FortiGate CNF - Cloud Native Firewall (PAYG with 30-day Free Trial)

The major use case for this product is if customers have on-prem hardware to protect, along with the other use cases with SD-WAN and VPN connectivity.

Centralized management definitely helps us manage security operations. A single pane of glass management is a bonus for us. We can give our staff access to the portal, and they can access all our customers. So it is definitely one of the reasons that we use the product.

For stability, we have not had too many issues. Occasionally an update might fail, so out of 10, I would give it probably an eight.

I see areas for improvement, particularly around the SSL VPN . It is a tool that we have used quite heavily, but it has a lot of vulnerabilities and they are starting to be dropping support for it. So we kind of see that they have left a vacuum by removing that feature.

The VPN feature is indeed the main concern so far. Security around it is a concern, and then the fact that they have just dropped it and have not really provided a solution that fits for us. Their solution was either IPsec or ZTNA , which is not as flexible as the SSL VPN  was for our customers.

We have been using FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  for probably about five or six years.

Occasionally an update might fail, so out of 10, I would give it probably an eight.

I would probably give scalability of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  around a nine. There is definitely room for improvement, but for our needs, it does probably 90% of the work that we need it to do.

For technical support from the vendor, I would give it probably an eight as they are fairly responsive and usually fairly knowledgeable. We have had to open a few tickets.

I have worked with other firewalls and SD-WAN products apart from Fortinet. Our other products are mainly Ubiquiti, so EdgeRouters and UniFi, which we use for smaller businesses that do not require heavy security. In the past, I have used Juniper at a previous job that was replaced with a FortiGate. We have also used some Cisco Meraki, but we do not appreciate the fact that they essentially hold you for ransom by turning off your internet if you do not pay your bill on time, which makes it hard to pay the bill and run the business. So we tend to steer away from Meraki. That is probably the majority of the devices. There are a couple of MikroTiks and others as well.

FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) is easy to install and deploy, though there is probably a small learning curve for most people. It is not as dramatic as some of the others; for example, Meraki has a fairly dramatic learning curve. Whereas Juniper is fairly easy to learn. Fortinet is relatively easy to learn and intuitive once you know where to find everything.

We only use Fortinet products.

When we say we work with FortiGate Cloud, we mean FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) and essentially the cloud version of FortiManager.

I am fairly happy with the product. There have been a few security incidents with them, but feature-wise, we are fairly happy. Primarily around the SD-WAN configurability and somewhat the VPN, although SSL VPN being one of the security vulnerabilities that they had. So those are probably our main reasons that we go for the FortiGates over other products.

I have not had a chance to work with the AI-powered threat intelligence. It is something we are probably going to be looking into shortly, but nothing that we have looked at at the moment.

The insights I have gained into network activities are not something our customers are too interested in. I have used the analytics in the past for Fortinet with other jobs. But our customer base is not interested in that side of things. It is useful if we are needing to look into an incident. But they are not wanting constant reports.

In the product, the automated security provisioning feature is probably not something that we are using currently.

From FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF), I see a positive impact as they are fairly quick to react to any issues. We have had to open a few support cases for issues that we are having and they are fairly quick to react and assist.

Comparing licenses, I think that a license for Fortinet is relatively fair for what you get. As I mentioned, with Meraki, Fortinet does not shut down your services if you do not pay. You just lose some functionality, but it still operates. Most of our customers are happy with the prices, and we have not had too many questions about it.

We are an MSP who provide IT services for around 500 customers, and we have about 100 FortiGates across our customers. We have an account manager with Fortinet, and we are a direct reseller through them.

We did not buy FortiGate directly from Fortinet, but we are direct resellers through Ingram in New Zealand. We go through Ingram, but the Fortinet account manager applies a discount for us.

Summarizing everything that I said, I would give the solution an average rating of eight.

I primarily use FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  as a firewall with general bundles of licenses, including Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and antivirus. We employ it in medium and enterprise-level businesses, not small businesses.

FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  is highly valued for its pricing, which is considered very affordable. The rates and reviews it receives, such as from Gartner, underscore its reliability. Its price policies are flexible, and it is widely favored in the market with significant coverage in security. It holds around 60% of the security market in Ukraine.

The Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in Fortinet products, including FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF), is not very strong; we often prefer Cisco IPS instead. AI features are not well developed in Fortinet solutions compared to Check Point.

Unfortunately, FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) is not very scalable. For businesses that grow or develop further, only about ten percent can handle the increase.

Customer service for Fortinet is rated at four out of five. This translates to approximately eighty percent satisfaction.

I've previously used solutions from Trend Micro, Check Point, and Palo Alto. For email protection tools and general security, I often use Trend Micro and Check Point.

Overall, the initial setup for FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) is straightforward and hassle-free. It takes two to four weeks to complete.

FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) offers a very flexible price policy, with medium pricing, making it an attractive option for many businesses.

I have evaluated solutions like those from Trend Micro, Check Point, Palo Alto, and Cisco IPS.

Overall, I rate FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) around seven out of ten due to its flexible pricing, significant market presence, and ease of deployment.

I use FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  to enable better segregation and integration with on-premise firewalls and infrastructure. It allows me to have a unified approach, so I can work on both on-prem physical firewalls and cloud firewalls.

The most valuable feature of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  is its open-source configuration. The simplicity of its setup stands out, as it has the same look and feel as physical firewalls, making it easy for me to work with and integrate. Additionally, it enables better segregation and integration with on-premise firewalls and infrastructure so that I can seamlessly handle both on-prem physical firewalls and cloud firewalls.

I have not had any complaints regarding integration. At this moment, I cannot say what needs improvement, as it will take a few months to observe its capabilities and limitations. There might be future challenges in different development environments, but they haven't appeared yet.

I have used FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) for about three to four months now.

The stability of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) is highly appreciated by the people I work with, as they love its reliability. I consider it a stable solution when it's not causing issues.

With my current experience, I would rate the scalability of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) at about a seven out of ten.

From my interactions, technical support from Fortinet is rated high, a nine out of ten, though there is always room for improvement. I know some of the engineering personnel, which helps in understanding their approach and response.

The initial setup can be straightforward if one understands the environment and how FortiGate  works. For someone new to security, it might be difficult as they see security as a hindrance instead of an enabler for improved work.

In South Africa, the price point is challenging due to the Rand-dollar exchange rate. A $80 or $200 device translates to approximately 8,000 to 10,000 Rand, which includes licensing costs. The exchange rate makes it difficult, although this is not a problem with Fortinet itself.

There is always room for improvement, even though progress is evident. I rate the overall solution at eight.

We enhance our cloud security strategy through FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  by implementing zero trust policies for our cloud infrastructure APIs. This includes the secure communication between our on-site data center and cloud premises.

FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF)  greatly enhances our cloud security strategy with features such as policy creation and management. We implemented IPS and IDS, which contribute significantly to our security. The visibility and exposure to logs provide valuable insights for our InfraSec team, aiding in monitoring and managing communication and policies.

I would be glad if there were free solutions to help manage migrations. Migration can be quite challenging when moving from a different firewall to FortiGate  Cloud-Native Firewall. Solutions like FortiConverter are good but are paid, and getting approval to purchase can take some time. It would be great to have something more readily available for engineers.

We have been using FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) for around one year.

I would rate the stability of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) as nine out of ten, indicating it is very stable.

As of now, we haven't scaled our cloud network much, and the deployment is working fine. There are plans to launch new projects, and once that's done, we will definitely scale our FortiGate  Cloud-Native Firewall as needed. I would rate the scalability as an eight out of ten.

There are some bugs that need to be fixed, and they can take some time to resolve. I would rate the customer service and support an eight out of ten.

I have worked on Palo Alto and Cisco firewalls before. The organization decided to cut CapEx costs and was looking for vendors offering the same features at a lower cost. We ultimately chose FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall.

The initial setup involved a smooth deployment with some challenges during the migration process, as we had to manually transfer our rules and policies without FortiConverter.

Our deployment team consisted of three network engineers and two infrastructure managers.

The primary benefit we experienced is the reduction in CapEx costs. FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall provides the same features that higher-end models offer, but at a much lower cost.

The pricing of FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall is very good and is not considered expensive compared to other products.

I would rate FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) an eight out of ten. While the pricing, features, and stability are good, the presence of bugs and the time it takes to fix them prevent a higher rating.