expertise 8 out of 10.

Sophos XG's price is affordable for most organizations, so I rate it six out of 10 for affordability.

We looked at FortiGate to see how it performs compared to Sophos. I wouldn't speak for the other vendors because I'm mainly using XG, so I will praise Sophos.

I rate Sophos XG eight out of 10. I recommend Sophos XG. If you subscribe to the enhanced support, you get 24/7 customer service, so you can get help any time you need it. I wouldn't hesitate to advise people to implement Sophos.