Sophos NAC Advanced (discontinued) vs. UniFi WiFi Access Points

Sophos Network Access Control would be most effective in an enterprise environment where there are many different groups of users, including guest users because it has the ability to block unauthorized users and control the access of guest users. It would not be well suited for an environment with less than 1000 users because as far as I know, the license requires at least that many users.

Incentivized

I love the equipment for small-scale commercial solutions and quality without the price tag. I might not recommend their products for a large organization with multiple locations and servers. However, the GUI interface will allow remote access and setup across the network. I think this is a great solution for small businesses and families or home office solutions, provided there is some IT knowledge for setup and maintenance.

Incentivized

• Provides enforcement of security policies for Windows PCs
• As part of the Sophos Security Suite provides outstanding protection from viruses
• Uses a very nice web-based GUI

Incentivized

• Ubiquti WLAN is very easy on setup for fast deployment.
• The monitoring software is offered at different level. Cloudkey, or just throwing up their free controller on a PC somewhere.
• It also does a great job of publishing timely updates to firmware, and addressing bug issues.
• The ease of the interface, without adding a bunch of fluff, makes this literally the best out there in my opinion.

Incentivized

• Customer support was basically non-existent during the time we needed it the most. This should be #1 priority for any company.
• Lack of support for Linux servers and Mac OS
• The reporting system relies on information provided by the agents
• Wide scale removal process needs some vast improvements. When using a batch removal script, it wrecks the NIC drivers to the point that they have to be removed and reinstalled.

Incentivized

• Initial configuration of access points can be rather tricky. Each one I have installed was a complete pain to get setup and connected with the UniFi Controller software. I never worked out what causes me problems, but thankfully once I've stumbled through the correct procedure, it does work completely reliably after that, for years on end.
• The UniFi Controller software will nag you to share usage data. When offered to opt-in, I choose not to do so, but you'll eventually be nagged again on a future login.
• Some of the 'tooltips' within the Controller software could be more informative.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti makes great Access points at various tiers provided far better coverage and throughput than consumer-grade wireless repeaters and routers. We have not had any performance complaints from guests or from the administration who use the wifi on a daily basis.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti support is minimal, which is said to help decrease the cost of the equipment. However, with many reports of emails going directly to the Ubiquiti support line taking days to hear a response, you're better off either engaging with the community forums for help from fellow UniFi users or reaching out to a reseller that has training on the equipment that can assist.

Incentivized

I have used Mcafee Antivirus Suite, Trend Micro, and Vipre Antivirus. I actually had more experience with Vipre than anything else so that is the one that I will be comparing it too. From what I remember, Vipre was more expensive but had better customer support. Other than that, they both do pretty much thing as well as what all the others do. I personally do not believe that any enterprise level antivirus solution is better than any other, it boils down to which one can your company afford, and which one fits best with your needs.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti is overall easier to work with. There is no special training needed to accomplish many of the things required with a Cisco product. Since my time is stretched thin, I need something that I can manage without being weighed down by command-line communications. Also, I am able to use my wireless devices to maintain every Ubiquiti device on my network.

Incentivized

• Positive -- We were able to control guest users access
• Positive -- Using the entire Sophos Security Suite I only remember one major virus while I was with the company which saves on downtime, and IT man hours
• Negative -- The time we spent removing this, and reinstalling NIC drivers because the removal process crashed them cost the company in IT man hours.

Incentivized

• Can't say it enough, prices are awesome, so ROI is very high IMHO.
• Remote cloud management allows me to service more clients at greater distances.
• Project estimates become much more attractive when you can show the savings vs more expensive solutions.

Incentivized