We use Fortinet FortiGate-VM for a constrained firewall and comprehensible security solution. Currently, I'm involved in implementing FortiGate and FortiManager for a customer project over the past month, and Fortinet has proven to be quite effective in this regard.
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Has the option to choose either a default or create a self-description
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Regarding specific features, I appreciate the option for external selection, where you can choose either to use a default or create a self-description. This simplifies the process compared to other vendors that require creating a test extension profile and then applying it to the installation. With FortiGate, there is a streamlined approach. From the benefits perspective, clients mainly see cost reduction, especially with FortiGate VM Firewall, as it eliminates the need for additional hardware.
What needs improvement?
The product is satisfactory. I haven't identified any features to improve, and based on the number of deployments I've handled with FortiGate-VM, there haven't been any complaints from the customer's side.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for the past five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet is a stable and user-friendly solution. The configuration is straightforward, and it provides a secure environment. I recall a challenge where a customer was using VDOM to segment their networks, but faced issues with communication between firewalls. Through online research, I discovered a tool to replace Fortinet, and it resolved the issue. During a critical migration for a large customer with six hardware firewalls, Fortinet proved reliable and prevented the possibility of mistakes. The GUI interface is well-organized, especially the security tab, making it easy to navigate. Fortinet simplifies network and security tasks, making it accessible for those with a basic understanding of networking and security concepts. Overall, as a vendor, Fortinet stands out for its streamlined approach, avoiding the need to navigate between multiple locations for configuration.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't personally tried Fortinet's technical support, but according to my colleague who has used it, the experience was not positive. He mentioned that the support process is not as direct and efficient as Cisco's. In Cisco, when there's an issue, you can call, initiate a case, and the support engineer can join you directly for troubleshooting. However, with Fortinet, it seems the process involves working on the case independently, and the support requests are assigned to different engineers.
How was the initial setup?
What other advice do I have?
When advising the team for cost reduction, I suggest going with the VM if there's no budget. However, if there is a budget, I recommend purchasing the hardware. For all vendors, technically speaking, hardware is considered better than VM. However, for Fortinet, the difference between VM and hardware is mainly budget-related. If the customer has a budget, it's advisable to purchase the hardware. When recommending from the sales team's perspective, if the customer has a budget, they will suggest going with hardware. If there's no budget, the recommendation is to opt for VM, especially if the customer is working with Azure or AWS. The difference between VM and hardware lies primarily in patches, and overall, everything is satisfactory. One aspect worth noting is that during VM deployment, checking connectivity between the hypervisor, distribution switch, and network firewall is required. In contrast, for hardware, once the configuration is complete, connectivity is straightforward.
As for my overall rating of the FortiGate VM solution on a scale from one to ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate it as a ten.
A private cloud solution with a hardware firewall and easy deployment
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for the private cloud.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM has a standard hardware firewall and easy deployment. You download a pre-configured virtual machine and run it on your hypervisor, Hyper-V, or ESXi by VMware. It is an excellent solution for private cloud setups, allowing seamless management using Fortinet without additional hardware purchases. Moreover, it offers flexibility—you can integrate it with physical hardware for redundancy or establish branch office VPNs effortlessly. Fortinet's automation capabilities facilitate smooth connectivity between public and private clouds.
What needs improvement?
The solution is highly scalable, depending on the type of hardware it runs on. You need knowledge of hypervisors to learn about the virtualized environment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM as an integrator for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We cater the solution to SMBs.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used SonicWall. Fortinet has fewer hardware requirements than SonicWall. The basic requirement is the same.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy and doesn't take more than one hour.
What was our ROI?
ROI is pretty good because it's simply software as a service. You subscribe to a service, and VM is available from FortiGate to download, install, and run. You get all the features. The scalability depends upon the hardware or VM. It could be serving 1000s or 100s users, depending on the configuration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive.
It could have some versions limited by several users to reduce the price. Else, they could limit the product features, and create some version for a smaller organization with basic requirements.
Support is additional and comes apart from the subscription.
What other advice do I have?
There's not much maintenance required. One to two people is required. Patches and upgrades are required and happen automatically if you've configured it that way. It is easy to deploy over the cloud. There are ready appliances to run in a public cloud like Amazon, Microsoft, or Google Cloud.
I recommend the solution. It is fantastic, easy to deploy, and very scalable. It saves a lot of time. Some particular hardware is not available in stock. FortiGate-VM is a good alternative. You could download, configure, and apply it. You could buy it online or from a Fortinet partner. It's quick and easy to set up.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Has a good interface and helps with network intelligence
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How was the initial setup?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
What other advice do I have?
Provides award-winning protection from a broad array of network threats
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution as a firewall.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet is user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
We have lost some information and we do not know how that happened through the solution. That needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for minimum five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Once in a while there are stability issues otherwise the solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Presently, six thousand users are using the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Fortinet is easy.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.
A decently stable tool that is available at a reasonable price compared to what its competitors offer
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company mostly as a firewall product.
What is most valuable?
The strong point of the solution is that Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a good tool to spend money on, as its price is not as high as the ones offered by Palo Alto. Compared to Palo Alto's performance, most people like Fortinet FortiGate-VM. In general, Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a tool that is available for a good price, and its performance is comparable to that of Palo Alto and Check Point.
What needs improvement?
I believe that Fortinet FortiGate-VM makes improvements on a quarterly or yearly basis.
In Fortinet FortiGate-VM, the area around the configuration, performance monitoring, and GUI are not as easy as in Palo Alto. Fortinet FortiGate-VM's configuration part, performance monitoring, and GUI are areas where improvements are required.
The scalability feature of the solution has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for more than ten years. I work as the solution's system integrator. I use the solution's latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a six or seven out of ten.
My company deals with customers with various ranges regarding the number of users who use the solution. Some of the customers I deal with and who use the solution have around 500 users.
My company plans to increase the number of users of the solution in our company.
How are customer service and support?
I am not about the online support services offered by Fortinet FortiGate-VM, but our company deals with local support for the solution, which is very good.
I rate the technical support 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?
As a system integrator, my company not only provides services for Fortinet FortiGate-VM but also for products like Palo Alto and Check Point.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase was easy.
The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.
The product's installation phase takes three hours if our company's customers provide us with all the prerequisites required for the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cost-wise, I would describe Fortinet FortiGate-VM as a tool that is available for a good price.
Two years ago, the price for the license of the product was affordable, but I think that in the present time, there has been an increase in the price of the product by around 30 percent, making it an expensive tool in the process. I rate the product price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price.
What other advice do I have?
My team consists of around 15 engineers who help me take care of the technical aspects of the product.
I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. I rate the overall tool an eight and a half to nine out of ten.
The product that is easy to maintain and offers intuitiveness to users
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM was used for our company's customers, but presently, most of our clients use Sophos UTM.
My company's clients use Fortinet FortiGate-VM to protect their entire internal network.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM has very good features. The most important factor about the product is that it is very intuitive. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is very handy compared to Check Point and Palo Alto.
With Fortinet FortiGate-VM, you get all the tools in the basic package, so there is no need to get a special platform for each component, which makes it much easier to implement.
What needs improvement?
The stability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required.
The response time of the technical support team is an area of concern where improvements are needed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate-VM for a few years. My company has a partnership with Fortinet.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
There are certain issues that users may face when they update Fortinet FortiGate-VM due to some bugs.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Considering that the machines work with the same operating system and in the same method in an environment, the use of the scalability feature is very easy.
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
I work with our company's small, medium, and enterprise-sized clients who use the solution.
How are customer service and support?
At times, you can get a quick answer from the support team, but for some cases or issues, it takes a long time for the technical team to respond.
I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with Check Point and Palo Alto. The first firewall that my company worked with was Check Point, and we have used it for many years.
How was the initial setup?
The product is easy to implement.
The solution is deployed on the cloud and on an on-premises model.
The complexity of the organization determines the time required to deploy the solution. Basically, it takes three hours to deploy the product, and for a big company, it takes two days.
One good engineer is enough to take care of the deployment phase of the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing of the product depends on a company's negotiation skills, and if a company can't get it at a good price, there are other tools that can be purchased from the market.
I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price.
Our company needs to make either a yearly or a three-year payment towards the licensing charges attached to the product. There are no additional costs attached to the solution apart from the tool's licensing charges.
What other advice do I have?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is a very good product.
The maintenance of the product is very easy. One person is required to take care of the maintenance of the product.
I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. Before buying the product, people should consider the ease of implementation Fortinet FortiGate-VM offers.
Check Point is the best when it comes to monitoring and investigating logs. In general, the most important thing users should consider is that the implementation part should be good, for which Fortinet FortiGate-VM is the best.
I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.
An expensive solution that is stable and scalable
What needs improvement?
The tool is expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is scalable. We have 15 users.
How was the initial setup?
Fortinet FortiGate-VM's deployment is easy.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Fortinet FortiGate-VM an eight out of ten.
FortiGate Cloud Review
Provides protection from a broad array of network threats
What is our primary use case?
All firewalls, including Fortinet FortiGate-VM, provide similar features under the sync capability. The differences between them are minimal, with FortiGate-VM offering simplicity in use. It covers aspects such as intrusion prevention, web filtering, application control, routing, virtual domains, policy-based routing, and SSL.
How has it helped my organization?
For our customer, this product holds paramount importance. It is critical for them as we collaborate with government agencies, financial institutions, and oil and gas companies. Inspecting and controlling traffic, especially pertaining to credit cards, is crucial for their operations.
What is most valuable?
GitDM, like FortiGate VM, provides similar features to FortiGate appliances or cloud solutions. However, FortiGate VM is more suitable for heavy traffic and inspection compared to GitDM. Unfortunately, FortiGate VM lacks a dedicated SPU for inspection, and all features rely on CPU and RAM.
What needs improvement?
I don't have any specific improvements to suggest, but perhaps the pricing could be enhanced. Regarding updates, more frequent updates would be appreciated. FortiGate-VM is currently focused on providing very good firmware updates, automation, and top-notch features. It stands as a great product for now.
Based on our needs and the vulnerabilities we've encountered due to various downloads, I suggest integrating with Kaspersky Gateway. This integration would involve scanning and inspecting both official emails and spam emails. Our customer has successfully worked with Kaspersky Gateway, and overall, the integration has been effective.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate-VM for 3 years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In conjunction with the switch and based on the sizing, it indicates a suitable box or VM for the customer. If the level of mailbox is low, the stability will be good, and the box will not be in conserve mode. Regarding impressions of scalability, I would rate it eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The support team is excellent, providing assistance and resolving issues effectively.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward for me, but our customers might find it a bit challenging. Overall, following the provided steps and consulting the official materials or documentation makes the FortiGate-VM setup relatively easy.Firstly, we establish a console connection to the firewall and access its default IP. In the second step, we create rules to enable the firewall to access the internet. Following these two steps, we register a rule with Fortinet Broadcom, download the necessary licenses, and upload them. After uploading the license, we set up an interface rule, check the license, and configure interfaces such as LAN, WAN, and VPN. Subsequently, we create profiles, including web filter, application, antivirus, and IPS profiles. The last steps involve configuring interfaces like LAN, WAN, and VPN, as well as attaching profiles to outbound policies. We also consider additional configurations, like server publishing, destination netting, or integrating with PBM for Alibaba Cloud. The final three configurations are optional and depend on the customer's requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We can tailor the suitable license for the customer, whether they require UTB or enterprise features. The options are flexible based on their needs.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Fortinet for large-scale companies and Sophos for medium or small enterprises. I would rate it 8 out of 10.
Graphical user interface is user-friendly and easy to deploy but need more free security profiles
What is our primary use case?
I am a network engineer. I deploy firewalls for customers. I also provide firewall installation and configuration services.
I mostly prefer Fortinet firewalls. The graphical user interface is user-friendly and easy to configure. I recommend it to my clients because it is very easy to deploy.
Performance, scalability, and everything else are top-notch compared to others like Sophos or Cisco. I've used them all, and Fortinet is my go-to.
How has it helped my organization?
The main use case is for organizations that can't afford or procure hardware appliances. They can install the VM and license it as a cost-effective alternative.
What is most valuable?
The combination of SD-WAN and VPN capabilities is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
If I could add one feature, it would be free security profiles.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience with FortiGate VM. I've used it for practice and deployed it on customer sites.
I have been using it for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't personally experienced any bugs, and none of my clients have reported any either.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are very knowledgeable and helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've deployed Cisco firewalls and hold certifications like CCNA and CCNP. But for security-level firewalls, I always go with FortiGate.
How was the initial setup?
The initial configuration is very easy, even for non-technical users.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
VMs can be affordable, but for high-demand scenarios, I'd still recommend the hardware. For the cost, it's a ten out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend the hardware firewall unless you have specific constraints. If you're installing on a server or desktop, and something happens like a cache issue, you won't have the same backup options as a physical appliance.
With hardware, you can claim a warranty, get a new unit, and easily restore from your existing backup. That wouldn't be as straightforward with a VM.
Over a hundred customers have deployed the physical Fortinet firewall based on my recommendations.
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.