Sophos Virtual Firewall 4 Cores.
The full Sophos firewall, no appliance required.
Run the same Sophos Firewall OS that powers the XGS hardware line, deployed as a virtual appliance. This tier covers up to four CPU cores and, now that Sophos has
removed RAM limits on virtual licenses, uses every gigabyte of memory you assign the VM.
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Specifications
Virtual Firewall (4 Cores) at a Glance
Deployment
Deploy on VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, or Citrix on-premises, or spin it up in
AWS and Microsoft Azure with bring-your-own-license or pay-as-you-go. It also runs on
Nutanix AHV or on your own Intel hardware as a software appliance. One SFOS image, the same features
everywhere.
Licensing
The Base License turns on core firewall, routing, and Sophos Central management. Add a
Standard or Xstream Protection bundle for the security services.
Licensing is counted by CPU core only, so this tier caps at four vCPU while your RAM stays uncapped.
Performance
A virtual firewall scales with the resources you give it. Throughput tracks the host
CPU, RAM, storage, and virtual NICs you allocate, plus which security features you
switch on. There is no fixed hardware ceiling, so give it more and it does more.
Protection
You get the full Xstream architecture: streaming DPI, TLS 1.3 inspection, IPS, web and
application control, and Security Heartbeat. Standard covers IPS and web filtering; Xstream adds
zero-day sandboxing, DNS Protection, and Central orchestration.
Not sure which core count fits?
See every Sophos Virtual Firewall tier side by side, from a single core up to unlimited, and match cores
to the traffic, users, and inspection load you need to cover.
VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, and Citrix on-premises, plus AWS and Microsoft
Azure in the cloud using bring-your-own-license or pay-as-you-go. It also supports Nutanix AHV and
installs on your own Intel hardware as a software appliance. It is the same Sophos Firewall OS image
with the same features across all of them.
It licenses up to four vCPU cores. Since Sophos removed RAM limits on virtual,
software, and cloud licenses in March 2025, the firewall now uses all the memory you assign the VM
with no cap. You size the cores and RAM in your hypervisor, and the license simply sets the ceiling on
how many cores it will activate.
It is the same Sophos Firewall OS and the same Xstream feature set as the XGS
appliances. The difference is that it runs as software on your host instead of on a Sophos box, so its
performance depends on the CPU, RAM, and virtual NICs you allocate rather than on fixed hardware.
You need the Base License plus a protection bundle, either Standard or Xstream, for
the term you choose, usually 1, 2, or 3 years. A bring-your-own-license purchase has no separate
monthly fee; you pay for the term up front. Support is included with the bundle and can be upgraded to
Enhanced Plus if you want faster response.
Cores track to your traffic and inspection load, not just user count. Four cores
suits a lot of small and mid-size sites, but TLS inspection, heavy VPN, and many VLANs all add work.
Tell us your bandwidth, user count, and which features you plan to turn on, and a Sophos-certified rep
will size it with you.
Let's size your Sophos Virtual Firewall
Tell us your platform, bandwidth, and which protection you need. As a Sophos Platinum Partner,
Firewalls.com will confirm the right core count and bundle, then get you a quote the same day.
