New Sophos hardware – SD-RED 20 and SD-RED 60 available
The two new REDs have been available for a few weeks now, and the predecessors are no longer available for purchase. So it’s time to take a look at the new models and compare them.
RED 15, RED 15w and RED 50 – End of Sale
Now that the new models are available, the old ones are no longer needed. Strictly speaking, these will not be end of sale until August 31, 2020. However, as demand has risen sharply due to the pandemic, all REDs in Europe were already totally sold out and no longer available by mid-March. The delivery situation has not and will not change, so the products are also no longer available on our store.
Here is an overview of the old models and their successors:
- Sophos RED 15 is replaced by Sophos SD-RED 20
- Sophos RED 15w is replaced by Sophos SD-RED 20 with Sophos WiFi module
- Sophos RED 50 is replaced by Sophos SD-RED 60
What can the Sophos RED do?
We always welcome new readers to the blog and among them are some Sophos newbies. Since I think the RED from Sophos is a really great product, I would like to explain very briefly what you can use it for.
If you have a Sophos Firewall in place, whether it is running the UTM operating system or the SFOS, you can use the Sophos SD-REDs to establish a VPN connection extremely easily. If, for example, you want to connect a branch office or home office to the company network, the RED is perfect for this. You need Internet, electricity and someone on site who knows how to connect three cables and the VPN connection is up and running. Instructions on how to connect the RED can be found here: Sophos RED setup
The RED is so great because it’s so simple to use and the management is centralized on the firewall. Our customers use the REDs, for example, to connect a wide variety of systems:
- Branches
- Home Office
- Offsite backup
- Cameras
- Cash register systems
- Monitoring devices
- Building controls (ventilation, heating, access control)
- Internet TV from other countries
What’s new?
Sophos RED was already fantastic in the previous version. But what has changed with the SD-RED?
New name
First of all, let’s start with the name SD-RED. Why not just RED anymore? Can the new model do more? RED stands for “Remote Ethernet Device” and the addition SD for “Software-Defined” (WAN).
Since many manufacturers are currently talking about SD-WAN, Sophos has immediately adopted this term in the product name. In fact, however, the SD-RED does not have more features than the older models. The RED was already a good solution as an alternative to expensive MPLS lines.
More performance
The RED 50 was launched in August 2014 and the RED 15 in September 2015. In recent years, the transmission rates on the Internet and its use have increased massively, which is why the new SD-REDs offer more throughput.
- RED 15 – 90 Mbit/s
- RED 50 – 360 Mbit/s
- SD-RED 20 – 250 Mbit/s
- SD-RED 60 – 850 Mbit/s
More connections
Two power adapters can be connected to the SD-RED 20 as well as to the SD-RED 60. One is included in the scope of delivery, a second one can be purchased and thus you get a redundant power supply.
Both models have an SFP port. You can thus choose between a copper or fiber WAN port. However, only one of them can be connected. If you want to connect two WAN connections, the SD-RED 60 offers two WAN RJ45 (where WAN1 is also shared with the SFP port here. The same applies here: either RJ45 or SFPr).
The SD-REDs can also be optionally expanded with modules. Therefore, there is no successor to the RED 15w, for example, since the WLAN function can be WiFi module can be retrofitted (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wave 1 (Wi-Fi 5) dual-band 2×2 MIMO 2 antennas). Furthermore there is also a Sophos 3G/4G module (MC7430/MC7455 Sierra Wireless card) and a VDSL modem are available. Unfortunately, we do not yet have any information about the latter’s standard support or when it will be available.
Like the smaller model, the SD-RED 60 has 4 LAN ports. However, with the SD-RED 60, two of these ports offer PoE with a total power of 30 watts. You can also use an APX access point instead of the WiFi model, which is better from a performance point of view.
More warranty
In the past, the devices only had a one-year warranty and a second year could be purchased. The new SD-RED models come with a 5-year warranty, as does the APX series of access points.
Accessories – Rack mount
The new models are larger than the previous models. But again, there is a matching rackmount kit so you can rackmount the appliance.
- Sophos SD-RED 20 / SD-RED 60 DIN Rail Mounting Kit
- Sophos SD-RED 60 rackmount kit with adapter holder
Licensing
In order to operate the SD-REDs on a UTM or SFOS firewall, a Network Protection license or a bundle containing this license is required, as was the case with the older models.
- Enterprise Guard
- Enterprise Guard Plus
- FullGuard
- FullGuard Plus
For WLAN functionality, the UTM still requires wireless protection. This is included in the base license for all SFOS Firewalls (XG Firewall).
Availability
The SD-RED 20 and SD-RED 60 have been officially available since mid-April, but availability was down due to the pandemic and we had a long list of pre-orders and customers waiting up to a month and a half for their RED. In the meantime, however, the REDs are available as usual.
Conclusion
The new models are a great upgrade to the already excellent REDs. The performance update was absolutely necessary, because the 90 Mbit of a RED 15 are already very tight for Internet speeds in the year 2020. The 5-year warranty and two power supplies give an additional good feeling when buying and provide an all-round carefree package from Sophos. We can look forward to seeing how Sophos improves SD-RED in the future.
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