Expel vs Sophos

About Sophos

Sophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection. Sophos describes Sophos Fusion as a system that sees everything, connects everything and enables defenses to respond as one. Sophos Fusion is accessible from anywhere, on any device, at any time, with nothing extra to deploy or pay for. Sophos Fusion integrates natively with Sophos solutions and 500+ third-party technologies.^[1][10]

Fusion AI is the intelligence layer within Sophos Fusion, and Sophos says human experts remain accountable. Sophos says every new threat seen across the 625,000+ organizations it defends elevates protection for all, automatically. Sophos says its solutions stop AI- and human-led threats before they can impact a business. Sophos takes a prevention-first approach, blocking ransomware, phishing and credential-based attacks before they spread. Sophos describes capabilities to discover and manage AI usage across an organization and reduce AI-driven risk.

On the network side, Sophos says its next-gen firewalls serve distributed and growing enterprises with the most complex networks. Sophos Xstream Flow processors in XGS 2U appliances provide dedicated hardware acceleration. All 2U rackmount models are powered by a high-speed CPU plus an Xstream Flow processor for traffic acceleration. All 2U appliances come with two standard Flexi Port expansion bays plus one or two bays for larger high-density modules. Maximum port density is 48 on the XGS 5500, 68 on the XGS 6500, or 70 on the XGS 7500/8500 using optional modules. Sophos says Flexi Port modules let customers adapt an appliance rather than purchase new hardware mid-term. Sophos describes sufficient headroom for key threat protection features such as TLS inspection, sandboxing, and AI-driven threat analysis. All 2U rackmount appliances are supplied with rackmount sliding rails.^[11]

Sophos Firewall includes features tailored to the IT needs of higher education, K-12, and primary and secondary institutions. Sophos Firewall includes built-in policies for CIPA and predefined activities. Sophos Firewall includes features like SafeSearch, YouTube restrictions, and keyword filtering to enable child safety online. Sophos Firewall lets administrators add Chromebook users to its authentication options for user-based policy and reporting. Xstream TLS inspection in Sophos Firewall addresses encrypted traffic passing through firewalls unchecked.^[10]

Sophos Firewall and Sophos Endpoint work together to share health information over Sophos Security Heartbeat. Sophos Endpoint shares the application path and executable with Sophos Firewall over Sophos Security Heartbeat. Sophos Firewall uses dynamic firewall rules and lateral movement protection to isolate a compromised host. The Sophos Fusion dashboard consolidates all alerts.^[10]

Sophos also sells 2.5 and 10 GE multi-gigabit switches. The 200 Series models are equipped with 2.5 GE and 1 GE ports, and 8, 24 and 48-port models are available. The 1000 series currently consists of a single 8-port model with 10 GE ports plus SFP+. The multi-gigabit switches include Power over Ethernet on all models, with PoE++ support on some. Sophos sells a cloud-managed Wi-Fi solution that supports the Wi-Fi 6/6E AP6 Series. Sophos offers integration with Sophos MDR/XDR or third-party solutions via API to block compromised hosts.^[12]

For managed services, Sophos describes fully managed, 24/7 detection and response. A customer quote says Sophos Managed Detection and Response helps look at every single endpoint and activities and spot something potentially malicious. Sophos quotes simple per-user and per-server pricing with no hidden extras. Sophos describes cloud-based delivery with no big upfront infrastructure costs and no maintenance fees. Sophos describes three Response Modes for flexible deployment.^[1][11][13]