Any news about version 18 beta?

Aside curiosity that nears "voyeurism", what's the point ?  If you add v18 beta in your hands now, it won't be solid enough for production for months, if not a year, or more.  Can't plan with that.

Paul Jr

And that's exactly the point.. My UTM license is expiring in a year, and up to this point XG hasn't been good enough in my eyes to replace the UTM.. As we all know the UTM is a sinking ship, so it's now or never for me.. I've heard v18 should be with a rewrite of the core system (I guess that means less Cyberoam) so with that in mind, my schedule is pretty tight as i won't be migrating to 18.0.0 if v18 pleases me

... and you're v15 & v17 certified engineer.  Meaning you spent countless hours and $ familiarizing with it ...

You're facing the same as I.  However, my environment is relatively simple, so migrating back to Checkpoint is feasible, since I have stopped using Sophos MTA - both virtual appliance & XG -, and I have stopped using WEB gateway functions as well as web site classifications.  I cannot spend that much time answering users why that site or that site is not categorized according to their needs.  We are too small to dedicate IT personal on this.  An example: Intel.com was categorized as some form of bad download site for months.  No automatic Intel update could be performed then.  I had to do it manually all of this time.  Same with Google Chrome.  Same with Microsoft WSUS.  I understand that Sophos cannot set exceptions or rules for all web sites on the net, but there’s also a minimum that’s not there. 

And as we are replacing desktops, we are migrating End Point Protections back to Symantec SEP.  Pretty soon our firewall will be an empty shell with nothing more than a VPN as task to accomplish, and consequently easily replaceable.

My plan is to stop subscribing with Sophos in few months, subscribe with as much cloud based solutions (Symantec mostly), keep my home appliance running, then wait 3 years (because we always sign contract for 3 years),  and see where Sophos is at that point.  

In the last 30 months, Sophos XG has migrated to Strongswam and Exim.  Meanwhile Sophos has introduced things like InterceptX and killed - literally - "SandBoxie".  So we cannot pretend we ignore at what pace Sophos' development goes.

What I understand, the “core” is what makes all those open source modules talk with each other.  It is not gonna be easier than Strongswam and Exim.

Mileage will vary with others, but our needs require something much more "set-it-and-forget-it-plug-and-play-and-all" which, I presume, XG will reach at version v20.

I’m in no rush for v18.  But I’m in a rush to have v17 ironed out.

Paul Jr

So still waiting ? :)  Chrismass is coming in few weeks ... Around 13 to be accurate.

One more week, and we can say next year.

Paul Jr

You might want to read this: https://investors.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/Microsites/Investors/Documents/Governance-Documents/sophos-q1fy20-results.pdf

Page 5 gives an idea.  No v18 in fiscal year 2019 (i.e. FY19). 

What's revealing, is that earlier this year, the same document clearly showed FY19.

Programming v18 is stuck in frozen molasse.  Debugging v17.5.x - i.e. DHCPgate - has eaten up half of 2019.

It's now official that in the end, v18 will be two years late ... or more.  Much what I've predicted - and written - 18 months ago.

Ok.  Let's open another bottle.  Because the one on the shelf right now, won't be celebrating v18 anytime soon anyway.  Any excuse next on line will be ok for me.  Like the 65 millionth birthday since birds lost their teets.

Paul Jr

p.s. you might as well read this also: https://www.avanet.com/assets/pdf/sophos-utm-firewall-xg-firewall-to-sg-utm-feature-comparison-en.pdf

Thank you for sharing.. I will definitely open another bottle now.. Their naming scheme only worked for v16, so they should delay v18 even more and use all the brain power on a new naming scheme :) lol