Sophos UTM vs. VMware SD-WAN

Sophos is a very powerful anti-virus program that can be used in small and big businesses. Sophos has multiple features that can be customized to fit IT and business needs. Sophos would be less appropriate for IT personnel that do not have the time or knowledge of implementing the problem. The setup of its policies can be very complex.

Incentivized

VeloCloud was the #1 choice out of various POCs performed when migrating off of MPLS into an ADI/public internet circuit environment. Their ability to also be top of rack with certain software vendors played a major role in improving user experience. Their dynamic DMPO and circuit load balancing can cause some challenges when working with other entities that use a static whitelisting service for access to resources.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Ease of setup: after unpacking the device, you can have your VC appliance up and running within minutes.
• Now that VMWare owns the Velocloud solution, I believe that they will be able to invest in the product to say fresh and ahead of the competition.
• The technical support is one of the best I have ever interacted with and continue to follow up until the issue is resolved.

Incentivized

• Better standard support, it used to be great, now, not so much (for paying customers, that only aquired the Hardware)
• Better wireless solution, there is always room for that, now that everybody needs robust wifi, even at home!
• Faster and more robust wireless Access Points, or different vendor-like compatibility.

Incentivized

• VMware SD-WAN could provide cli access for troubleshooting
• VMware SD-WAN boxes could have more ports
• VMware SD-WAN box could have more applications to provide more health and visibility of the traffic passing through

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.

Incentivized

VMware SD-WAN has great usability. We have had a positive experience with the solution. It has helped solved a number of issues with our network such as visibility in user usage, application usage, and prioritizing critical application network traffic. VMware SD-WAN user interface is also very easy to understand and configure.

Incentivized

I find the support fair. The wait can be frustrating when dealing with fire. The pandemic has not helped with this. Although the wait can be long, the support reps are knowledgeable and was able to resolve the issues I was facing.

Incentivized

There are still some glitches that need to be worked out. As an example, I rebooted a device at one of our branch locations and it just died. That should never have happened, and I've only seen this happen when a company needs to improve hardware on some of their lower-end models.

Incentivized

The Linksys was a router, so the comparison isn't quite the same, but I previously worked on a SonicWall firewall. The setup is by far easier on the Sophos UTM device. That alone makes it enticing, but thrown multiple services options such as email and web filtering, endpoint support, seamless WAP and RED device integration and it wasn't a very hard decision to make.

Incentivized

We preferred the features and UI of the Velocloud compared to FortiGate SDWAN. They seemed to offer the same sets of information in different layouts. Our company decided on Velocloud for personal/aesthetic reasons. They offered a more concise set of graphs and tables out of the box for us. SD WAN provided us a with a broader look into our connections with a more robust view, which Velocloud backed by Vmware, gave us.

Incentivized

• Sophos has provided a secure Firewall for us.
• Integration with Sophos Central makes it easier to manage both.
• Site to site VPN Failover groups has caused more trouble than it's worth.
• High availability doesn't recognize when you are restarting for an update.

Incentivized

• We are able to save thousands per month by eliminating MPLS from our monthly service.
• We were able to convert the cost of VeloCloud to an operational expense by renting through our ISP.
• We have been able to eliminate downtime in situations which would have normally taken our branches offline, preventing us from servicing customers.

Incentivized