We use the solution for security.
Fortinet FortiGate (BYOL) Next-Generation Firewall
Fortinet Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
The solution is easy to deploy and provides good technical support, but it is not stable and hangs frequently
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
User identification and application identification are valuable features.
What needs improvement?
The product keeps hanging. One of our customers was unhappy because it didn’t work sometimes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is not stable for small companies.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is scalable. Our customers are small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also work with Palo Alto and Cisco. Each product has its advantages and disadvantages. Palo Alto has a lot of features. It provides application identification features and big data analysis. Palo Alto is more stable than FortiGate.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. It takes us some days to deploy the solution.
What about the implementation team?
We need about six people to deploy the solution. It is easy to maintain the product.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend the solution to others. The product is for commercial clients like the oil and gas sector. It might not be suitable for banking. Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
An easy-to-install product offering web filtering, application control, and SSL inspection to its users
What is our primary use case?
In my company, we use the product for the help it provides us in terms of SD-WAN, site-to-site VPN, RADIUS authentication, web filtering, application control, SSL inspection, and remote access.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN and site-to-site VPN.
What needs improvement?
In version 7.2.0, the product offers built-in automation to its users. Earlier, there was no automation offered for the product. Nowadays, the product sends automatic emails to users as a part of its offering to let the users know whenever there is a need for automatic backup when the ISP goes down and the interface status. The automation can be further improved.
Fortinet's support team consists of a huge networking team, because of which there is a delay in response at times. Fortinet's support team needs to improve their time management skills.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate SWG for five years and six months. My company has a partnership with Fortinet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution since the product offers a FortiGuard server that detects vulnerabilities and ensures such detection of vulnerabilities also involves FortiGate.
My company currently works with basic and mid-level sized businesses.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever our company's customers face any issue with the product, we offer our own support team. Fortinet also has its own support team. If required, our company lodges complaints and the issues faced by our customers with Fortinet. Fortinet's support team initiates the replacement if there is a hardware issue with the product. The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The product is easy to install since we only need to follow the user manual, documents, and articles provided by Fortinet to install the product.
The solution is deployed on-premises.
Just getting the product up and running can take up to forty-five minutes to an hour. The full setup process is carried out based on the requirements of our company's customers, and it can be done in half an hour to forty-five minutes if it is only for basic internet.
In our company, we need around ten engineers for the maintenance and deployment of the solution. The maintenance of the solution is easy since we keep getting constant updates which we can easily use to update the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am unaware of pricing since I am a part of the networking team. My company's sales team manages pricing.
What other advice do I have?
My company basically provides Fortinet FortiGate SWG to our customers. If our company's customers are looking at Palo Alto products, we have another team in our company to provide them with the same. I am an engineer for Fortinet products and can provide support only for Fortinet. There are different sets of engineers managing Palo Alto products.
In Fortinet, you only need one license for all the products. In Palo Alto, for Palo Alto Secure Remote Access, you need to buy a separate license, while there is a need to buy a separate license for Palo Alto SD-WAN. I feel Fortinet products are better since they come in a bundle. With Fortinet, customers don't need to buy different licenses. One can get all the features by installing a single bundled license offered by Fortinet, allowing one to use SD-WAN, site-to-site VPN, remote access web filtering, SSL inspection, and application control.
I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Enhanced security compared to traditional firewalls, providing protection against various types of attacks
What is our primary use case?
There are many features that we can use. We can see all the logs. Additionally, we can connect with other devices like the FortiManager. We also have a new feature.
We mainly use the Next Generation Firewall for enhancing security. It has powerful capabilities compared to traditional firewalls, especially when dealing with current threats like those in Azure. The Next Generation Firewall can handle more effectively.
What is most valuable?
The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is always updating. For example, if there is a big attack, they fix it in their firmware. They release new firmware with the necessary patches to address the vulnerabilities.
Mainly, we are more secure than with the traditional firewall. The Next Generation Firewall helps a lot in defending against various types of attacks.
What needs improvement?
In terms of solutions, for now, we don't have any SD-WAN. Yeah. We are planning to implement SD-WAN due to some failures we experienced last year. For our high availability design, this would be beneficial.
So I would like to have SD-WAN as a part of the Next Generation Firewall. It would enhance high availability.
For how long have I used the solution?
I work with the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall. We started using FortiGate about five to six years ago. We have been using various versions and migrated to newer ones over time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable, quite stable. We also have it set up as a firewall with high availability. We were also talking about SD-WAN for our future plans for our stores, mainly for the internal lines, because this SD-WAN technology is something we would like to implement.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. We can connect it to any network or with other brands, not only Fortinet. For instance, we can configure it with Cisco or any other brand for connectivity.
In our company, it protects around 500 endpoints.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service and support have different levels of support—level one, level two, level three—based on the severity of the issue. They can also provide scheduled delivery. We usually never face any significant problems with their support.
I am satisfied with the support. They have good knowledge.
How was the initial setup?
The first setup process was easy to do. It was not difficult at all.
What about the implementation team?
We set it up ourselves. We created policies, firewall rules, IPsec VPN configurations, and everything was handled by our team.
The deployment took around five days, and the process was quite easy. The setup was straightforward. If we encountered any issues, we could contact Fortinet support. They were helpful and provided support through the hotline in urgent issues.
Maintenance is quite easy. I did it myself. It's user-friendly. We can use the GUI, or we can use the command line, but the GUI is more user-friendly. So it's good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is not very expensive compared to Cisco or Palo Alto. Like Palo Alto, which is the most expensive product.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have always been using Fortinet. It has been quite stable for us.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it to other users. Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. It is a good solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
A scalable solution that allows easy integration with Fortinet defense systems
What is our primary use case?
We use FortiGate Next Generation Firewall first and foremost for the main site's security, remote sites, and establishing the connection between the firewalls they use. More recently, we have been using it when implementing SD-WAN.
How has it helped my organization?
The total ownership of equipment has several benefits when using one platform for administration. Training is then more focus-oriented to technology like Fabric. From the operations point of view, we have better savings by using this solution.
What is most valuable?
I like the common administration and the possibility of adding Fortinet defense systems.
What needs improvement?
I see problems with the licensing. If I have to add a new feature, we need to add a license. There may then be extra costs for our maintenance budget.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for the past five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortigate is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
FortiGate is a very scalable solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used SonicWall. We switched to FortiGate looking for better security technology, and better fabric technology based on security. In this approach, FortiGate is still better than SonicWall.
How was the initial setup?
With the initial setup, it's important to sit with the team to establish the application and the main issues to get the best possible script to implement in Fortinet equipment. We had to spend some time to implement it better.
Deployment could take one week, depending on the site, or even three weeks to implement the solution. Around four people were involved in the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We contacted an external company to provide some professional services through engineers who have better experience in certain kinds of implementations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is better compared to other solutions like Check Point, Arista, or Cisco.
What other advice do I have?
To anyone who plans on supporting this solution, refer to training resources in the Fortinet training center. There are people who have some experience that could provide some guidelines to people who start with basic issues and basic tasks, to then grow with experience by implementing some maintenance windows. I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
A reliable tool for connectivity with strong WiFi ports and SD-WAN
What is our primary use case?
I’ve worked with network and security information since 1999. My use cases for FortiGate are in the telecom environment. In my experience, we have used Fortinet to connect sites. I’m working with an SMB in São Paulo, and we work with small equipment. I have a project to define a model from the end products, and to do that I’m working with a local network to deploy our services. After defining this product, I wire the product through my team so they can make configurations. Sometimes, I work directly with configuration, with third level support.
What is most valuable?
FortiGate’s connectivity and the SD-WAN is perfect. Likewise, the WiFi ports from Fortinet are very strong.
What needs improvement?
FortiGate's connectivity for small businesses is not as strong as it can be. If Fortinet includes more information and marketing to small businesses, their presence will be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have 15 years of experience with Fortinet.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and doesn’t have any problems.
How are customer service and support?
They are very good and they are quick at solving problems. I have had no problems with them.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What about the implementation team?
I work with a distributor in Brazil, and their people have a lot of experience with the technology and they are good to work with.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost depends on the equipment required. The cost is okay.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Compared with Sophos, for example, Fortinet is similar but simpler to access and the licenses are easier and start using the solution. Sophos’ technology is very similar, but Fortinet has a stronger name and better technology for our technicians.
What other advice do I have?
In Brazil, there is no doubt that Fortinet is the leader when it comes to security solutions. Fortinet works better in a scenario with more of one presented from the same customer. There are many options from other brands for the same customer. When users need one solution to stay securely connected to many sites, Fortinet works well. 40% of all purchases are Fortinet, while another 30% are Sophos and another 30% are Cisco.
I rate FortiGate NGFW a nine out of ten.
An easy-to-deploy solution with a seamless user interface and a helpful support team
What is most valuable?
The usability of the solution is its best feature. The product has a great UI. The UI is seamless and easier to navigate compared to other firewalls. The reporting and logging are good too. Additionally, Fortinet Security Fabric is another great feature.
What needs improvement?
Being a great product, some changes in the pricing would make it a great choice for even more organizations.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Currently, we have around ten customers. Our customers are mostly medium-sized businesses. We also have small and enterprise-level customers.
I rate the tool’s scalability a nine out of ten. FortiGate's VDOM is a great feature for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Support is good. A local organization provides us with first-level support. I have raised a few cases with them.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I rate the ease of setup a nine out of ten. Most organizations like to have everything deployed within the premises. The initial setup can be done within a few hours if the planning is done beforehand. The policies and other requirements are added gradually.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In our country, pricing is very important. The product is not cheap. Although companies do invest in one-time setup, retaining license renewal is not the same for every organization. I rate the pricing a five out of ten. Support should be purchased as per various levels and other licenses for security features, like Application Control and Web Filtering, should also be purchased.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, it is a great technology to use. It is imperative to train employees to get the best out of the product and robust implementation. FortiGate has a great learning platform and commendable documentation for that which should be utilized. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
A solution with seamless integration and excellent security features
How has it helped my organization?
FortiGate is a great solution, although initially, it faced challenges in the Brazilian market due to lower brand recognition than Cisco. However, explaining and demonstrating its product format and offerings has proven easy. The cost-effectiveness and better features of FortiGate have made some clients skeptical. We set up a trial period, and they eventually opted for it. Many clients were convinced it was great after experiencing the solution's capabilities firsthand.
What is most valuable?
I believe the package offered by FortiGate provides great value for the solution. It integrates well, allowing us to use Wi-Fi solutions, switches, and firewalls with a centralized management portal. The security it provides is great and one of the best in the market.
What needs improvement?
One area of improvement I've noticed is the lack of built-in monitoring capabilities in the firewall. Currently, we rely on third-party solutions for monitoring purposes. However, I believe the firewall itself has the potential to do a better job in this aspect.
Another aspect of Fortinet that concerns me is related to redundancy. We have a setup with two firewalls working in parallel, which requires a highly adaptable configuration. However, it feels unfair that clients need to purchase two licenses, especially when one of the firewalls serves as a backup. We have noticed that other manufacturers have different policies on this matter.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for the past 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability of the solution as a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability of the solution as a seven out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We have encountered some issues with the support. Although it is included in the solution, the support could be faster.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What was our ROI?
There has been a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
The advice I can offer is to compare the entire solution with its competitors. While certain narrow aspects might show some glitches and areas for improvement, when viewed completely, it becomes evident that Fortinet is a great solution. Overall, I would rate the solution as a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
The solution has an easy-to-use interface and can be used as a perimeter firewall
What is our primary use case?
We used Fortinet FortiGate IPS as a perimeter firewall in our data center and offices. Major offices with more than 50 people were using Fortinet FortiGate IPS.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate IPS has an easy-to-use interface and configuration. The solution supports protocols like OSPF and BGP.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s stability could be improved because we sometimes face some drops. It was not due to the box, but it was due to some misconfiguration on our end.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate IPS for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Fortinet FortiGate IPS a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate IPS is a very scalable solution. We had very few users using the solution in our data center. Around 50 users use the solution in our offices.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is quite good.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is quite simple. We could transfer the configuration file from the earlier FortiGate, and we were up and running in a very short time.
What about the implementation team?
Fortinet FortiGate IPS was deployed in our organization through a vendor. Since Fortinet FortiGate IPS is very simple to use and very easy to configure, its deployment time is very less.
What was our ROI?
You can recover the investment of Fortinet FortiGate IPS in a short time. The solution is not that pricey.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Fortinet FortiGate IPS' licensing is quite simple to understand.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate IPS, we evaluated Check Point. We chose Fortinet FortiGate IPS because Check Point was quite pricey.
What other advice do I have?
We used the latest version of Fortinet FortiGate IPS.
We require a basic network engineer for the deployment of Fortinet FortiGate IPS.
Overall, I rate Fortinet FortiGate IPS an eight out of ten.
Comprehensive solution for SD-WAN management with UTM protection
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features we found are the SD-WAN, FortiGate SD-WAN, and the standard UTM protection, among others.
What needs improvement?
If someone doesn't have a certified or skilled technician/engineer, certain configurations, like setting up VLANs and SD-WANs, might not be difficult but can be simplified within FortiGate. The areas that might require more expertise are related to setting up VLANs and configuring SD-WANs, among others.
Therefore, the setup process could be made simpler.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall for three years. We are currently working with its latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate it as a nine. It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a five out of ten. It is not very scalable because scalability depends on the model. For instance, the FortiEdge, which is the entry-level model (the smallest model), supports up to about 15 users. Then the next model supports up to around 30 to 40 users, and the following one supports a hundred users. The price increases significantly with more users, which can be a concern.
If I make a guesstimate, I'd say about 20 to 30 of our clients, but they all have multiple branches. So, in total, we have about 200 FortiGate firewalls deployed for our customers, spread across 20 to 30 clients.
Most of our clients fall under the medium to enterprise category. We have clients from financial institutions and big corporate organizations. It's not an entry-level solution, as it might be challenging for small businesses to afford.
How are customer service and support?
Based on the support we receive from our supplier, who is a reseller or vendor of FortiGate, I would rate it at about six. Because it takes time to get support from the vendor. So it is not very fast.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
I rate my experience with the initial setup six on a scale of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy. The initial setup of the solution is not difficult; if you have an engineer with certification and experience on other firewalls. For them, it's relatively easy. However, someone without certification and experience with other firewalls might find it a bit more challenging to grasp the FortiGate format and its platform layout.
FortiGate is primarily deployed on-premises. We also have a cloud option for certain referrals with tier-three engineers. We have it in our own data center in our cloud, and we also provide it to some of our customers. However, most of the ones I sell are for end customers, and they typically choose the hardware for on-site deployment.
What about the implementation team?
The duration of the deployment can vary depending on different factors. The timeline can involve various stages, such as ordering from overseas, ensuring stock availability, and finally, setting it up for a specific project. As such, the duration can differ based on these factors.
Eventually, once we have the stock, we can set up the firewall within about an hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the pricing in the middle, around five out of ten. It also depends on how you sell it. If you want to sell it as a one-time purchase, then I'd put it at a seven. But if you amortize it, it can go down to a four because some customers prefer to pay it off over thirty-six months, as the licensing is for that duration.
There are additional costs to the standard license. While the standard licensing fees include UTM and a few other features, for additional features like FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, and other PCs that you might need, there are additional costs. For features like FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer, the additional costs do add up. So, while getting the entry-level firewall with basic UTM protection and web filtering is not too bad if you want to add features like analyzer reporting, cloud managers, and FortiManager, the costs can become significantly higher.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
A reasonably priced product that can be used by small, medium, and enterprise-sized businesses
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall can be described as the most complete solution.
What needs improvement?
When considering the policy of the vendors, they do not offer much of a discount policy, making the licensing model an area that needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for many years. My company is a reseller of the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I recommend FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for small, medium, and enterprise-sized companies.
It is a scalable solution since Fortinet offers many other products.
How are customer service and support?
My customers are satisfied with the technical support provided by Fortinet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In my opinion, the pricing of the product is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a good product.
I rate the overall product between eight to ten out of ten.