First, the good news: The Sophos XGS series of Next-Generation firewalls are just as far ahead of the field as ever, with advanced features like on-box reporting, dual AV scanning, WAF AV scanning and the email message transfer agent functionality, even in the smaller models.
And with the dedicated Xstream Flow multi-core processors, these firewalls are scorchingly fast. For example, even the desktop model XGS107 pushes 7 Gbps total firewall Throughput, and 2.0 Gbps Firewall IMIX.
These multi-core processors just make everything faster. Including the heavy-lift security functions like…
TLS 1.3 Inspection
According to the latest statistics, approximately 90% of web traffic is encrypted. Who knew? Problem is, encryption makes traffic invisible to most firewalls. As a result, many organizations simply don’t use the SSL Inspection features on their firewalls. The concern is that SSL Inspection will impact performance, and thus user experience. Predictably, an increasing amount of malware is taking advantage of this fact.
The Sophos XGS series now removes the blind spots caused by encrypted traffic. The speedy new processors allow you to use SSL Inspection without sacrificing speed and efficiency.
Deep Packet Inspection
Sophos believes you shouldn’t have to choose between security and performance. So, Sophos Firewall includes a fast Deep Packet Inspection engine. It scans your traffic without using a proxy, which tends to slow things down. The inspection processing offloads completely to the DPI engine. This reduces latency. In other words, it speeds things up.
Sophos Firewall blocks the latest ransomware and breaches with high-performance streaming DPI. This includes next-gen IPS, web protection, and app control. It also features deep learning and sandboxing.
Application Acceleration
Of course, let’s not forget that a lot of your network traffic is important application traffic. Traffic that’s supposed to be there, heading for branch offices, remote users, and so on. This trustworthy traffic can now direct to FastPath, which will optimize performance further. This provides extra capacity for intelligently scanning traffic that does need DPI for malware and other threats.
Sophos Firewall speeds up your SaaS, SD-WAN. So things like VoiP, video, and other trusted cloud traffic get pushed to FastPath either automatically, of by your own policies.
Sophos APX access points
Sophos APX are Sophos’ easy-to-use family of Wave 2, 802.11ac access points. The APX series are do-it-all cloud managed devices. They are (depending on the model) 2×2 , 3×3, or 4×4 MIMO, dual radio device with internal antennas. All Sophos access points require a wireless protection subscription. In the case of the APX, this can be done through Sophos Wireless Central. The APX Series enables basic Synchronized Security with Sophos Endpoint, Sophos Mobile and Sophos Server when managed through Sophos Central. Sophos Central Wireless Standard (for APX) is available in 1, 2, and 3-year options.
Multi-user MIMO access points like the APX series are excellent for the demands of mobile devices. That’s because a wireless connection can be used to support dozens of devices. Even if they all need a high-bandwidth connection. These devices will also be able to get on and off of the wireless network more easily. Such advantages are especially useful in a business or university setting. In summary, Wave 2 offers faster speeds, increased bandwidth, the ability to use more devices on a single network.
You can expect the XGS and APX series to truly be carefree “install and forget” devices. As long as you maintain firmware upgrades, the standard installation does an excellent job. They team up superbly, co-existing in the same cloud-managed portal.
The bad news – Price increase
The Sophos XGS series and Sophos APS series are going up in price effective April 4, 2022. This is due to the global supply chain issues we are all familiar with, and it comes with our sincerest apologies. As you probably know, it cannot be helped. It will affect all of the models in both lines of appliances; the entire XGS line, as well as the APX 120, APX 320, APX 320X, APX 530, and APX 740.
From setting up business rules to access points to Remote Ethernet Devices, Sophos has always offered an ease-of-use that is nearly unmatched. And its’ broad range of models really covers any use case up to high-enterprise. And though price increases never come at a good time, you can still save on ALL your Sophos gear at Corporate Armor, and our 5-star service still comes at no extra charge! Please email us, or call 877-449-0458 with any questions. Thanks for reading!
Sophos XGS highlights
| New, dedicated Xstream Flow processors |
| Superior TLS Inspection |
| Extremely fast Deep Packet Inspection |
| Efficient Application Acceleration |
| Everything you love about Sophos XG, just faster! |