Simple cloud console and advanced protection with good integration with other Sophos tools
What do you like best about the product?
The best part is that they combine a cloud-based central console that is easy to manage, good integration with the rest of the Sophos security ecosystem, and an advanced level of protection (deep inspection, AI, secure VPN) without demanding significant internal IT resources. All of this at a reasonable price and with equipment that is easy to manage for SMB environments.
What do you dislike about the product?
Perhaps the performance of the teams against the hardware, the lack of very advanced features where other competitors are more powerful, and a somewhat slow and clunky management interface.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Simple security for SMB environments, integrating with other Sophos Cybersecurity solutions, allowing for an environment with XDR solutions that are easy to implement and manage.
Strong Admin Capabilities and Feature-Rich Sophos Firewall
What do you like best about the product?
Sophos firewall offers strong administrative capability, with easy implementation and plenty of useful features. It includes options such as ISP load balancing, a DHCP server, web filtering, and application filtering, among others.
What do you dislike about the product?
The licensing costs for some services should be included and built in.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We use Sophos Firewalls in HA mode for a range of services, including inter-school connectivity via IPsec, web filtering, application filtering, and daily reports. We also rely on them for notifications and other related functions.
Centralized security management has simplified remote access and protected multiple branches
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Sophos Firewall is security purposes. I use Sophos Firewall to block unwanted URLs, unwanted categories, and for data loss prevention in my day-to-day work.
In addition to blocking unwanted URLs, we also use the VPN for remote access VPN and site-to-site VPN, blocking suspicious sites, and some unwanted categories such as pornography.
What is most valuable?
Sophos Firewall stands out to me because it is mainly easy to use, and its dashboard is very straightforward. The SD-WAN feature of Sophos Firewall is very good; via SD-WAN, we can route a particular user and access a particular site with a specific ISP.
The SD-WAN feature helps my organization by providing connectivity to my remote sites, as we have multiple branches, and we connect all my branches via SD-WAN VPN.
Sophos Firewall IPS and antivirus are very good, and we use that.
Sophos Firewall has positively impacted my organization by increasing security, reducing my time, and allowing us to manage multiple firewalls via Smart Console or Sophos Central, where we can push the policy centralized from all the firewalls.
Centralized policies have made management easier for me, and the error rate is relatively small.
What needs improvement?
I believe Sophos Firewall can be improved, especially inconsistency across the deployment, and some GUI can be slow.
In addition to UI speed, we need improvements in end-to-end deployment such as clear packet flow diagrams.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Sophos Firewall for 1.8 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Sophos Firewall is stable in our network.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Sophos Firewall scalability is good, with a wide hardware range suitable for SMBs to large user environments, cloud, and centralized management.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is really good; we always get resolutions on time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Recently, we used Checkpoint as a different solution.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment; it has saved money, reduced staffing needs, and saved time. It is easy to use, and I can manage all my sites via Sophos Central.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of Sophos Firewall is easy to manage.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Sophos Firewall, we evaluated options such as Fortinet and Palo Alto.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using Sophos Firewall is to start simply from day one. With user concurrent sessions, we can achieve good security, which is very good in Sophos Firewall, and endpoint protection support is really good.
My additional thoughts are that Sophos Firewall policies are best suited for SMB and mid-sized networks, simple to moderately complex architectures, and high complexity multi-data center or automation-heavy environments, both delivering strong security.
Sophos Firewall in Education
What do you like best about the product?
Integrates with Sophos antivirus to provide a unified management console.
What do you dislike about the product?
Logs are only really viewable using a 3rd party tool
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We currently run two Sophos firewalls in an active/passive high-availability configuration. This setup automatically fails over between the two units if our internet service provider experiences an outage.
Sophos Central Makes Firewall Management Effortless
What do you like best about the product?
It had a feature of web filtering options which i liked the most but the most important part i liked was sophos central feature where i can view, configure and manage all the firewall from a single console.
What do you dislike about the product?
firmwares and updates sometimes introduces bugs which causes issues but just sometimes and exporting reports are just basic one.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
to be very precise and simple it heavy protects our networks avoid any kind of threats to enter in our networks. Since the attackers are targeting companies to extract their data and putting the companies to bottom line their business so Sophos firewall here can be great savior and game changer. It benefits to avoid any sort of ransomware attack, avoid data breach and noncompliance issue as well . If all these things are okay our business can run smoothly without any interruption.
Manages network security efficiently and improves threat detection through intuitive monitoring
What is our primary use case?
My use case is to use
Sophos XGS as a firewall and it also handles our DHCP. We have our VPN connection to our enterprise resource planning solution.
What is most valuable?
One part I appreciate is that it is very easy to manage.
Sophos XGS advanced threat protection capabilities have helped me to identify threats. It has a dashboard feature that gives alerts of activities occurring within the firewall.It has improved my security posture in my enterprise network.
What needs improvement?
One improvement I would like to see is a better activities log, such as a monitoring log that tracks activity more comprehensively.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Sophos XGS for almost over five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Sophos XGS an 8.5 out of 10.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate scalability and the ability to expand a 9.5 out of 10.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate technical support from Sophos a 9 out of 10.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Sophos XGS is simple.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I find it hard to consider alternatives, but I think Fortinet is also simple. However, one area where I do not prefer Fortinet is in the configuration, as it is not as straightforward or simple as Sophos XGS. I prefer playing with Sophos XGS based on my own opinion and preference.
What other advice do I have?
I am currently using Sophos XGS. I have a Sophos firewall and endpoint antivirus. I am using the XG and
XGS series, specifically the
XGS 3300. I am not working with the real-time threat mitigation functionality. Sophos XGS has enabled my processes to run smoothly and provides the main benefits of saving time, saving money, and streamlining processes. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10 overall.
Provides a comprehensive setup with solid integration and consistent user feedback
What is our primary use case?
I am working with Sophos XG, and it's one of Sophos products we are selling.
I mostly work with the on-premises version of Sophos XG.
I have used Sophos XG's Security Heartbeat feature, and our customers prefer this functionality as one of the key functions.
I have utilized Sophos XG's Sandstorm technology, and from customer feedback, it's considered a strong and good technology, but I cannot explain it thoroughly because I am a salesman.
What is most valuable?
From my perspective, the best features of Sophos XG are that it's a complex solution and its integration with endpoint and XDR, EDR systems of Sophos is quite appealing to customers.
Regarding scalability, I think it's nine. Sophos XG is really focused on small and mid-market customers. It's designed for easy implementation and easy setup. If you try to implement it into the enterprise, it's absolutely impossible because there are no functionalities required by the enterprise, and it's a nightmare. However, for the small and mid-segment, it's absolutely the best.
What needs improvement?
I cannot remember anything specific about Sophos XG that could be improved at the moment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Sophos for many years, perhaps around ten years, but I'm not certain.
How are customer service and support?
I cannot rate the technical support of Sophos on a scale from one to ten because I am a salesman and have no practical skill with the technical support of Sophos. I cannot compare it, and it feels nonsensical.
How was the initial setup?
In my opinion, it's not difficult to deploy Sophos XG. I have feedback that it's quite easy.
What about the implementation team?
I don't do installation for my customers or deployment. I am a salesman, and our partners handle that.
What was our ROI?
Regarding pricing, from my perspective, Sophos XG has good pricing because we still grow with the selling of Sophos firewalls and products every year by five to ten percent. From that point, I think it's good pricing, but you can always meet some customers who are not satisfied.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I am working not only with Sophos but also with other vendors like Barracuda. I don't have another product like the firewall, just Sophos and Barracuda as firewalls, the real firewalls.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale from one to ten, I can say that Sophos XG is a nine.
I am not able to compare the impact of Sophos XG's Deep Packet Inspection on network security because I'm a salesman.
I would rate this review an eight overall.
User-Friendly, Cost-Effective, and Excellent Support with Sophos Firewall
What do you like best about the product?
User friendly dashboard- Easy to configure and almost all of the configurations available in GUI.
Cost Optimistic Solution- With basic network protection subscription can create a number of SSL & IPsec VPN connections based on firewall VPN throughput, no additional cost for MFA setup, we can use software authentication for MFA for all SSL VPN & admin users.
Easy to manage- Centrally manage all branch firewalls via Sophos central cloud dashboard, no additional license required.
By using WAF add-on subscription, without additional appliances can secure internal web applications by off-loading SSL/TLS in gateway level.
Log Storage- Firewall comes with minimum 128GB inbuilt storage for logs retention and designed to delete old logs when it reaches threshold limit.
Customer Support- Quick response while raising support via support portal and mostly they call and ask for remote support. The response over global support number is very appreciable and they will loop to the respective team immediately.
What do you dislike about the product?
Configuration and controls via CLI is limited, applying bulk configuration through CLI is not possible. But, API integration is available, maybe it will address the requirement.
We only enable alerts and notification for predefined events in GUI, no options for custom events.
They release firmware updates quickly, sometimes they will revoke the update and push to install alternative versions.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
No WLAN controller required- Manage Sophos wireless access points via firewall GUI and monitor access points client status in firewall dashboard, AP's will get software updates from firewall.
Providing Visibility From Endpoints- We can identify infected endpoints in the network by integrating the firewall with Sophos EPS. EPS agents share the list of applications used at endpoint level with firewall, we can block the applications at network level also.
Centrally manage- By connecting firewall to central account, securely manage the console globally, enable auto device backup to cloud and centrally store logs.
Easy to Manage and Well Integrated with Sophos Ecosystem.
What do you like best about the product?
Web interface is very clean and easy to manage, even for complex policies. It brings multiple security features like IPS, web filtering, application control, and VPN into a single device, which makes administration much simpler. I also like the seamless integration with Sophos Endpoint and XDR, giving us a unified view of threats and faster response.
What do you dislike about the product?
At times the firmware updates require careful scheduling as they may briefly disrupt services. These are not major issues, but improving them would make the product even stronger.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Sophos Firewall protects our network from threats with IPS, web filtering, and application control, while also simplifying secure remote access with VPN. It has reduced our security risks, improved visibility of traffic, and made it easier to manage multiple policies in one place. The integration with Sophos Endpoint and XDR gives us faster detection and response, which saves time for our IT team and strengthens overall security.
Good centralized security solution
What do you like best about the product?
A clear menu navigation and rules.
What do you dislike about the product?
The licenses should be cheaper, as many SMEs will not be able to afford them in the near future.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The security in the company network is thereby better protected.
