Customer satisfaction and ease of operation have been consistently high with this reliable solution
What is our primary use case?
We have deployed the Sophos XG for one of our clients in an SD-WAN scenario where they have one primary link on lease lines and a secondary link on broadband, and they have an on-premise concentrator. It is for specific government reasons they have deployed it at the center, and it's quite satisfactory.
In comparison with other products, Sophos XG is a much more professional company, and you need limited support; most of the things are already available. Whereas with the Indian counterparts, when we used Ray and Infinix, there were some customizations required, as it was not an inbuilt feature, especially in case of reporting and other aspects. The price point at which those products are available makes them viable options because we deploy them according to client requirements. If a client is not ready to invest that much amount, these products are the optimum mix for them.
What is most valuable?
The aspects I appreciate about Sophos XG are the ease of operations and customer satisfaction, though pricing is slightly higher compared to Indian variants.
Regarding threat detection capabilities, if there are any use cases, we definitely would want to use it, and the Sophos XG definitely has those features.
In terms of features for network security, it's of importance, but for this particular reason, the customer was not keen on it because it's a transport of offices. They were not concerned about the transport and security aspects, but even if they were, it would have been reasonably good in Sophos XG. I don't see any challenge on that.
What needs improvement?
The support time needs improvement, as sometimes they ask everything via email and then it takes additional time for them to respond. When asking for something related to reporting or anything, many times their help desk doesn't have a ready reckoner sort of solution, which requires improvement on those timelines.
The initial setup of the Sophos XG is not exactly straightforward.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the Sophos XG for almost 2 and 1/2 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not had any performance and/or stability issues with Sophos XG as yet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not encountered any limitations or scalability issues with it yet.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the technical support an eight on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the best or the highest.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have a couple of others for our SD-WAN; Sophos XG we have tried, and we have a couple of Indian manufacturers: one is Ray and the other is Infinix.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the Sophos XG is not exactly straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise users looking into implementing Sophos XG in their environment to consider it as a good product to deploy, though it is slightly costly because Indian buyers are more price-sensitive. I would recommend them to pay a little extra for having peace of mind.
I would rate Sophos XG as a better option compared to all others we have used because peace of mind and faster implementation are the key points which Sophos XG provides compared to these two counterparts.
The initial setup of the Sophos XG is not exactly straightforward, but overall satisfaction is good; I can always say it's a good product to continue with.
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this solution around 8.5 to 9.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Offers intuitive interface but needs licensing improvement
What is our primary use case?
We don't have remote workers, so Sophos XG is only used for our in-house applications and users within the same building. For remote access, we use the Sophos free firewall home edition to connect to the Sophos XG 450, so there was no problem when the license was still activated. We experienced problems currently since the license is no longer activated.
What is most valuable?
The user interface of Sophos XG enhances our administrative tasks because it is intuitive and easy to navigate.
We find the network security, protection, and web features most effective for threat prevention.
Sophos XG has facilitated better traffic management because the model we purchased is only utilizing resources at 40%. We have no bottlenecks, unlike the previous Cyber Room model that we purchased, which was at 85% resource utilization, causing traffic problems. With 40% resource utilization, we don't experience problems with all the features of the base firewall, such as IPS.
What needs improvement?
They could change their licensing model, simplify it, and make it more available to upgrade. We are looking into upgrading or refreshing these firewalls since they will be end of life. We are looking to replace it with another firewall with a five-year license, at least, so that we can survive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Sophos XG since 2020.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I am struggling with the licensing model of Sophos XG because we don't have a license. Our licenses expired and we're not supposed to renew the licenses at this time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are looking into other brands, including FortiGate because it's closer to Sophos XG. I'm also looking at Sangfor because they say it has better web and network protection. Our objective is to find a solution that is price-wise and affordable for us, with longer coverage and good web application firewall features and network protection for five years license.
I haven't concluded my research on the advantages Sangfor has over Sophos XG yet, but Sangfor has better pricing and states that if the license expires, all the features until the day subscribed prior to termination of the license remain active. This is appealing for us to explore, and we will be asking for a model or POC for that product in the next few weeks. FortiGate comes with an appliance and is somewhat expensive. We're considering Sangfor, Sophos XG, and FortiGate because these are the appliances that we think are affordable for us.
What other advice do I have?
Sophos XG Firewall has improved our network security posture only partially because we don't have the license, so it's just the base license that we are using currently. When we had the license activated, there was no problem, but now that we don't have a license, it reverts back to the base license features only.
We are not so much concerned about the reporting and analytics tools in Sophos XG. I have seen that of Sophos XG 450; it's not comprehensive. I hope Sophos XG 4300 will be better with updated features for reporting because we had problems with minimal reports for the Sophos XG 450. I haven't seen the material white paper on Sophos XG 4300 on the reporting feature yet, but from what I've read, it's still not on par with FortiGate. I don't know about Sangfor yet, so we still have to check on that.
I would still recommend the Sophos XG firewall to others, particularly the Sophos XG 4300, depending on the price. I would also recommend some other vendors when it comes to firewall.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate Sophos XG an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Very fast learning curve, effective partner support, some trouble with end of life products.
What do you like best about the product?
Cost / benefits
Fast learning interface
Sophos employees and partner really helpfull
What do you dislike about the product?
We had some problems with end of life products and APX Devices.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Sophos allows us to mantain business continuity easily and to have control on external branches
The product and the features they offer are worth.
What do you like best about the product?
The products are more user-friendly, and troubleshooting is much easier due to the advanced features they offer.
What do you dislike about the product?
The product hardware stability and consistency are less.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Sophos offers many updated features which helps in solving the unexpected attacks and threats.
Has offered reliable support with an intuitive interface for configuration
What is our primary use case?
We have experience with Sophos XG, which is the older version as well. It has been around three or four years that I have been working with Sophos XG.
We are the partners of Sophos XG, and we are in the partners platform.
For Sophos XG, we are not using it in our on-premise environment, so we pitch it to customers based on their requirements.
In some scenarios, we offer maintenance for the firewalls, especially in high availability situations.
What is most valuable?
The interface of Sophos XG is basic, and we can manage it easily compared to other firewalls; for example, it is much easier for configurations than Palo Alto.
Regarding the security level in Sophos XG, we need to see the Gartner reports because there are competitors such as SonicWall that we have to consider.
As for valuable features in Sophos XG, I am not able to recall many at this moment, but it has good integrations with Active Directory Protocol and others.
What needs improvement?
I do not have any specific ideas on what disadvantages Sophos XG could improve upon.
Everything has been good; I have not encountered any major challenges or problems.
AI could be one of the area for improvements.
For how long have I used the solution?
It has been around three or four years that I have been working with Sophos XG.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have found that Sophos XG is stable; I would say it is stable overall.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I am not sure how scalable Sophos XG is.
We have not reached any enterprise customers pitching for Sophos XG, so I have no clarity on its effectiveness for them.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from Sophos XG is good, and the response times are also good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The installation of Sophos XG is quite easy, and we have not found any difficulties in the process.
What other advice do I have?
That is the older version of Sophos XG.
Generally, Sophos XG is used in an on-premise environment.
Adding AI features would be practical, especially given the current trend of integrations across products.
Clients would use AI in the product for addressing configuration issues or simply to query the AI when they face problems.
Regarding disadvantages, only the potential for AI in configuration seems to be the area for improvements; I cannot clarify any more disadvantages.
I give Sophos XG an overall experience rating of nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Excellent support and great price point
What do you like best about the product?
The support offered is great and Sophos Central is easy to use. The hardware is easy to implement and replicate.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sophos Central could be improved and bugs in firewall firmware could be tested more thoroughly.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Sophos Firewall keeps the networks at our clinics running smooth and provides tools to manage remotely well.
Solid firewall with good support
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of use on day-to-day business and excellent support when needed from both Sophos as our partner.
What do you dislike about the product?
Not always easy te spot why some traffic is blocked.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Secure traffic between internal VLAN's and also WAN traffic on multiple levels
Satisfied Customer
What do you like best about the product?
Tech support by local provider, sophos community
What do you dislike about the product?
Advanced antispam features and some reporting options
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Overall Security,
Sophos Firewall is a very good solution for mid-size companies
What do you like best about the product?
Easy of configuration and use and overall all the services we expect from an UTM solution. Good support service.
What do you dislike about the product?
Local log management. object deletion management and webserver log retention.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Protection of business process and safe user Internet access
VPN needs optimization despite user-friendly firewall UI
What do you like best about the product?
The UI and overall experience is pretty straightforward. There are some network features, which are a bit harder to reach, but it hasn't been problematic nor frustrating to use the firewall, but rather the opposite. I haven't encountered any problems that indicate core problems with the way the firewall works.
What do you dislike about the product?
No language changing after loggin in.
No MFA text box for logging in.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It's the main firewall for our company and reliably connects all of our locations together. Its ease of use allows us to impliment the site-to-site solution with ease.
