I use Sophos Central to manage both our endpoint protection and firewalls.

It's a great solution.  For our customers and us, the endpoint solution works well. The technology itself is good, no problem with the security.

The integration of artificial intelligence improves security posture. When we don't identify or are exposed in the sandbox environment, AI is interesting for that.

It is easy to save time using the Sophos Central centralized dashboard. It's definitely easier because you're in one place with all the products. But when connecting to a public IP address for a firewall, for example, it's faster to access directly than going through Sophos Central. For files and endpoints, though, Central is easier and faster to use.

The feature we use in Sophos Central is very interesting to us. It is synchronized security. 

When the endpoint detects a user trying to use an app, it sends information to the firewall, and the firewall can create rules to temporarily stop or allow the network connection. It's very interesting.

There's an issue with Sophos France, where their policies differ from Sophos Global. For example, we're a customer in China. 

For years, I've tried contacting resellers in China or Sophos China to deploy firewalls there. It's impossible to do business with Sophos when they don't answer our questions. That's the situation. 

We simply can't have a proper conversation with Sophos China. They seem uninterested in international exchange.

Pushing global rules and policies to all devices from Central isn't easy. You can do it for all endpoints, which is fine. But you can't do the same with firewalls. 

Firewall management with Central is very limited. You can connect one firewall to another and tell it, "I want one policy for all my customer's firewalls," but that's not possible. For a customer with multiple firewalls, you can't say, "This works for France, Great Britain, Canada," and push it. It's not possible.

I have been using it for ten years. 

It is a stable solution. 

It is a scalable solution. 

We have small and medium-level businesses as our customers. 

The customer service and support used to be good. Right now, it is okay.  

In France, many technicians have lost jobs, and new ones are coming, but they are not knowledgeable.  There's a problem of human interference in India. We need English support to solve product issues.

Worldwide support is needed because French support doesn't understand. They say, "Okay, report to legal, stage two." It's not good. We have ten years' experience. We don't need to explain every time. We call support because we're important. We need a response. Not, "I'll take the question to another level." 

Negative

For all types of endpoints: Windows, macOS, Linux. We used Sophos Intercept X but recently made the decision to switch to ESET Endpoint Security, a European security solution.

ESET has more main functions than regular performance. We can do much more with it to match the PC, to match the OS. We can do a lot of customization with ESET.

We're planning to switch both our endpoint and firewall solutions.

The initial setup is easy. After ten years of experience, I can do it in 15 minutes. 

I deployed it myself. One person is enough for the deployment. 

However, maintenance is hard. It's hard because changing or replacing hardware is very difficult with Sophos due to license terms. This is especially true with High Availability firewalls, where you have one active and two on standby. Taking out the new firewall and making it work isn't straightforward. It requires a lot of maintenance to get the solution back in a good state.

It's very difficult for us to see an ROI because our customers don't see it as an investment. It's like insurance. They pay for good work, but for them, having no security issues isn't the main concern. 

Our customers don't have any IT personnel and they don't care about security.

Most of our clients don't want to be interested in security because it's too difficult for them.

It is not cheap, it is expensive. The price is too much. 

I do currently use Sophos, and I was looking into potentially switching our customers to PFSense or OpenSense for endpoint protection. I wanted to research and understand if it would be a beneficial move.

Overall, I would rate the solution a five out of ten. It is not easy to push global policies and support needs improvement. 

The Central manager oversees multiple client sites, with one of them being located in Colombo. Once accessed, this entry point enables management of both virtual and physical environments across all three sites from a single interface.

Utilizing Sophos Central for endpoint security management for our customers, we've installed it for a client with three sites. Within this client, there are four companies under the same group. With Sophos Central, we can seamlessly communicate between the separate locations of these companies, such as Company 1, Company 2, and so forth.

Sophos Central has enhanced our client's organization's threat detection and response capabilities significantly. The solution requires minimal resources, with very low data usage, ensuring minimal impact on daily operations. It swiftly identifies advanced threats, with zero data loss during testing, and enables easy deduction of other potential threats.\

The Central interface greatly simplifies the management of our security policies and procedures. It's remarkably straightforward and intuitive, making it easy to understand and navigate quickly. I've personally noticed this simplicity reflected in the ease with which others grasp it. Once guided through the initial steps, users can comfortably navigate and continue managing tasks with little to no difficulty.

I find the biggest advantage of Sophos Central is the absence of physical hardware requirements, which alleviates the headache associated with managing server rooms, PCs, and other hardware. This eliminates any potential issues related to maintenance and upkeep. Additionally, in terms of cost, Sophos Central is competitively priced compared to alternatives like CrowdStrike and SandBlast by Checkpoint.

Sophos Central Reporting and Analytics are highly effective in delivering quick and valuable insights. However, one area that requires improvement is in addressing the increasing frequency of yearly attacks. Apart from that, the signature detection methods and other aspects function seamlessly.

There's no need for any upfront hardware costs with Sophos Central. By leveraging cloud-based solutions, we can significantly reduce expenses.

One of the most valuable features of Sophos Central for maintaining our cybersecurity posture is its ease of use. In my experience, managing Central is simple and can be done from anywhere, at any time. This accessibility is crucial for administrators, as it facilitates seamless communication and control.

In terms of improvement, there are several areas to focus on. Firstly, addressing market perception issues is crucial. From a technical perspective, one key area for improvement is strengthening its defense against zero-day attacks. Having and option for endpoint security on mobile devices, it would be advantageous.

I have been working with it for three years.

It provides good stability capabilities.

It is scalable.

Regarding technical support in my region, there are two separate entities, one being Indian-based. Unfortunately, the quality of support from the Indian region is lacking, although I have worked with other providers such as Check Point. In comparison, the support provided by Check Point surpasses that of the Indian-based support. Locally, we have two distributors available, but we currently only collaborate with one. While we generally find satisfaction with their services at the local level, there are occasions when issues arise that they cannot resolve on their own, particularly with Sophos Central. During these times, we encounter significant challenges, often experiencing prolonged wait times for responses and resolution. I would rate it four out of ten.

Neutral

We used CheckPoint. When comparing Sophos with other solutions, one significant advantage is that they offer similar features for the same price.

The initial setup is straightforward.

Initially, we begin with a Proof of Concept phase, followed by a one-month trial period using the free license. If the results are satisfactory, we proceed to purchase the EDR solution from the distributor. Once purchased, we simply update the license using the provided link. Deployment time varies depending on the size of the company. For instance, in a company with a thousand users spread across three locations, deployment typically takes less than two hours if there are no issues with endpoint communication and the network has a high bandwidth internet connection. Maintenance is straightforward.

Our customers find Sophos Central to offer excellent value for money, and they are highly satisfied with the service it provides.

The price is reasonable.

Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.

In my company, the solution is used for the firewall. The tool is used to monitor and create firewalls for the organization's internet since the company's network is on the internet.

Sophos Central Identity Integration Pack is a very accommodating and easy-to-understand feature for blocking other websites, especially the social media website. The features of the tool are good for protecting our organization from websites like social media websites or social engineering websites. I find the ability to use the product to test websites to be useful for our organization's network.

The high price of the tool is a drawback that can be considered for improvement.

I have been using Sophos Central for two months. I am a customer of the solution.

There are around 20 users of the solution in my organization.

I use Sophos Central and the Sophos Firewall XG Series.

When I joined the organization, I found Sophos Central already installed in the company's environment. Considering the installation of the product was easily done on an on-premises version, the hardware components from Sophos were connected to the network cables of the organization, and it was easy to understand everything when I saw it for the first time.

The product's installation phase was easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

It is an expensive tool.

Based on the advancement in technologies, security reasons, and cybersecurity, my organization wanted a tool that ensured us a more secure environment.

The tool does work in managing security for multiple devices since the product is available at multiple prices and there are multiple licensing models. In my organization, the tool is used to manage around 30 devices easily.

I rate the overall tool a ten out of ten.

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. 

My organization uses the solution because it is user-friendly, available at a low cost, and needs low-cost maintenance for the company's customers to use and modify a single console in different branch locations so that you can handle many branches with a single sign-in on the tool.

The product's best features are its antivirus scanning, vulnerability scanning, web filtering, and application control, including the tool's ability to offer characteristics like peripheral device control. The product has many features to protect our organization's sensitive details.

I did not find any particular area where improvements are required in the product. Improvements are needed in Sophos Central from the agent side, especially in the area of tokens when selling and uninstalling during a change of products owing to security reasons. The ability to randomly use the initial passcode provided by Sophos Central needs changes. The tamper protection password is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required. If users forget the tamper protection password, then it is not possible to uninstall the agent, after which they have to use the removal tool from the agent side, during which I do not have the ability to create another setup.

I have been using Sophos Central for five years. I am an end-user of the tool.

I haven't faced any issues with the product during the five years that I have used it. The product is good, and I would recommend it to my organization's customers or vendors. My company can synchronize the antivirus and firewall we use with Sophos Central and use it globally from wherever we want since it offers its users a centralized console and cloud console.

Previously, I worked in a product support company where we supported each product our clients preferred, starting from installation, organization, and implementation, and troubleshooting at an L1 and L2 level with the help of Sophos Central.

I contacted the product's technical support for some of the organization's issues. Once, a person who was taking care of the Sophos Central console completely changed the console's password, so I contacted the tool's technical team to change the administrator passcode, which took around three to four working days. When my company faced the aforementioned issue related to passwords, Sophos Central was not able to change the password immediately. As a customer, if someone has hacked my console's password, then I won't be able to log in to the cloud of Sophos Central, especially in cases where it shows a different email address and the registered user's email address is different. The priority has to be to ensure that my organization changes the email address and the phone number in the product to the ones that were used when we obtained the licenses, which can be re-registered later if needed. The main issue revolves around the fact that Sophos Central takes around three days to register the new email address and to create a new password ID at a channel account manager level.

I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

The product's initial setup phase is easy and user-friendly. There is nothing difficult when it comes to Sophos Central because it is a completely user-friendly product with a user-centric GUI mode that allows users to configure anything in the solution easily.

The solution is deployed on the cloud and on an on-premises model.

Though I don't know the exact price of the product, I know that the tool is worth the money.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. The security part offered by the product is strong, especially when compared to other products like Trend Micro or CrowdStrike. Sophos Central is a very helpful tool since users can't delete or modify agents without administrator permission. With the product, when there are constant changes in the tamper protection password, some users are unable to uninstall the agent from the users' end. Sophos Central's console can be configured from anywhere, especially in the cloud. On an on-premises model or in the cloud, users can use the synchronization capabilities of the tool.

I have five years of experience with the product, and I haven't seen any compromises made in the product's quality.

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

The solution is used to create intelligent policies and users, and to manage bandwidth. You can also use it to deploy wireless access points. I use it to deploy the access points and also control them, linking it with my active directory for authentication purposes.

The most valuable feature is that it protects my IT infrastructure from attacks.

SSID authentication has to be improved. 

I have been using Sophos Central since 2021. 

It is a highly stable solution. I rate the stability a nine out of ten. 

The scalability is good. Ninety users are using the solution. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. 

The initial setup is easy. 

It is an affordable solution. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use the product to protect endpoints and emails. 

Sophos Central provides reports on downloads. It alerts the admin when users use their personal computers. The product is also flexible. 

The tool needs to improve its pricing. 

I have been using the product for one and a half years. 

Sophos Central is stable. It never breaks down. 

My company has 170 users for the product. 

The technical team is very flexible and responds fast. I encountered an issue when my CEO wanted me to have admin access with a simple, one-time, secure code. They needed to repair my account and provide a new secure code to achieve this. I contacted Sophos support in the UK, and they responded promptly. The entire process was completed within two hours. 

Sophos Central's deployment is easy. When you sign in with your domain, you create a user associated with your domain name. The license package is then purchased from Sophos under your domain name. If you install the application on your laptop, the organization can access it because the domain is for the organization.

The product is expensive. However, you can get discounts for over 100 users. 

For anyone looking to use the solution, I would first ask the desired level of security. Do you want high control over your users and employees, monitoring their downloads and internet access, or are you simply looking to scan files for malware? Depending on their security needs, I would recommend Sophos Central, especially if they want security, including email protection software.

I rate it a ten 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.

My role is to bridge the gap between customer needs and my team's technical expertise. We collaborate to design and implement solutions that fit their specific requirements.

We cater to a wide range of organizations, from large enterprises in banking to small and medium businesses, call centers, and warehouses. Essentially, any company registered in Pakistan that requires endpoint security, next-generation firewalls, or other cybersecurity solutions can consider us.

The ransomware protection is exceptional, offering a strong defense against outsider attacks and viruses. This has proven extremely valuable to customers facing ransomware threats.

One significant advantage is its competitive dashboard compared to Trend Micro. 

I did encounter a limitation during a Proof of Concept with a large customer. The DLP (Data Loss Prevention) functionality wasn't fully functional when enabled in the central dashboard. I reported this to the distributor and technical team but couldn't get a definitive answer.

In future releases, I would like to see a complete XDR solution in Sophos. I want to see its capability. I want to understand how it works compared to Trend Micro, specifically its features and how it gears up.

Moreover, integration options with Trend Micro would be ideal, too.

I've been with Sophos Central for about three and a half years now, so I've been exposed to Sophos Central through customer interactions and team collaborations.

We work with a range of solutions, including Sophos XDR, Endpoint Protection (both cloud and on-prem), and Central. Additionally, we've sold the XG Firewall in the past.

The stability is almost a ten out of ten. We haven't encountered any issues.

The solution has been very stable. 

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. It is very good in terms of scalability.

We have around seven to eight customers using this solution.  We have large enterprises and small to medium enterprises as our customers.

The OEM support is excellent, and the second-level distributors like SoftStack and Avan Distribution have the technical expertise. 

As a partner, we also have sales and after-sales teams with expertise in troubleshooting and resolving customer issues. 

Positive

Setting it up is easy. Compared to Kaspersky or Trend Micro, it's no more difficult. Sophos is user-friendly. 

I would rate my experience with the setup a nine out of ten; one is difficult, and ten is easy. It is very easy; there's always room for improvement.

We have both cloud and on-premises deployment models. The cloud is a bit expensive compared to the on-premises version. The deployment model depends on the customers. 

We actually operate as a cloud solution provider ourselves. We have a sister company called CloudKind, and we offer various cloud environments through our own data centers. We deploy HCI solutions and complete cloud solutions and even offer VM solutions for customers. They can get Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service, Disaster Recovery as a Service... everything comes from our cloud, not AWS or any other external provider.

I focus on commercial aspects like pitching features and convincing customers. Once we receive a confirmed order and payment, we send it to our distributor, EZ Technology, which handles license key distribution and activation over email. The post-sales team then takes over, working with the customer to configure and manage the deployment based on their specific needs and devices.

The deployment usually takes around three to four weeks. It's safe to say three to four weeks. It depends on our team's workload and the customer's availability. Since customers are running live applications, they usually provide us access outside their working hours, like after 6:00 P.M. or 8:00 PM. That's why deploying the DDR and Central dashboard solution takes three to four weeks.

I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being the cheapest and ten being the most expensive. It is rather expensive. 

Compared to Kaspersky's EDR and centralized solution, which offers more discounts, Sophos Central seems a bit more expensive. That's our observation so far.

I always tailor my advice to the customer's specific needs. If their top priority is protection against ransomware and ICS/IDH attacks, I recommend Sophos. 

For complex networks with a large threat landscape, Trend Micro's XDR solution might be a better fit. Ultimately, I analyze the customer's network and requirements before suggesting the most suitable solution. I don't favor any specific brand like Trend Micro, IBM, or Kaspersky.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.