Evaluating Securly

[jimbopembo]

I'm about to commence with an Evaluation.

Any feedback from existing users about the standard of Technical Support would be appreciated....

TIA

[TheRobins]

Hi,

 

I was going to do a bit of a full review of Securly since I have had it running but not had chance as of yet. To put this into context I have gone from a centrally hosted Smoothwall solution.

 

In a nutshell I am very impressed with Securly and how it has fitted into our environment. It is paired together with a 1GB Leased Line and a Barracuda managed firewall. Over Smoothwall instantly noticeable was the improvement in performance and reliability. Smoothwall was know for randomly not working with some sites, blocking bits and bobs and not always correctly picking up user credentials. I have implemented the SmartPAC solution for all of our domain connection devices, and then used their DNS on our main VLAN. I have used their guest DNS service on the the staff wireless VLAN which is great.

 

The setup and configuration is very simple, It uses security groups from our Office365 solution, and you can prioritise groups for users with multiple memberships. I have only used their 4 standard filtering groups, Privileged for SLT and IT, Staff for all staff, Students and then default group. Default group works for devices that are not signed in and servers where I have not setup a PAC file for the devices.

 

Regarding support there seems to be 3 different branches.

 

UK Support team - Chris and his team respond to tickets logged in the UK, usually respond with a few hours and is mainly for non urgent issues. Any issues you do get with a site or browsing, you can submit a HAR file from either Edge or Chrome and that allows them to trace where the issue may be occurring. Any faults found that need a fix applying are usually done in a few days by the US team.

 

Remote Session - You can book remote sessions between 30 mins and and hour with the US team of experts to look more at your setup or get guidance on how the get the most out of the system. I have used this twice, appointments usually start at 2pm due to time difference but they have been great. Look at what you want to achieve and show you how and what securly can do to support that.

 

Telephone support. - Not used this yet as been no need to, but advised to use if you have an outage or urgent issue.

 

Overall I have been very impressed with the support when needed. Once setup it has been almost fit and forget, the solution just works and speeds reported by users are very fast and I have had no complaints. I am sure I am not using all of its features fully and maybe would expand it one day. As a replacement for Smoothwall I would recommend it every step of the way and support have always been prompt and supportive along the way.