Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. Sophos Web Content Filtering

The firewalls management is made easy through its very good management software. It has a lot of features such as VPN, ATP, IPS, Real-time log views, Active Directory integration, Virus Scanning of traffic / file downloads, High Availability Failover, Qos / Traffic Shaping, and a nice quick glance dashboard.

Incentivized

Before Sophos, I would receive scammers regarding tradeshow lists. People wanted me to pay for lists, but these people weren't actually from the tradeshows. I can now block those, and have received much fewer of those scams. I am also able to open emails within quarantine to view them before deleting, releasing, allowing, or blocking. I use this to my advantage, and am able to make better decisions on what to do with the emails.

Incentivized

• Increased level of network protection against threats.
• Visibility and control of applications that users access.
• URL Filtering to block unauthorized or prohibited websites on the internal corporate network.
• Protection against diverse malware at the edge of the network.
• Firewall redundancy with another backup appliance.

Incentivized

• Allowing options: I am able to choose from several different options (release, release and allow, delete, block, block and report to Spam)
• Warning labels: emails have labels at the top to define if an email is from a trusted sender or the email is from an external sender and may not be trusted. I can block those emails, if I choose to
• Quarantine emails: I appreciate the 2x daily emails detailing which emails have been quarantined, and if I would like to release them or delete them

Incentivized

• Very complex and steep learning curve to get up to speed.
• Multiple ways to configure for the same service or feature. Takes time to determine "your" customized build.
• Interface can sometimes be clunky when trying to determine how it's organized or arranged. Again, steep learning curve.

• Initial Setup Guide could be more detailed
• WebGui Interface, needs some smoothness
• More simple models (in the hardware version) for smaller organizations to be able to implement this system

Incentivized

Easy enough to use and configure using the management UI. Reporting from the web filter is a little clunky, and not very user friendly. To be perfectly honest, once it's set up and running, there isn't a lot to do from the day-to-day side of things, which is not a bad thing.

They are very quick to answer the phone and I think I haven’t waited more than 5 minutes in the queue and if you have to hang up they actually call you back when it’s your turn in line. They have a secure tunnel that you can open for them to get into your device and help you with basically anything. It’s pretty magical if you ask me.

Incentivized

We used a much alder Cisco ASA router that was chocking our bandwidth and it couldn’t really be compared. It was clunky and horrible at best. Our WatchGuard was overly complicated and difficult to manage and required a version matching thick client installed locally to manage the firewall. The Barracuda solved a bunch of issues from both of these devices and allows me to really save time and money with its easy to configure the interface and inexpensive yet quality device and interface allow me to feel like I am getting a great value for my security.

Incentivized

Sophos competes well with other content filtering products. It's categorization is on par if not better than the competition. What stands out most for me is it's ability to integrate seamlessly with the Sophos XG and XDR and Endpoint solutions. Like most network security products, it's often best integration to stick with the same family and the Sophos solution is no different. Because of that, I feel the overall product offering from Sophos (outside of Content Filtering) is on-par with other solutions as well so it's a no-brainer if you use Sophos firewalls, Sophos Content Filtering is the best choice.

Incentivized

• Really neutral given we came from the x series. The move to the x series was a huge positive in terms of time spent managing and the ability to get what needed to be done, well done. The move to the NG was just the next step.
• I will say the one thing, in terms of value, that is given is the firewall admin application. This one program saves a ton of time in configuration versus using the web-based configuration. You can only pick one, and for me, it's a no brainer - turn the web-based config off and use the app.

Incentivized

• Increased productivity of employees by not being distracted so much.
• Economic savings by preventing computers from being infected by viruses.
• Better use of company resources.

Incentivized