Sophos Firewall Reviews

We are using it as a unified threat management system.

We use it on a daily basis. There are about 600 people using this solution in our organization.

The solution is deployed on-prem.

The threat management system and VPN are most valuable.

Reporting could be improved. The structure could be better because most of the reports aren't detailed.

It's stable for now.

It's scalable.

Initial setup was easy. I would rate it 4 out of 5.

Setup was done in-house.

I would rate this solution 9 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.

We manage all the network services, like DHCP, of each branch office.

It has helped us because we have identified some of the loopholes in our assets that we did not know existed.

I like using the combination of XG firewalls and the XDR product with the end user. I also like the integration of all the solutions and the visual of all our clients and the traffic routing in to the network from inside the console. The synchronization and the integration with all the products in the central office, such as Office 365 or AWS, make it a valuable solution.

We can configure rules with the user, traffic, etc., making it a very versatile solution for our network.

Better instructions should be provided as part of the technical support so that we can understand the functionalities. This will help us to troubleshoot faster.

We've been using Sophos XG for three years.

It is stable.

Sophos XG is a scalable solution. We have about 1,000 users.

Technical support is good, in general.

We used Fortinet, and we changed the solution because there were additional costs for reporting, licensing, and centralization. If we compare Fortinet to Sophos XG, the XG firewall costs less and performs better. That's one of the reasons that we moved to XG.

The other and the most important reason is the integration with our security solution, Sophos XDR.

The initial setup was very easy. It's much easier than that for other products. 

Deployment and maintenance can be done by one or two people. I am a specialist, and an engineer and I worked on the deployment and maintenance. 

The provider of the solution implemented it, and it took about a day.

We have seen an improvement in security not only in terms of technology but also in terms of internal practices in our company.

We predicted that it would take three years to obtain an ROI.

We bought the three-year license, and there are no additional costs.

We evaluated Check Point, Barracuda, and Palo Alto.

It's a good product, and you should go ahead with it.

I would rate Sophos XG at nine on a scale from one to ten.

This product is our perimeter firewall with web filtering and application filtering, as well as also providing site-to-site VPN and SSL VPN. We are end-users and customers of Sophos. I'm a network administrator. 

Sophos XG enabled our organization to establish site-to-site connectivity with our Branch offices and enabled work from home during pandemic through very easy to deploy SSL VPN solution for our employees. 

Reporting is the most valuable feature. They also recently provided the SDWAN solution and we're currently working on implementing that. 

I'd like to see improved throughput performance in a box. It's already a cost effective solution but I'd like to see the cost further reduced for annual renewals.

I've been using this solution for four years. 

Sophos has the same issue as all firewalls where it's scalable for virtualization and for cloud deployment, but it's not so scalable when it comes to the hardware. 

Customer service is good but has room for improvement like all others. 

Positive

The initial setup was very straight forward. 

Vendor team has very good level of expertise, transfer of knowledge was excellent and we are managing firewalls at our own. 

I believe there are better products on the market so I rate this solution seven out of 10. 

We normally use physical appliances for office and virtual appliances for datacenter.

XGS is similar to XG series but adds new Xstream Flow processors that are used to accelerate various functionalities that are normally done in x86 CPU.

Sophos will soon release SFOS v19 software which will utilize Xstream for even more functionalities like IPsec, SSLVPN, SDWAN and etc.

What I found most valuable in Sophos XGS is that it's very easy to manage.

Authentication with Azure AD needs improvement. It would be better if it could work directly without using local AD server. For comparison Fortinet FortiGate allows to use SAML authentication with Azure AD and does not require any local server. It is currently unknown to me, if or when it will be implemented on Sophos.

Local DHCP service also needs improvement. Windows DHCP service offers more functionality and is more flexible and easier to use. SFOS v18.5.3 added DHCP option functionality in the GUI - which previously worked only from CLI. 

I've been working with Sophos XGS since they came out. I cannot remember exactly the year and date, but it hasn't been so long, e.g. just one year.

It is very stable - have not had any issues.

The scalability of Sophos XGS is good. Normally we suggest the clients to use firewall as a service, since it gives more flexibility both for client and us, since usually we manage the client's firewall. There is a virtual version of the firewall which scales even more, since it can be upgraded to a license that offers more RAM and CPU cores. For us, it scales very well, e.g. I'm giving it the maximum score: ten out of ten.

If a client is looking for a new firewall, then we normally need to consider as much information as possible (user count, weight per user, LAN throughput, WAN throughput, functionalities and etc). If a client wants to pick a solution for larger environment, then we also ask recommendation from Sophos to get the most optimal solution.

Positive

The initial setup for Sophos XGS is very easy. From cloud it can be deployed even faster, since it allows to create configuration templates.

The ratio of price and functionality is good.

Licensing cost depends on particular model and required functionality:
- It is possible to use the firewall without any license, but then it will work only as port based firewall.
- Normally we suggest to use at least Standard License.
- Licensing cost for single appliance or active/passive HA cluster is the same - only 1 license.
- Active/Active cluster requires 2 licenses and performance gain is very small. It is better to use more powerful appliance. 

We are Sophos Gold partner and mainly like to use Sophos XGS firewalls.
If it a requirement by client, then we can also offer non-Sophos firewall solutions.

There are multiple models of Sophos XGS that we use, e.g. we use both desktop  and 1U sized models.

Sophos XGS can be fully cloud managed, and it's possible to deploy it directly from the cloud, that you installed the hardware, and maybe I have to use an ESB key, though I'm not sure. We haven't tried deploying it that way yet.

The only difference between Sophos XGS and Sophos XG is the software version that is supported on the hardware. The difference will be when the version 19 software comes up, as it will not work on Sophos XG.

I recommend Sophos XGS to others who are thinking of implementing it. I recommend for them to use it. Sophos firewall can be also used without additional firewall, but we strongly suggest using Standard license, which offers application filtering and IDS/IPS.

Sophos XG can be deployed on-premise and on the cloud.

We use Sophos XG as a network firewall for many use cases, such as offices, residential, and data centers. 

Sophos XG could improve the connectivity with Microsoft 365 or Azure Active Directory(AD). It doesn't work directly as other solutions do, such as Fortinet FortiGate. The client needs a separate AD server which is a problem.

There is no endpoint software for Linux systems, only the server version runs on Linux.

I have been using Sophos XG for approximately fours years.

The stability of Sophos XG is very good. However, there have been some issues with other weaker models because they are limited in hardware in resources.

We had an issue, but after speaking to the technical support, I understood it was a problem with Sophos, not a firewall problem, but with the endpoint that was related to the encryption of the disc. The problem is if you have a computer controlled by Azure at the same time as Sophos, then there may be some incompatibility problem between them because both of them are trying to control the computer and the encryption of the hard drive.

I have used other firewall solutions, such as Fortinet Foregate and Check Point.

The initial setup of Sophos XG is simple, but Cisco Meraki is easier. 

Since I have used Sophos XG long time it is easier than Fortinet FortiGate or Check Point.

Sophos XG is not an expensive solution. If you are willing to pay more, then there is the Check Point firewall which is the best out of all the vendors.

I would advise other Sophos XG is a great solution because it is synchronized security between the endpoint and firewall which is unique. I'm not sure if Fortinet FortiGate has this technology, but it is a good technology in Sophos XG. Sophos was perhaps the first to use this kind of technology. What it does is if your computer gets infected, then the endpoint tells the firewall that, it is infected and the firewall doesn't allow the use of the network at all. It'll lock it down on this computer.

I rate Sophos XG a nine out of ten.

The most valuable features of Sophos XG are user-friendliness and it is highly secure.

Sophos XG could improve by making the remote access and VPN better.

I have used Sophos XG within the last 12 months.

Sophos XG is a stable solution.

The scalability of the solution is good. We have approximately 4,000 concurrent users.

The Sophos XG technical support we receive from our local vendor, they are very helpful.

I would recommend this solution to others. I have recommended it to many organizations already. I have had a very good experience with the Sophos XG.

I rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten.

We work with two clients with Sophos XGS. One of our clients was replacing old firewalls, and they choose Sophos XGS. The other client has a new project that he's planning to move his endpoint solution to Sophos XGS.

One of the main advantages of Sophos XGS is the processor. You don't have to wait a long time for when you are managing the firewall and the traffic is faster now.

Sophos XGS could improve by having better integration with Active Directory.

I have been using Sophos XGS for approximately one year.

Sophos XGS is stable.

I have found Sophos XGS to be scalable.

The technical support is good. However, they should provide quicker support in other languages, such as Spanish.

The initial setup is easy.

We do the implementation of the solution and the number of people we need depends on the project. However, typically we have two people that handle the implementation. 

Since COVID we have been trying to work remotely as much as possible. After the initial setup, the solution can be managed remotely.

Sophos XGS is a good investment because these solutions work for a long time.

I live in Bolivia and the price of Sophos XGS is high. However, they have adjusted their price a little over the past while but the price could still be less expensive to be affordable.

I have evaluated other solutions, such as Fortinet.

I rate Sophos XGS a nine out of ten.

Sophos XG is used as a network firewall.

In the Sophos XG, the SD-WAN has all the rules done separately, such as net policy routing. In the previous version, they were all in a single rule and everything was done that way. The way it is now is difficult for us because we are not used to this newer version. The firewall rules should be easier to configure and create. Everything should be done with a single click.

In the next version, the solution would be more user-friendly overall.

I have been using Sophos XG for approximately two years.

The stability of Sophos XG is good, it has good performance.

Sophos XG has good scalability.

We have approximately 50 people that use the solution in my company.

We use this solution on a daily basis.

We have contacted the support from Sophos XG but we do not require the support often.

We previously used Sophos Cyberoam and we switched to Sophos XG because it was the end of life for the Sophos Cyberoam and the bandwidth was poor.

The initial installation of Sophos XG was not difficult.

We used an integrator to do the implementation of Sophos XG.

We only require one person for the implementation and maintenance of the solution.

The solution is very good and we have received a return on investment.

The price of Sophos XG is reasonable. 

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Sophos XG a six out of ten.

I use Sophos XG as a network firewall.

What I have found most valuable with the Sophos XG is it's a key component of the Intercept X EDR environment. You have to have it to receive the full benefit. If you've you are using Sophos SG firewalls, they're great firewalls and in many ways, I prefer them to the Sophos XG. Since I have set them up, programmed them, and manipulate firewall rules, et cetera, the Sophos SG's a better interface. However, the Sophos XG's very powerful. I prefer it over other solutions I have used, such as Cisco Meraki and SupportNet, I don't like them. They're not very friendly to people who have to set them up and implement them.

The interface of Sophos XG could be improved. I would prefer the Sophos XG to have an interface for the technician who is setting it up similar to the Sophos SG. I felt the Sophos SG user interface was superior. however, in terms of the functionality of the product, Sophos XG is in many ways more powerful than the Sophos SG. I have no complaints about the quality of the product or the end result. For someone who has used both, I preferred the old interface to the new one.

I have used Sophos XG within the last 12 months.

The stability is what I have found attractive with the whole Sophos product line. You can have a client that starts with a three-person office and grow it to a 10,000 person operation and you keep moving the configuration to the next level of power.

I have used Cisco Meraki and SupportNet solutions previously.

Sophos XG is a better solution for implementers, once you learn it. You have to learn the interface and once you do, it's straightforward. Additionally, you don't have to know the CLI as you do with Cisco, where you have to get into the command-line interface to do any powerful operations.

Maintenance for Sophos XG it's pretty straightforward. I will receive an email if there's a firmware update that needs to be applied and any one of my team, or I will apply the update at our next convenience. You can schedule it to allow it to take place at a non-production time. For example, if I want the firmware update to apply it at 2:00 am in the morning I can schedule it. Additionally, it automatically applies pattern updates.

I rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten.