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Reviews from AWS customer

43 AWS reviews

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226 reviews
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4-star reviews ( Show all reviews )

    Jovan Jovanovic

A highly stable and scalable solution for security with easy setup

  • June 27, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We are a distributor of Fortinet products. My role primarily involves importing these products and delivering them to our partners and resellers, who in turn sell them to the end customers.

What is most valuable?

FortiGate is a rapidly growing vendor with a wide range of ready-to-use products. Their delivery time is remarkably quick, usually between two to four weeks. They provide excellent support, especially when it comes to helping resellers who may encounter implementation issues with Fortinet. The technical presales and support teams are readily available to assist them. So, there are definitely several benefits to working with Fortinet.

The interface, pricing, and support are good. FortiGate release new patches and offers regularly. In the integration file, they don't have anything to add because they have a very wide portfolio and models in the next-generation firewalls. FortiGate has a variety of add-on license tools that can be applied to the firewall.

FortiGate should continue to push them to continue to grow up as they've been growing for the last eight years.

What needs improvement?

FortiGate NGFW can improve technical support. The engineer who answers the technical support call, email, or phone call, whatever the medium may be. The response time is very bad.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We don't have broken devices to be repaired or replaced with new ones, so they are very stable while working.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

We have all types of business models and customers in our portfolio, such as the midsized business, enterprise, entry-level, and small businesses. We are working with all of that with all of the Fortinet solutions.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is very slow. The engineer who answers the technical support call, email, or phone call, whatever the medium may be. The response time is very bad.

On the other hand, Cisco takes one or two hours to respond, while Fortinet takes a few days. This is an area that they could improve on a global scale.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of the solution is easy, which is the most important feature for in-domain-wide resellers, partners, and customers. In the end, if you want to use Fortinet as a firewall administrator in your network, it is highly recommended because it is extremely easy to set up, especially for first-time users.

Even if you have previous experience with Cisco or Check Point, setting up Fortinet is easy. It is a very user-friendly configuration.

I rate the solution setup a ten out of ten. It is very user-friendly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is cheaper than Cisco or CheckPoint or Palo Alto and more expensive than Barracuda or Sophos or any smaller brands. The prices fit right where they are on the global market.

What other advice do I have?

I advise you to buy it ASAP because it's a very good product.

From my experience as a distributor, some customers don't buy technical support on the devices. They buy only devices. I will advise them to buy the technical support of FortiCare service. In that case, they will have technical support by phone call, or by mail. They will have a replacement if anything is broken 24/7.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.


    NdaweduaNeto

Good support and highly stable solution

  • June 27, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is most valuable?

There are numerous features and benefits depending on the specific use case. Fortinet offers comprehensive security solutions for various purposes. I can deploy different solutions and more.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement in pricing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have almost five years of experience with FortiGate NGFW. I work with the firewall for small businesses and enterprises. Currently, I'm using the enterprise version.

As for the models, I mainly use FortiGate 6800, T, 100C, 200S, and 200P.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't experienced any stability issues with this product so far. It handles everything it needs to, including server requirements, client services, and computing, without any problems. I have deployed numerous firewalls, and until now, they have been incredibly stable. There haven't been any issues related to version compatibility either. So, I would say it's stable for me.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Customer service and support are good. Every time I have reached out to them, they have been responsive and helpful. In fact, I have even shared news and deployment information on my LinkedIn to showcase their excellent support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. There were no issues during the setup.

The time taken for deployment depends on various factors. For example, if I deploy it today, I might install it the following day. However, if there are any issues with the network architecture provided by the IT vendor, it may take more time to resolve those issues before completing the deployment. But in terms of deployment alone, without considering logistics, it can be done in a day or a few hours.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In our market, the pricing is a little expensive. While we can acquire a smaller package of Fortinet, it still comes at a high cost. So, I would say the pricing is on the higher side. However, when comparing it with other vendors, it's still more reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. A rating of ten would require even more efficient reporting and swift resolution of any breakout or resilience attack. If they can provide faster fixes and proactive responses, it would be perfect.


    Anish Bheekoo

Good support and highly scalable solution

  • June 23, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

The firewall system we have implemented in my company serves as the gateway to access the internet. We have different VLANs set up on the firewall for various networks.

We enforce security measures based on policies. When it comes to security, we have web monitoring, application filtering, and MAC address filtering implemented on the firewall. We also utilize VPN and SD-WAN architecture. Everything is functioning well.

Additionally, we have two ISPs connected for load balancing. We send the logs, and audit logs to FortiCloud for analytics and statistics.

Moreover, we have an alerting system for FortiGate, which is also functioning properly. The firewall operates in question mode, using round-robin connections, and handles routing as well.

What is most valuable?

FortiGate is a very good product. It offers a wide range of features, and its availability is almost everywhere. The support, both local and international, is good. Also, they provide certification programs for the next-generation firewalls, which is beneficial.

The product speaks for itself and holds a strong position in the market. In our company, we highly recommend FortiGate to our colleagues and other IT professionals. Furthermore, it offers cost advantages compared to other products.

What needs improvement?

The improvement that I would like to see is in the licensing. The licensing process is a bit high.

Additionally, there have been several vulnerabilities in the firewall. It is hackable, some of the images are hackable. So, upgrading to the latest patch, but these improvements would be more profitable for companies like ours.

I would like to see improvements in license costs and the handling of vulnerabilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with FortiGate NGFW for ten years. I currently use the FortiGate 101E model at a customer site.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. It provides a stable network, and I can connect to remote sites as well. I find it reliable because we use SD-WAN. There are no major issues, except when there is an Internet outage. But overall, no significant problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is very good. I would rate the scalability of the solution a nine out of ten because I have encountered no issues so far with the product. The scalability is excellent, very good.

We have 150 users using this solution. Moreover, we have plans to increase the usage. Maybe next year, I plan to upgrade to a newer version of FortiGate, and we have a plan to increase our user count by ten percent by next year. So I'm considering a more powerful firewall for better performance. That's the plan.

How are customer service and support?

In terms of support, they are very responsive. If you reach out to them, they will contact you within 15 minutes. Managing FortiGate is easy and simple compared to other products. It's not too complex.

Even if we miss renewing our licenses, FortiGate provides a grace period of 90 days, which is exceptional. Most products only offer 30 days. That's the best part, in my opinion.

The support is excellent. I've had very positive experiences with FortiGate's support team. They are friendly and always available. Their support is available 24/7 via phone, email, or chat.

They even offer remote access if we need help with configuration or auditing logs. Their support is reliable both locally and internationally.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The availability of product support and its manageability were important factors for me. I found it easy to manage, not too complex.

Additionally, the product is readily available in my country. Based on the information I found on the Internet, FortiGate seemed to meet my requirements.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. The setup is pretty simple. However, it acts as an authentic gateway between my routers and the internal network. All the traffic goes through the firewall in cluster mode. If one firewall goes down, the other one takes over until we have time to replace the faulty one. We typically use the firewall for a period of five years before considering a replacement.

The device is connected to the server room on-premises. We configure it locally, but we utilize FortiCloud for logging and analytics. We manage the number of assets (FortiGate assets) we have, which is manageable through the cloud. That's all.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have used Barracuda, Sophos, Palo Alto, and more.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would be to start by conducting a Proof of Concept (POC) and test FortiGate NGFW in your own environment. Go through all the necessary configurations and spend around one or two weeks to become familiar with the solution.

After that, you can proceed with the purchase. But if I were to advise someone instantly, I would simply say, go ahead and give it a try.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.


    Georges FONGANG

Product offers good stability and easy initial setup

  • June 19, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What needs improvement?

In order to make it even better in the future, improved integration with other vendors' solutions could be beneficial.

FortiGate is compatible enough with other infrastructures, but I encountered difficulties when attempting integration with other infrastructures. So, better compatibility could be an area for improvement.

Another area of improvement could be in terms of changing passwords. For instance, when using FortiGate firewall, you can have the option to set up SSL VPN, allowing users to connect to the network externally. It's like using FortiClient software. But here's the thing, when you have a local account on FortiGate, and you use it to access the network, there is no option to change your password, and that becomes a problem. Especially when you are not using Active Directory and instead relying on the local FortiGate database to create accounts.

The admin creates the account for you with credentials and a password. But when you try to access using the VPN client software, you have the ability to change your password, and that's not ideal. It's quite challenging. So, if you need to change your password, you have to contact the administrator to change it on the equipment, and that's not convenient, especially in large environments. So, that could be the only solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

In terms of personal experience, I've been using the product for about seven years. In my current company, it has been three years.

I'm using version 7 for the majority of my equipment, and for some products, it's version 6.6 or something similar.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable. It offers good stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service and support have been satisfactory so far.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is easy to deploy. The deployment process is smooth and straightforward.

What was our ROI?

In my experience, the ROI has been positive.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is affordable. I believe it offers reasonable value for the features it provides.

If you're using the IPS version, particularly for ATP, the price is higher due to the IP functionality. However, for other features like web filtering, the price is reasonable. For a year, the license cost for ATP is around $8000.

So far, I haven't had to pay separately for maintenance or support. It's usually included in the support package, including software support.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I am satisfied with the product. I would rate it a nine out of ten.

If you are using it in a small environment, you can go for the FortiGate product. However, if you are implementing it in a very large environment or have specific needs, it's recommended to couple FortiGate with another vendor's solution, like Cisco or Palo Alto.


    Eswara Rao Pitaka

Highly scalable, user-friendly interface and ease of operation

  • June 14, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

It is a firewall solution, so we utilize it regarding policies and security.

What is most valuable?

The solution is user-friendly and easy to operate.

What needs improvement?

The solution should have more security features and come with VPN authentication and multi-virus authentication.

For how long have I used the solution?

We used the previous model, FortiGate 600D. So, I worked with that. I have been using the solution for three years. We just procured the new solution, but we need to install it right away.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I would rate the stability of the solution an eight out of ten because there are some issues with security features and aspects like logs not being up to the mark, as well as some challenges with VPN and multiple functionalities.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. There are around 600 users in our organization using this solution. We have plans to increase the usage up to 2000 users.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service and support team is good. Their response time was great.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It has been in use for three years. It may take around four days to make it functional.

Typically, it can be up and running in just one day. However, due to a lack of expertise, it took a bit longer.

What about the implementation team?

I got a consultant to help with the deployment process. One person is enough for the solution; it can be an admin.

What was our ROI?

I have definitely seen an ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't want to get the full license as the technology is changing day by day. So, I have I prefer to procure a five-year license, and that's it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have used Microsoft Office and Cisco Switches. We have been using the FortiGate firewall.

What other advice do I have?

I advise the users to compare the solution with existing versions before using it.

Overall I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I would like add more security features to the solution.


    Paul Duxfield

An easy-to-configure product with a reasonably good graphical user interface

  • June 14, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to provide firewall, cybersecurity, VPN access, and SD-WAN connectivity worldwide.

What is most valuable?

The GUI is reasonably good. The product is easy to configure.

What needs improvement?

The product runs out of memory. The web process often has a memory leak. The support cost could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution’s stability is good. I rate stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Some customers have 20 users, while others have about 5000 users.

How are customer service and support?

Support is good. It's a bit scripted. It takes a while to get to somebody who knows what they're talking about. It'd be nice to talk to someone technical upfront. Sometimes we have to go through a service desk and go through a whole lot of quick repetitive questions before we get to talk to someone knowledgeable.

How was the initial setup?

I've been working with the product for ten years. I find the initial setup quite simple.

What about the implementation team?

I'm currently deploying 50 units around the country. It'll take me about ten minutes each to configure the solution. Once the product is set up, we need about one or two people to maintain it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution’s price has gone up recently, but it's still good value for money compared to the other firewalls we use. Especially for smaller ones, it is good value for money. Our customers pay for licenses annually or once every two to five years. If we have an older version, the support costs get quite high. I rate the support cost a six out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I work with lots of firewalls. I deploy the product on FortiManager. It'll take me about a day to configure FortiManager. We have lots of customers. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.


    Abdallah Rukab

Helps secure the internal network and perform unified threat management, forward filtering, and application control

  • June 13, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure the internal network and perform unified threat management, forward filtering, and application control. This is crucial for the organizations and products I collaborate with on projects. The solution effectively addresses high availability through SD-WAN load balancing. Additionally, we rely on Fortinet FortiGate to resolve remote access issues for our clients.

How has it helped my organization?

Fortinet FortiGate has helped improve our reporting analysis, ease of management, and enhance the security of our environment.

What is most valuable?

Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature.

FortiGate offers numerous features that are designed to assist end users in gaining a clear understanding of the activities occurring within their network.

What needs improvement?

The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of FortiGate an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the scalability of FortiGate a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support has improved compared to the last few times I used it.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I had previously used a different solution but switched to Fortinet FortiGate due to its better price and ease of use.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. Depending on the customer's requirements and environment, the deployment can take anywhere from one day to a couple of weeks and can be completed by a single person.

What about the implementation team?

We implement the solution in-house.

What was our ROI?

I achieve approximately a 30 percent return on investment with FortiGate.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate is primarily utilized by medium to large organizations, although it can also be employed by small ones.

In terms of maintaining the solution, updates are typically performed to address bugs.

I highly recommend Fortinet FortiGate to others.


    reviewer1959201

Promptly addresses security threats and vulnerabilities commonly found in the modern technology world

  • June 13, 2023
  • Review from a verified AWS customer

What is our primary use case?

We use Fortinet FortiGate for end-to-end advanced firewall protection.

Fortinet FortiGate is deployed both on-premises and in the AWS and Azure clouds.

How has it helped my organization?

Fortinet FortiGate makes it extremely easy to manage the entire security system independently of our enterprise. In our company, we operate multiple networks, each with its own distinct layers of networking. Whether it is a small or large company, each network will consist of various layers, including the first, second, and third layers, as well as Wi-Fi access points. Additionally, we have different access switches, distribution switches, and core switches. FortiGate allows for direct management of all these options, which is one of its core advantages.

What is most valuable?

FortiGate is highly user-friendly and promptly addresses security threats and vulnerabilities commonly found in the modern technology world. Additionally, Fortinet offers the latest versions to cater to the needs of enterprises. They provide a range of firewalls, suitable for both small-scale businesses and larger enterprises. Overall, we are quite satisfied with their performance, and it has been working well for us so far.

What needs improvement?

Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer. Currently, these multiple products often confuse users and clients. It would be beneficial if Fortinet could offer a comprehensive integrated solution instead of separate products that cause user confusion. By providing an integrated solution, users would have access to all features and functionalities within a single window, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple windows. This approach would greatly improve the user experience.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is extremely stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate can easily scale using the cloud firewall option.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support team is exceptional. They are consistently available and prompt in their responses, regardless of the region from which we open the ticket.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used Cisco at my previous company and my new company uses FortiGate. FortiGate is better than Cisco. Where Cisco requires a person with great networking or programming knowledge, FortiGate does not. We can manage everything from its user interface. It provides comprehensive security fabric management, including Forti switches and access points. Additionally, FortiGate serves as a gate for our home, allowing us to monitor who enters and exits. Therefore, if we compare it to Cisco, monitoring the entire traffic becomes much easier.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. Fortinet provides step-by-step instructions in its documentation. The Fortinet engineers and support team are always available to assist, but even for a non-technical person, the deployment is easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing depends on the FortiGate model we are using, ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 US dollars. We are using the FortiGate 600E, and its price falls within the midrange. The most expensive part is the renewal of the license subscription.

What other advice do I have?

I give Fortinet FortiGate an eight out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a cloud trial that organizations can use in a test environment to evaluate the solution before making a purchase.


    Aref Molaei

A solution with good performance that is also price-wise reasonable

  • June 12, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

First, we use the solution as a native firewall. After a native firewall, we use IPS. We also use NGFW features like antivirus, IPS, and shaping, which are very important features for companies. We also manage all of my products with FortiManager or FortiAnalyzer and collect online data. For another feature, we try to use SD-WAN products. The SD-WAN feature on FortiGate was implemented for a company with thirty or fifty branches. We had a good experience with the conversion between Cisco and FortiGate for secure access points because Now I'm a consultant for network administration, and we have a challenge with choosing one of these, and so for example, someone, if I actually choose a Fortinet product, SD-WAN based on Fortinet, sometimes someone chooses SD-WAN based on Cisco, but because my special is Cisco, I prefer SD-WAN based on Cisco.

What needs improvement?

One of the weaknesses of the solution is something we noticed, especially after comparing the tool with SD-WAN features, since, unfortunately, in a massive scale size environment, the solution is not good. It cannot be recommended for massive scaling in terms of size, especially for businesses with more than 1,000 branches.

Cisco is very stable, especially on the larger scale side, and it's very important for SD-WAN features. If you try Next Generation Firewall for a big company, then it is good to purchase a Cisco product. However, Cisco's price is a little high and more than Fortinet's prices. But for small companies, it is better to choose Fortinet and FortiGate products, which is important.

A company needs a tool for accounting. Unfortunately, now we don't have any accounting, especially for the quarter and control side. We don't have any solution in FortiGate. However, Sophos Firewall has it, so it is good for Fortinet's next version.


For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) for more than eight years. I am just a technical person, so I'm a solution designer, a network architect involved in network security.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In FortiGate, after FortiOS Version 5.6, it is stable, and there is no problem. However, we had many problems with FortiOS Version 5.0.5 in FortiGate. Now, when we use FortiGate's FortiOS Version 7, we don't have any problems. The solution has improved, and it is a good product now. For a larger scale, my recommendation is to choose a Cisco product like Firepower Services because, in a massive-scale business, stability is very important.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When I survey FortiGate and FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls. In the future, improving such features and performance is absolutely better. Juniper has a better performance compared to FortiGate.

How are customer service and support?

Speaking about technical support, I have a good experience with design, especially in terms of security design and security architecture.

In level one support, they connect to customers directly, which is a part of our work, and we should solve customer problems. But I prefer staying in level two, where we develop, implement, and solve huge and complex problems, because I have had a good experience with this for more than ten years. Also, I think I have good behavior when under heavy pressure.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think price-wise, the solution is totally reasonable since it has many products to serve, starting from small homes to massive scale sites. A company can choose from one of the offerings by the solution company. Also, it's very important to choose a contract support level. Some companies may choose RMA with support twenty-four hours and seven days a week. So, it depends on the contract support, I think. The Fortinet appliance is a reasonable purchase for companies.

Regarding the license costs, when you choose the 100 series, it is completely different from the 1000 series. It's very important, and so when you choose one-year support or five-year support, or seven-year support, the pricing depends on which one you choose.

In Iran, we have a massive sanction, so we don't use direct support. We don't talk about this. But, concerning my country and direct support from Fortinet, I can't speak about this event. So, in Iran, I don't have an idea about the use of support since we don't use direct support, but we do get indirect support.


What other advice do I have?

When planning to choose FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), the scope of the company is very important. Also, it is important for a company to consider if they want one gig, ten gigs, or another concurrent pair concurrent session. Totally, a company's scale and size are very important. After that, for example, we use a prototype with a five gigabit per second, including the performance. However, if we compare Cisco, Fortinet, and other things, Firepower is very good because Cisco's Firepower is a big and active solution which is very strong compared to Fortinet. However, it's very important for a company to have a native firewall, so such companies can't choose from Fortinet series. So, it very much depends on the situation of the company. So, before that, we review a company's requirements and survey network. After that, usually, I recommend the solution. Also, it is very important to have a budget. For example, a company can first tell me about its budget, like, one billion dollars or whatever. After that, we choose a guide and recommend choosing one of the solutions.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.



    Reviewer:734513

Offers superior control and visibility, is affordable, and scalable

  • June 05, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

In our current data center, we use eight Fortinet firewalls. These firewalls serve multiple tiers of the network, including internet users, server farms, and DMZ ports. This gives us multiple approaches to our system and network. As a result, we are able to receive all reports before the analyzer.

In 2011, we were using a Cisco ASA 5540 fixed firewall. We moved to Fortinet because their UTM appliance was a next-generation firewall that offered more than one solution in a single box. This meant that we could handle the network, server, and client parts of our infrastructure with a single device. We also chose Fortinet because of the ease of its GUI and its ease of implementation in multiple locations. Currently, I have three data centers. We are using a consolidated console with a broader view of the network traffic. This is why we moved to Fortinet. We had previously used Juniper and Cisco, but we found that Fortinet offered a better solution for our needs.

We deployed the solution on-premises because, while the private sector in Kuwait has begun to move to the cloud, government entities are not permitted to do so.

How has it helped my organization?

I started with the firewall module, and we were using multiple boxes for multiple functions. I was using a Juniper SSL VPN. They came to us with a single-box solution that included SSL VPN, so we moved to that. Then they came up with client endpoint security, and we moved to that as well. They also introduced web filtering in Fortinet, so we moved to that as well. All of the technology that we were using previously on separate consoles is now consolidated into a single console. I can see the beauty of this product in that it has a single console that manages all of the facilities on one web page.

What is most valuable?

The firewall is top-notch. We are using SSL VPN.

What needs improvement?

When we first started, Fortinet was using a single appliance with a firewall module in the region. They later came up with many different solutions. I have also used FortiDB, but it has been discontinued. We have since removed it. We are looking forward to Fortinet considering a sandboxing solution. This would allow us to secure our database at that layer. I see the database area as being weaker. I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for 12 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Fortinet FortiGate is stable which is why we have stuck with it for almost 12 years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. In 2016, we scaled our system to ensure that we would have enough capacity for the next five to seven years. We are currently only utilizing 25 percent of the hardware processing.

We have around 900 users on our networks per second with a total active directory of 7,000.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support in our region is excellent. There are three levels of support. I remember one time when my problem was not resolved by level one or level two, so it was escalated to level three which was awesome. The level three technician was able to understand the issue quickly by reviewing the chain of email logs and the available information.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Juniper and Cisco firewalls before switching to Fortinet FortiGate. We were drawn to Fortinet because of its superior control and visibility, as well as its high availability, throughput, and durability. Fortinet's FortiGate firewalls are ASIC-based, which makes them more reliable and efficient than other solutions. As a result, we were able to handle more traffic with Fortinet than with any other vendor.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was complex. We started with a low-level design, discussing with the vendor that we had a certain number of firewalls and concurrent sessions available on the network, and that we had remote sites. We began by implementing the boxes in the data center, then the main data center headquarters, and then the campus network, which has its own data center with a firewall module. We later installed it in one of our accessory branches in their data center. The installation was done in phases.

When the high-level design was in place, we began migrating the configuration. We used a migration tool from Cisco and Juniper, which was very smooth because it was intelligent enough to take all the network IDs, policies, and source destinations, forward based. This meant that we had fewer challenges when we started the migration.

However, we did encounter some challenges during the migration. These were not due to Fortinet, but rather to the configuration that had been migrated from the other vendor. We resolved these challenges by manually checking each policy one by one, and the issue was rectified within a couple of days.

A total of four people were involved in the deployment. Two people from our organization, one from the vendor, and one from the partner. We have to go through our partner to access the vendor.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed by the vendor.

What was our ROI?

Fortinet FortiGate's features and price have provided a return on investment for our organization.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is a bit more expensive than the others but Fortinet is the best in the region. They have a good hold on the market because they are everywhere.

We pay for support and licensing fees.

I give the pricing a nine out of ten.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Palo Alto Networks, but they did not have a presence in our region, so we did not move forward with them. We also evaluated Check Point, but it is not a government-approved solution in our region.

What other advice do I have?

I give Fortinet FortiGate a nine out of ten.

Fortinet FortiGate has good regional support. One of the best things about this solution is that Fortinet doesn't disappear after the sale. They keep engaging us with new technologies. For example, they recently engaged us with a SIEM and SOAR solution that allows me to have a single console for all of my security needs. I have a plan to move to this solution and consolidate all of my firewalls into a single FortiManager. This will allow me to have a more secure and efficient network.

Fortinet is not as focused on cybersecurity as some other companies, but they are very strong in network security. They are constantly coming up with new and innovative solutions that help us to protect our networks. I am very happy with Fortinet FortiGate and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable and secure network solution.

We have deployed the solution in multiple locations.

Our partner is involved in maintenance, especially when a new FortiOS is released. We engage the vendor to understand the maintenance requirements, such as stability and any potential risks. We follow the vendor's recommendations and perform maintenance accordingly. We also use FortiAnalyzer to manage our logs. We delete old logs in accordance with government policy, which requires six months of data to be kept. We take care to ensure that maintenance does not affect these logs.

Fortinet FortiGate is one of the best and most affordable solutions with top-notch technology on the market. We get something that is both cheaper and of good quality with Fortinet FortiGate. Fortinet submitted the lowest-priced bid and met all of our technical requirements.