Offers considerable protection and employs a very well-structured pricing scheme
What is our primary use case?
Sophos UTM offers considerable protection and employs a very well-structured pricing scheme.
It's a good choice for businesses that need a basic security solution with a good price-performance ratio. However, it's not a good choice for businesses that need a complex security solution. That's why I'm also considering Fortinet, which can provide a more comprehensive security solution.
What is most valuable?
I like the simplicity of Sophos UTM and the web filtering features.
What needs improvement?
The application control is really bad. It needs a lot of enhancements. The traffic shaping and bandwidth control, and application control need a lot of work.
In future releases, Sophos can enhance its quality of service.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for 11 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are two aspects to consider: software stability and hardware stability. The software is a bit stable, but the hardware needs a lot of improvement. So the software can be rated nine out of ten, but the hardware is only seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The software solution is not very scalable. So, it can be improved.
We have about 50 customers right now using this solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It took half an hour to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
It is a complex security solution for firewalls. So there are a lot of implementation concerns. It's not like a wireless solution or something like that. So there's no direct answer for this one, especially for security solutions.
For the deployment, maintenance, and management, you need two security engineers. You need security engineers, not just regular engineers.
What was our ROI?
The ROI is extremely high.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of the license depends on the size of the firewall appliance. There is a huge variety of pricing models.
Sophos UTM has very reasonable pricing.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
It's a good firewall solution for small and medium businesses, but it's not the best choice for businesses with complex security requirements.
I would recommend that businesses carefully consider their requirements before choosing Sophos UTM. If you need advanced application control, you should look for a different firewall solution.
Sophos is a great entry-level into computer security
What do you like best about the product?
I liked the options that were provided, they have an array of products that cover the endpoints or servers even firewalls
What do you dislike about the product?
It wasn't super simple to maneuver or get started.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
When I had it, it allowed me to secure the endpoint for my clients who were recently starting a new LLC but need peace of mind that it would work.
existing VPC template is missing
can you please create an existing template for this autoscaling ?
as it stands the Sophos UTM 9 (Auto Scaling PAYG) only supports new vpc
many customers already have vpc with their subnets including utm firewalls
Sophos UTM is suitable for SME/education institute.
What do you like best about the product?
Sophos UTM is stable, I can say it included a lot of features inside one appliance such as AV, IPS, QoS, SD-WAN.
What do you dislike about the product?
The user interface is not friendly enough. I hope Sophos can give more visibility for the logs.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The reason why I am saying Sophos UTM is good for SMEs is that it's cheaper than markets' firewalls.
Great all around UTM
What do you like best about the product?
Very flexible, you have great control over how your traffic flows.
What do you dislike about the product?
Part of the GUI (Web filter Profiles) can be a bit cumbersome.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Needed many layers of protection but did not have the staff to manage them independently.
Sophos UTM Review
What do you like best about the product?
Network protection
Wireless protection
web protection
What do you dislike about the product?
Cost
No support for earlier versions
Complicated system
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Securing assets in the data centers
Sophos UTM
What do you like best about the product?
Lots of data available to change, lots of things to change and monitor
What do you dislike about the product?
Support hard to reach sometimes, takes time to get back to you
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Firewall and protection
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Get third party support if possible
Enables us to fully isolate an infected server or workstation with the click of a button
Threat management for servers is our primary use case. We're not using it on all workstations, just a few. We're primarily using it on servers.
The version we're using is fully in the cloud, not on-prem.
How has it helped my organization?
We don't have to worry about viruses anymore. Before Sophos, we didn't have anti-virus at all because we're a newer company and we're just now starting to get into business-level stuff. When we installed it on a few of the users' machines, we saw that they did have very minor infections - they downloaded something they shouldn't have, something that could have hurt the computer. We were able say, "Well, we're glad they didn't click on that."
What is most valuable?
The isolation of infected machines is a big feature. Also, the ability to detect external sources that change files on a file server is really big.
The third key feature is something called EDR. It's a type of advanced file analysis. If you aren't sure what a file is you can click on it and it will upload a sample to Sophos and it will respond saying, "That's malicious," or "Not malicious." You can see every individual file and registry key that that file has ever interacted with, and what they did. It will show you every single thing it's done to the machine so you can clean up everything or check everything that it has ever touched. You don't have to worry about, "Oh, did I clean everything up?"
What needs improvement?
It does have built-in policies which enable you to disable USB devices, etc. It would be nice if they had more policies because there are not that many of them.
For how long have I used the solution?
Less than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, it's definitely top-notch, a market leader. The ability to do things and the availability of it being online aren't an issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It seems very scalable. All you do is install the client, and it pulls it in. You don't have to actually have more Sophos servers running. It all goes back to their central, cloud-based platform, which is nice.
How is customer service and technical support?
I haven't had to use Sophos' technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial integration and configuration of Sophos in our AWS environment was incredibly easy. They give you a license key and a file. You download that file on the operating system type that you're trying to install it on. Install it and it's done. There's nothing else at all to do. It gets auto-configured for you.
What was our ROI?
We haven't seen ROI because we just got it two or three months ago. Over time we will.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The biggest issue with Sophos is the pricing. It's definitely more expensive. We looked at Webroot, which is a big alternative, and Sophos was almost three times the price of Webroot. That's a pretty big difference.
We actually went with both Webroot and Sophos. We went with Webroot for most of the client machines. We're only using Sophos for the servers and the really important client machines, like the ones the managers use. That way, we can split our cost up a little bit.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Webroot, primarily. That was pretty much the only one we evaluated that was even close to being a competitor. We did look at a few others, but we didn't even do the trials because \Webroot and Sophos offered so much more.
Webroot seemed really nice for Windows, but we have a lot of Macs. Our servers are Windows, and we definitely went with Sophos for the servers because it has a little bit more capability with Webroot.
An example would be that if you have a file server, it will actually detect if a source is changing stuff on the file server. Suppose that a client was connected to them. That client wouldn't even need protection. Sophos is smart enough to understand, "Hey, a client just uploaded this virus." Webroot wouldn't do that. Sophos also lets us do full isolations of the servers or workstations. So if something gets infected, we can isolate that machine with the click of a button, clean it up, and then release it back into the network. That's not something Webroot was capable of handling either. Those were two big things to us because both of those features stop viruses from spreading.
Everyone's going to get infected at some point. We just want to stop the spread as soon as possible.
What other advice do I have?
If you're running a full Windows-based shop you're going to have a lot more options, so make sure you shop around. If you're running a Mac-based shop like we are, Sophos is definitely the way to go. Just make sure you can afford it.
Regarding how well Sophos integrates with other products, so far we haven't integrated it with anything. We have it on the servers and we have it scanning our Amazon accounts, but that's it. The integration with Amazon is cool. Maybe they could work on that because it seems like a newer feature. You can see what's available but not really do anything yet.
Allows our client to use cross-region AWS VPCs to connect remote dev offices
A client wanted to trial Sophos UTM 9 before deploying it into a production environment because, historically, Sophos has not had the best of reputations in AWS. The client had used Sophos in other environments, hence they wanted to stick to what they know.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution allows the client to use cross-region AWS VPCs to connect remote dev offices.
What is most valuable?
Classic defence in depth, with layered features.
* SPI (stateful packet inspection)
* IPS
* WAF
* VPN capability with built-in load balancer
Nothing out of the ordinary these days, but the fact Sophos has such a big name and good support was a big plus for the client who already had a relationship with Sophos support. Also, auto-scaling of UTM workers using EC2 is a nice and handy feature.
UTM 9 brings along IPSec as well as iPhone and iPad support. This seems small but it’s useful.
Finally, Cold Standby CloudFormation script to one node, with persistent info in S3, is a convenient feature.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We procured this solution via the AWS Marketplace because of BYOL (bring your own licence). That was the driving force behind the choice. In addition, they had test and production environments in AWS already so it was easy to get a sign-off.
What other advice do I have?
We didn’t find any issues but I know there have been some in the last few years. I can’t comment about Sophos’ on AWS previously but they seem fine now. There were no problems for our client so all I can comment on is the experience they had. I think it’s taken a little while for Sophos to get experience in solving problems with their product in the AWS environment, but they do seem to go the extra mile.
As both a firewall and UTM it's perfect, however, sometimes with setting up the spam filters there is an issue.
As we are a solution provider and not product oriented, we give the best solution for our customers, with a good price. We are the number one company in the region, BTC, and operate in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
What is most valuable?
As both a firewall and UTM it's perfect.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
How is customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: For me, the customer satisfaction, and awareness, is the most important thing. I usually train all my clients on their chosen system.
Technical Support: 10/10.
Which solutions did we use previously?
As we are a service provider, we offer various other products to our customer:
* Astaro ASG
* Avaya/Netscreen
* Fortinet
* HP Switches & WiFi
* Juniper SSG
* Juniper SRX 210 & 240
* Juniper WXC
* Sophos next generation SG, including RED, SG, and WiFi
* Telindus Crocus E1Q
How was the initial setup?
For me, the installation and setup is simple. I work hard to do the simulation for the customer, and discuss all the requirements before implementation with the client.
What about the implementation team?
In one project I implemented Sophos for was a bank. I had to involve the Sophos team as the client was asking for WAF in transparent mode with HTTPS inspection. They were 10/10.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Prior to Sophos, it was mainly Juniper and Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
