Small is beautiful: meet our new desktop firewall and UTM appliances

This week marks the global launch of a new generation of our award-winning XG and SG Series desktop firewall appliances, which now offer modular connectivity and redundancy options.

Power failover

In our recent network survey, 79% of IT managers said they wanted their firewalls to provide better protection. Even the best detection technology won’t help if you neglect one of the most basic network protections though: failover (or, “what if something stops working?”).

For all XG and SG 100 Series models, Sophos now offers a second, redundant power supply to counter the issues some customers have in areas with ‘dirty’ power, where a normal power supply unit could be subject to failure.

Connectivity options galore

Our new high-end desktop models (125/135) now come with a modular expansion bay. This can be used to add a 3G/4G (PCIe) module, which supports the latest LTE Advanced standard and adds two external antennas to the unit for improved performance and coverage in hard-to-wire locations. The module is fully integrated and can be managed from your XG Firewall or Sophos UTM console.

The expansion bay can also be used to add a second Wi-Fi radio to the XG/SG 135w to support the simultaneous use of the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Also, every desktop model is available with optional 802.11ac Wi-Fi built-in.

And, we didn’t stop there.

We’ve also added an optional VDSL2 modem in SFP form factor to our new list of accessories for these models. The modem slots into the new SFP port on all 100 series models and, in most cases, can then be connected to the broadband socket in the wall. This will often eliminate the need for an additional router and provide better compatibility.

The product highlights in a nutshell are:

• 11ac Wi-Fi option for every model
• Modular 3G/4G connectivity option for all XG/SG 125/135 models
• SFP port on all XG/SG 100 Series models
• VDSL2 modem in SFP format for all XG/SG 100 Series models
• Second power supply option for all XG/SG 100 Series models

Our desktop firewall portfolio includes 5 models in the XG Series for the XG Firewall (SFOS) software and 4 models in the SG Series which come preinstalled with the Sophos UTM software.

With so many options, it can be difficult to choose the model that’s best suited to your needs. So, take a look at our desktop appliance comparison page for all the information at a glance.