Likelihood to Recommend I think it is well suited for smaller companies or (as in our case) extension to a central system with higher performance. My personal guess is, that it can be quite annoying with those delays in bigger environments, when 20 or more devices needed to be managed. From the point of security, support and updates it works quite good and seem to have no downsides.
Read full review It is a great fit for small to medium enterprises who are low on budget. The pricing is very competitive when compared with other major players like Palo Alto and the features match any NGFW Firewall in the market. However, in my opinion when it comes to massive performance requirements, I would say the Sophos SG Firewall Appliances lacks the sheer power that other devices in the market have.
Read full review Pros My organization is all Cisco and wants to stay in the Cisco life cycle, Firepower 1000 series is great for small to medium-size office. Very robust enterprise-grade security solution with updated threat features to handle any current and upcoming threats. The solution is backed by Cisco to ensure constant security updates. Integrated AnyConnect remote client VPN is a big plus to allow for secure remote workers access. Easier to set up a site to site VPN due to the large user base and case studies published on integrating to other manufacturer solutions. Read full review Sophos' support is actually pretty decent compared to Fortinet. We as a customer who uses both have first-hand experience in that. Sophos' way of support is much more hands-on. For instance, if you raise a ticket, they will contact you via chat, email, or phone in a timely manner and based on your SLA. Sophos antivirus can speak with your firewall natively so that when a threat happens it can be blocked on a network level. We had first-hand experience of this where there was a potential outbreak on the network but the machines were getting isolated and prevented the spreading of malware. Sophos comes with a whole suite of products like Intercept X, MDM, Antivirus, On-premise, and a virtual firewall. So they are like a one shop stop for all your security needs. We liked Sophos compared to our other firewall, which only had on-premise and virtual firewall boxes. Read full review Cons ACLS in gui are PIA cant see object details Objects in ACLs dont show IP addresses Have to renames every object to name+ip to make acl GUI useable Speed to data can use improvement. Health warnings should allow you to resolve you have to dig n search in some cases. Read full review The user interface could use a refresh. It's been a few years. Not having the ability to use an Open VPN configuration is a little disappointing. Home license is too restrictive with only 50 IPs. Matthew James Junior Systems Administrator | POS Programming Specialist
Read full review Likelihood to Renew It is quite good, robust and reliable but not always so easy to manage and configure. The tools could be improved and the price is not low for an entry level firewall
Read full review Usability Firepowers are secure, reliable, central management and configuration is easy and they fit in well with our existing Cisco infrastructure. Good feature set and support. Good management and control with chassis manager and central control with additional Firepower Management Centre.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Has not let me down yet.
Read full review Performance Great performance even on the lower end model of the series. You can push a lot of traffic through these devices without much performance impact. If you decide you want to inspect encrypted traffic however, you may take a big hit on the cpu and memory of the box, but they still manage to keep up even with all the bells and whistles turned on.
Read full review Support Rating I have had troubles with Firepower Management Center and the FTD's in the past. Sticking to a Gold Star image and upgrading when the "bugs" are fixed is great. That still doesn't mean you are left vulnerable though. The extra features are just not enabled yet. Great product and calling support is readily available for any issue.
Read full review The biggest selling point for sophos is their vendor support. Those guys put a smile on our faces. There are multiple ways you can contact their support like chat, or telephone or email. They are very responsive and they do have very knowledgable and patient support staff. We have raised tickets at all odd hours and they have been addressed correctly
Read full review Implementation Rating Utilize the new FMC cloud which is available in Cisco Defense Orchestrator.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Cisco Meraki MX is much more simple to configure it if you compare to Cisco Firepower 1000, but it is more limited to pur some complex configurations. The Cisco Firepower 1000 Series is typically deployed as a physical appliance, while the Meraki MX can be deployed as a physical or virtual appliance.The Firepower 1000 Series has a more complex user interface, with a steeper learning curve, but offers more customization and configuration options. The Meraki MX has a simpler, more intuitive interface,
Read full review Both are equally good when comparing the features,
FortiGate has a better dashboard while Sophos SG Firewall Appliances has good vpn texhniques.Overall price was better for Sophos SG Firewall Appliances,So we considered this for our Remote Branch Location .
Read full review Return on Investment We have seen improved throughput on our internet. It took several attempts with Cisco engineers to configure the device; it requires a deep set of knowledge to set up in a more complicated environment. This will allow us to move forward with a more stable and configurable environment with security available we didn't have before. Read full review Positive ROI due to the competitiveness of the product. Positive impact as the device is fully functional and easy to operate. Negative impact when it comes to log integration as it does not support industry logging standards. Read full review ScreenShots