Cisco Firepower 2100 Series vs Sophos UTM

Likelihood to Recommend

The Cisco [Firepower] 2100 [Series] is an easy sell for anyone looking. You already know Cisco excels in the security department, but now that firepower lives right on the box and inline with the rest of the firewall data flow you can save yourself a lot of time and headaches. Unless you cant quite afford Cisco's 2100 line, there's not much reason to go with the competition.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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UTM works great if you want a solid, obvious firewall. There's not a lot of second-guessing as to what you are about to do with every change you make. If you incorporate their wireless access points and RED (remote ethernet device) for remote users or small offices, it's considerably much easier to set up than other comparable solutions. If you are looking to manage your firewalls via the cloud, you are out of luck.

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Paul Cheng

IT Manager

Handel ArchitectsArchitecture & Planning, 51-200 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Cisco Firepower 2100 Series

Sophos UTM

Identification Technologies

Content Inspection

Policy-based Controls

Active Directory and LDAP

Firewall Management Console

Reporting and Logging

VPN

High Availability

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

Pros

Nice HTML5 web interface instead of the old java client
Many added features over the ASA
Firepower built in and faster than before

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Firewall Protection. The protection is unmatched, setup it a little daunting, but once set up it pretty much runs itself.
Site-to-site VPN. Super easy to deploy so we are able to network all our sites together.
The DHCP server function is actually really nice, I prefer using it over the traditional way of using a DC for DHCP.

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Matthew James

Systems Administrator | POS Programming Specialist

AIKG LLCEntertainment, 501-1000 employees

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Cons

Cisco patches bugs quickly but patches are slow to install and reboot
Smart licensing is getting better but still can be troublesome
Some weird visual interface glitches that require clicking the same options a few extra times

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Navigating the portal can be tricky depending on what needs to be done
It would be helpful if the SSLVPN client agent had more logging capabilities

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Michael Cattano

Sr. Systems Engineer

Amoeba NetworksInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Sophos UTM 10.0

Based on 1 answer

The interface is no non-sense and easy to understand. No need for any consultants to help implement this solution. The performance is consistent and solid. Paired with a good amount of firmware and definitions, it's hard to find any fault in this product. It's interoperability with other Sophos products make a compelling argument to invest in more Sophos products.

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Paul Cheng

IT Manager

Handel ArchitectsArchitecture & Planning, 51-200 employees

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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Sophos UTM 7.2

Based on 3 answers

The week link of Sophos UTM is the customer support. I haven't had to use it often, but when I do, the wait times can easily be an hour or two. Once I am talking to someone, the support is excellent. The support agents are knowledgeable and can quickly diagnose the issue and get you to a resolution.

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Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Pharmaceuticals Company, 51-200 employees

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Alternatives Considered

No answers on this topic

I would rate Sophos second on this list right below Webroot. Webroot has an easier user interface and policy builder. However, Sophos would be on top of its UI would be improved. I would rank CrowStrike third and McAfee last. Sophos is great for complex environments that have multiple needs.

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Nate Binkley

Network System Administrator

Land of Lincoln Credit UnionFinancial Services, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

Simplifying our lives by reducing our time spent in a console
Being comfortable knowing the full might of Cisco is safeguarding your network
A good excuse to bump up the IT budget in the next fiscal year!

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Sophos came in right on budget for our needs - perfect ROI
Security is like life insurance - you can always buy more, but finding that sweet spot where you are covered just right is key.

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Jon Shurtliff

IT Director

3form IncPlastics, 501-1000 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Cisco Firepower 2100 Series Editions & Modules

Edition

Firepower 2100	3,000-20,000¹

per appliance

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Sophos UTM Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Cisco Firepower 2100 Series

Sophos UTM

Cisco Firepower 2100 Series

Sophos UTM

Cisco Firepower 2100 Series

Sophos UTM