I work in presales exclusively. I work in the public sector, focusing on presales of architecture. I usually work with enterprise businesses rather than SMB businesses.
Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
Fortinet Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
User experience improves with optimized path selection and seamless integration
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate is a simple solution, and the integration with other solutions in the Fortinet portfolio, such as the Security Fabric integration, is competitive. It is simple for deployment, design, and integration with other Fortinet solutions. The SD-WAN capabilities are simple because the license includes this function, making deployment straightforward for Fortinet FortiGate clients.
The impact of the SD-WAN on network performance includes cost efficiency and automation. For performance, the solution is focused on the user experience with optimal path selection. Unified SASE secures remote connections for many use cases. We use AI and machine learning enhanced FortiGuard services and FortiAnalyzer to protect data centers through deep inspection and other functionalities.
Fortinet FortiGate is stable in the data center environment and in its functionality. It is scalable. The price is competitive in the market, especially when integrated with other Fortinet solutions. It has a return on investment without the need for additional licenses for products such as FortiSwitches and FortiAP.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have 12 years of experience in total with Fortinet FortiGate.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is stable in the data center environment, and it is stable in its functionality.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Their customer service is great because the TAC service in Latin America is available 24/7 in English and Spanish. I am happy with the service. In Latin America, when I call at night, the response is in English, and during the day, it is in Spanish. The only challenge is the language availability at night, but I rate it a 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The setup is simple and easy, with no difficult configuration required for the devices.
What was our ROI?
Fortinet provides a return on investment. When using FortiSwitches and FortiAP, additional licenses are not required.
What other advice do I have?
I worked with the implementation and presales of Fortinet FortiGate in the past. In the past two years, I haven't worked with deployment, but I have experience with presales in the last year. I am familiar with the SD-WAN capabilities. The solution focuses on user experience because the path selection is optimized for the user or application.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate a 10 out of 10 as it is a great product.
Enables efficient and fast task configuration with extensive options for problem-solving
What is our primary use case?
My use case for Fortinet FortiGate involves different plans and consulting in the retail area, and I utilize it in various press scenarios.
What is most valuable?
The configuration possibilities that Fortinet FortiGate provides are extensive, and the task configuration activity is fast and efficient for me. My group in the office has ten years of experience with Fortinet FortiGate, and we utilize AI services that help with problem-solving. EER represents a ten-year experience, and we have certified five people in Fortinet FortiGate.
What needs improvement?
I don't know how Fortinet FortiGate can be improved; I find it comfortable and appreciate it as it is.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the Fortinet FortiGate solution for three years and a different firewall for more than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is important, and I can be contacted via email for further details.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My experience with the SD WAN capabilities includes working with more than one company, including a small company and a big company with users ranging from twenty to nine hundred. The users can see the tracking.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the support of Fortinet as internal departmental support, which helps me, although I have no other experience.
How would you rate customer service and support?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for Fortinet FortiGate is good; it's a competitive price.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I find Fortinet FortiGate preferable over Cisco for firewall solutions. Fortinet FortiGate works well for me, while Cisco does not work for me anymore.
What other advice do I have?
I am the chief of the technical department and provide support. I rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Ensures network security while simplifying administration and offering valuable support
What is our primary use case?
Our use case for Fortinet FortiGate is network administration and network security; this is the use for Fortinet FortiGate.
What is most valuable?
The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are security, configuration facility, and easy configuration. Additionally, we get very good support from the manufacturer. The major impact of Fortinet FortiGate for clients is providing a redundant path from the service locations or servers location to the users that are in another location; this is the best impact.
What needs improvement?
One area for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate could be the price, as my clients here are small companies, and they might not have the resources or money to always buy a Fortinet FortiGate solution or FortiGate products.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been with that platform for about two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In general, Fortinet FortiGate's stability is very good, but in some cases, there are unusual situations. For example, we have one client with high availability with two Fortinet FortiGates, where one of them has high processor and memory usage while the other one is low, and they work in a passive-active scheme for availability. The strange part is that one Fortinet FortiGate works perfectly, and the other one has high processor and memory consumption.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Most clients are in one location, but two or three clients have SD-WAN characteristics in their implementations.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate their support a nine out of ten. The support is very good, but it's not always easy to find a Spanish speaker, as some clients don't know how to speak English and need support in Spanish.
How would you rate customer service and support?
What other advice do I have?
I integrate SD-WAN features for some clients; specifically, I have three or four clients with SD-WAN integrations, while most of my clients are with one location. I find it easy integrating these capabilities.
Security is very good with Fortinet for my clients; this is one of the best reasons to make a decision to buy a Fortinet solution.
Fortinet FortiGate saves a lot of time in expert hours from an expert engineer because the administration of the Fortinet FortiGate solution is easy, which may lead to fewer hours of an engineer spent on Fortinet FortiGate. It could save approximately 40 hours a month.
I would recommend this solution to others; it's the best solution in the market. The main advice I give to people who consider using Fortinet FortiGate is for security and administration, as we can get complete visibility of the network.
On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution a 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Enables intelligent routing and automatic VPN establishment
What is our primary use case?
We deal with messaging, specifically A2P, P2P, and RCS, a rich communication service.
We use Fortinet FortiGate 500, 600, and 900E, which are mainly used for data center activities.
How has it helped my organization?
Fortinet FortiGate has helped us significantly in many ways. Previously, we had multiple data centers interconnected over IPsec tunnels. Each IPsec tunnel was individual, and if that tunnel went down, manual intervention was needed to reroute the traffic to the available path. To avoid such cases, I introduced the SD-WAN concept using ADVPN (auto-discovery VPN). With this solution, I have almost four sites where critical traffic flows, avoiding many impacts. The reason we prefer Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN is that it enables automatic establishment of the next available VPN if any connectivity goes down, ensuring all hub and spoke connectivity flows through the hub. Using ADVPN, spoke-to-spoke communication is established so that hub bandwidth or hub firewall does not get overloaded.
What is most valuable?
The best features in Fortinet FortiGate are the SD-WAN, IPsec tunnel, and the SSL VPN. It is very user friendly, and we can integrate multiple underlay links to the firewall. From there, you can manage it, and by using this SD-WAN concept, the device itself will make decisions about which path to take to reach the destination. If there are any issues on the desired path, it will automatically select the best path based on the configuration defined in the SLAs. This feature is particularly impressive. Before introducing SD-WAN, I had perimeter devices such as independent routers where intelligent routing across the underlay links was not possible.
It is very informative and easy to implement. The GUI is very user friendly. Using this solution, we can easily integrate security profiles based on needs and requirements of internal stakeholders to avoid malicious traffic or security-related issues.
When onboarding any Fortinet FortiGate to your production platform with active internet connectivity, the device connects to FortiGuard to fetch all signatures and behavioral patterns based on your security policy. It detects anomalous traffic and packets undergo deep inspection. If there are any anonymous or malicious activities, it immediately blocks them based on defined policy actions and alerts the end user and network administrator via FortiManager or via the cloud.
What needs improvement?
I don't have any areas for improvement in terms of features. With the introduction of AI/ML, they are performing behavioral pattern checks in terms of security. They have removed the SSL web-based and tunnel-based features, and they are improving in many aspects including the UI. However, throughout this year, their support has been very poor.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
We have clients with more than 2,000 users.
How are customer service and support?
Their support needs improvement. When raising a service request on the portal, it normally takes two to three days for a response. Even for production issues, they do not initiate contact. The customer has to call the TAC before they schedule calls, which is problematic.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is very easy. People who are familiar with Fortinet FortiGate can implement it through CLI and GUI. It is very user-friendly for deploying complex configurations. There is also a tool called FortiExporter, which can convert all configurations from any OEM to Fortinet FortiGate.
It doesn’t require much maintenance. The only maintenance activity required is firmware updates.
What was our ROI?
We have approximately 84 devices in production, demonstrating our investment in Fortinet FortiGate and its usefulness in many ways.
We have invested almost 60% to 70% in Fortinet FortiGate as we don't have any other firewall apart from it. In some cases where we had Palo Alto, we removed it and purchased Fortinet FortiGate. We are using Fortinet FortiGate as our production firewalls in our organizations, corporate offices, and all locations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's economical.
What other advice do I have?
In terms of cost, features, and security, everything is top-notch. I would recommend everyone to use Fortinet FortiGate instead of purchasing expensive firewalls such as Palo Alto and other OEMs. It is more economical and provides more flexibility and granularity in terms of access.
Fortinet is a market leader. It is phenomenal in terms of price and kind of services.
I would recommend Fortinet FortiGate to others. I would rate it a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Seamlessly connects and efficiently supports various regional offices with enterprise-level assistance
What is our primary use case?
We use Fortinet FortiGate for SD-WAN as well as the switches for renewable plants and energy sector power plants.
What is most valuable?
All the features needed to protect the digital landscape are available. The enterprise-level support is excellent, and we receive quick assistance from Fortinet FortiGate.
With the SD-WAN network, the connectivity is seamless. The dependency on bandwidth and MPLS connectivity is expensive compared to SD-WAN. Currently, there is seamless connectivity between all plants and corporate offices. The implementation is straightforward and not complex to execute.
The SD-WAN connects all sites, as we have many regional offices in different locations. The Fortinet FortiGate devices are very useful and easy to configure, and we are benefiting from their features.
In the utilities and electrical generation sector, we use various models. In IT security, we have different models, and for sites, we use 40F, 460F, and various others. While my part is limited to India, Fortinet FortiGate is used worldwide across our group.
What needs improvement?
There should be some open-source training or free training for decision makers, or some webinars should be available. These would help understand the new product line and the existing product line features.
Additionally, it would be helpful to have comparisons between competitors such as Cisco, Juniper, and others with Fortinet FortiGate.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The system is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The system is very easy to scale.
How are customer service and support?
We receive quick support from Fortinet FortiGate. When we raise a ticket, we get support via email reply promptly. The experience has been perfect, and we are satisfied with it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. I'd rate it nine out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
This is handled by my team. I am in leadership and do not handle the technical aspects directly.
What was our ROI?
While we haven't calculated specific ROI numbers, most devices are very stable and seamless. We don't typically consider money since this is an infrastructure requirement. Fortinet FortiGate support is available, annual maintenance contracts are in place, and the devices haven't failed in three years. The product quality is good, eliminating the need to reinvest in the same devices or setup.
What other advice do I have?
Fortinet FortiGate has an excellent portfolio including firewalls, switches, and access points. I would recommend it to anyone. We are using FortiSwitches as part of our implementation.
I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
User-friendly design facilitates seamless firewall implementation and network security management
What is our primary use case?
We usually use Fortinet FortiGate for a perimeter firewall, but also for our outbound traffic as well as for the tunnels, with around 40 to 50 tunnels on our firewall.
We are using it in our data center; we have the 2,000 series HA firewalls.
How has it helped my organization?
Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to replace all the firewalls in other locations, as around 90% of our company operates on Fortinet.
We enable the SD-WAN zone to handle multiple ISPs, allowing it to automatically switch over the WAN link if any latency hits the threshold value, eliminating the need for manual failover. The impact of SD-WAN on our network performance provides great stability with zero downtime; it immediately switches over without any delay, not even a fraction of a second.
Fortinet addresses many vulnerabilities with respect to SSL VPN on their devices; quarterly patch upgrades are released, and the Fortinet team is retiring remote VPN services in favor of whole encrypted IPsec remote VPN to enhance security against hackers.
What is most valuable?
I have found Fortinet FortiGate's user-friendly design to be the most valuable feature so far. Anyone can easily understand how exactly it works, unlike Palo Alto and Check Point which are complex to understand.
What needs improvement?
I believe one area that could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate is posturing, specifically for remote VPN users, as there are OS-based limitations I encountered with only Windows; adding domain restrictions for VPN access would make it more competitive and useful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for almost five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Overall, my impression of the stability of Fortinet FortiGate is very good, as I haven't seen any issues in the five years I've been using it, and there is no degradation of services on the firewall. However, I have observed some issues with FortiAPs, which is a different platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Based on my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very scalable. Earlier it was suitable for mid-infra, but now we can use the firewalls for enterprise-level needs.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever I am stuck or need help, Fortinet support is available 24/7, regardless of the time zone I'm in, and they immediately jump in to assist, provided it is licensed.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before implementing Fortinet FortiGate, we were using SonicWall and ASA firewalls, which have now been replaced. The reason the previous firewalls were not suitable for our company anymore is that they were not competitive; they lacked UTM features, had limited VPN capabilities, and were outdated, which led us to select Fortinet over Cisco FTD for future needs.
How was the initial setup?
It's not so complex. It's user friendly. I have implemented more than hundred devices from scratch.
What about the implementation team?
As partners with Fortinet, we are end-users of this tool for our customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not exactly aware of the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate, but I would say it is considerably cheaper compared to other firewalls.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated other options, particularly Palo Alto. Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and as competitive as Palo Alto, Check Point, and FTD. It has the same features as other vendors but at a lower cost.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Networking capabilities and community resources facilitate problem-solving
What is our primary use case?
Mostly firewalls.
What is most valuable?
The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include everything about networking, such as routing and VPNs. Fortinet FortiGate is specifically user-friendly with an easy guide. It is easy to follow and learn about and work with. It has resources available all over the internet with an extensive database. It is very popular, so every community discusses Fortinet FortiGate. Every problem has been solved at some point.
What needs improvement?
Without a license, it becomes difficult to implement static DNS. The FortiDDNS.com functionality is particularly challenging to access without a license.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for approximately a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is quite stable. The main problem occurs when customers do not update their Fortinet FortiGate properly and regularly. Most issues stem from firewalls not being updated. I have not encountered any problems with Fortinet FortiGate devices.
How are customer service and support?
I have not opened many cases due to lack of need. When we do open cases, we receive fast and friendly replies. The support has been good, though I have not experienced significant issues to fully evaluate this aspect.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with other firewalls including Palo Alto, specifically their Prisma Access SASE solution. I have also briefly worked with Cisco systems.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not in that field, but it is quite expensive, especially for personal or home use.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We recommend it primarily because we have more knowledge in the Fortinet FortiGate field. Customers ultimately choose what they prefer. We work better with Fortinet FortiGate due to our extensive experience with it.
What other advice do I have?
I have not used FortiGuard extensively as it is not in my field. The only SASE solution I have used is Prisma Access from Palo Alto, not the Fortinet FortiGate SASE. The interface is very user-friendly and easy to use, though knowledge of networking aspects, VPNs, and protocols is necessary. Fortinet FortiGate offers great compatibility with other Fortinet FortiGate functions such as IDS, antivirus, and sandbox features.
All problems we have encountered have had straightforward solutions. Throughout my year and a half working with Fortinet FortiGate, I have not found myself needing additional features.
I rate this solution 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Reliable and easy to use with good support
What is our primary use case?
I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure our infrastructure, user data, data encryption, and to prevent DDoS attacks.
I also have experience with FortiManager and FortiCloud. I have experience in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate because I am using SD-WAN with multiple ISP lines, using it as a load balancer and for specific route traffic.
How has it helped my organization?
Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted our organization by preventing hackers from accessing our network.
The performance of hardware-assisted DDoS protection in Fortinet FortiGate when managing data center traffic is very good.
What is most valuable?
One of the best features of Fortinet FortiGate is VLAN. Dynamic Segmentation and SD-WAN are also very good.
It is stable and easy to use. There are a lot of good resources available on the web.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet FortiGate could be improved in terms of user friendliness at the policy level and assigning URL based and keyword based features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for around three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution and the best solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate technical support from Fortinet a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before choosing Fortinet FortiGate, I was using Sophos Cyberoam, which is outdated. I switched from Sophos to Fortinet FortiGate because the Sophos device was outdated, not providing the same SD-WAN features at the same cost and central level.
What was our ROI?
We got our ROI in the second year due to its stability.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing cost is at the intermediate level.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Provides good value for money and improves performance
What is our primary use case?
We use Fortinet FortiGate as a border firewall and in the middle network for segmentation. It is used for inspecting security traffic from users.
What is most valuable?
The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is value for money. It is very easy to deploy and scale.
It saves us costs and increases bandwidth throughput.
What needs improvement?
We have never encountered any issues with it. The price and deployment part of Fortinet FortiGate is good, but it can always be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet solutions for about five years. We work with Fortinet FortiGate next-generation firewall, FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager, and sometimes FortiSwitch. We work with Fortinet FortiGate's hardware and virtual appliance solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is stable since we use HA availability solutions.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate technical support from Fortinet a ten out of ten, the best.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Cisco Firepower and Juniper SRX, and a little bit of Check Point too. We switched to Fortinet FortiGate because of the best pricing.
How was the initial setup?
Fortinet FortiGate has an easy setup.
We bought it from Azure Marketplace, not AWS.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator for the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price is good.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Provides comprehensive security features and enables efficient network traffic management
What is our primary use case?
I am focused on data center solutions, specifically implementing the FortiGate, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiProxy systems.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate offers several valuable features, particularly as an interface-based solution. Its design makes it easy to understand both incoming and outgoing network traffic through its interface. The log detection system is user-friendly and effective, allowing for straightforward monitoring of network activity. Additionally, the support for 802.1X and other solutions enhances its functionality. The Unified Threat Management (UTM) feature is particularly effective and beneficial for organizations. One of the best aspects of FortiGate is its adaptability within various environments.
Fortinet FortiGate is a good solution for SD-WAN in network enterprises, with LAN or two ISP solutions that can be separated, making it good for lab parallel network segregation. My experience integrating the SD-WAN capabilities includes having two ISP solutions. One is Airtel with a speed of 1 Mbps, while the other is Vodafone, which offers speeds of 60 Mbps and 40 Mbps. These traffic levels are manageable when using SD-WAN for effective traffic management. Essentially, the integrated SD-WAN on the FortiGate device is suitable for handling traffic management with these ISP solutions.
The security policies in Fortinet FortiGate are very attractive, including application, web filtering, and anti-virus, with very effective web filtering in this organization for behavioral analysis by users.
The solution has improved my organization significantly, with impactful capabilities such as sandboxing and cloud solutions, such as XDR, MDR, and EDR.
What needs improvement?
I believe there is room for improvement in machine learning and AI in Fortinet FortiGate. I would like to see more automation regarding AI and machine learning in Fortinet FortiGate.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have five-year experience with the Fortinet FortiGate firewall.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is very good. It's easily scalable.
We have about 15,000 users.
How are customer service and support?
Their customer support is very good. I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Fortinet FortiGate is easy.
The solution requires maintenance, and upgrades are very easy and impactful, providing seamless upgrade processes without critical issues.
What was our ROI?
I estimate that Fortinet FortiGate has saved us around 20% in terms of time, money, and resources.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of Fortinet FortiGate is average, not cheap or overly expensive compared to other firewall solutions in the market. It's effective and affordable for customers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When comparing Fortinet FortiGate to other solutions like Palo Alto or Check Point, I find that Fortinet is much easier to implement. My colleagues often struggle to understand other solutions, but Fortinet is more adoptable, which is beneficial for training purposes. The training resources available at training.fortinet.com are quite helpful. I believe Fortinet stands out in terms of effective training and the quality of knowledge provided. Their documentation is particularly impactful, making the learning process more efficient. Overall, Fortinet offers a very effective and knowledgeable training experience compared to other vendors.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.