As a customer, we work with Fortinet FortiGate. Our major use case for Fortinet FortiGate is our Internet, serving as the main device for routing, firewall features, and everything.
FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall (ARM64/Graviton)
Fortinet Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Reliable security has improved internet routing and optimized multi-site traffic performance
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate is one of the best firewalls in the market currently, with a lot of next generation firewall features embedded into it, including SD WAN, which is one of the best services for traffic steering, managing packet log jitter and latency for any applications, making it unbeatable in terms of pricing compared to other firewalls.
It has a significant impact on our network performance as we are a health care company where users access health care business website URLs, and any latency is managed by SD WAN without manual intervention, benefiting the operation as we have more than a thousand users across different locations.
Fortinet FortiGate Unified SASE is effective in providing security policies across multiple locations, incorporating zero touch provisioning that is very impactful and beneficial in managing network problems.
In terms of hardware-assisted DDoS protection with Fortinet FortiGate, it is performance-based, depending on the number of concurrent sessions, users, and the specifications of the hardware product.
What needs improvement?
The one concern I have with Fortinet FortiGate is the firmware versions, which often have many bugs when upgraded, leading us to revert back to older versions multiple times in my lifecycle.
For example, when upgrading the firmware version, we noticed that one of the services was not working, resulting in no packet flow for a VLAN until we reverted back.
The main area for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate is the firmware versions, as we face uncertainties regarding upgrades and frequent bugs that require self-fixing of problems.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Fortinet FortiGate since two thousand three.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is very much scalable, with all models from Fortinet being impactful.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support from Fortinet is generally good, though there are times when it could be better.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used other firewalls, including Palo Alto, which we find to be very pricey compared to Fortinet FortiGate.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment process for Fortinet FortiGate is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We conducted the deployment ourselves without the help of an integrator or consultant.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment with Fortinet FortiGate is very good, as it is one of the best products available in the market.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of price for Fortinet FortiGate, it is not considered that expensive when compared to other products; it is medium priced for SMB businesses.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Palo Alto is a premier product, but both solutions have their unique advantages, making it difficult to declare one superior to the other.
What other advice do I have?
We have Fortinet FortiGate in different locations, where every location serves as a data center using hub and spoke technology, connecting all spokes to a primary hub and a secondary hub for reliability.
We use segmentation in core switches; however, the segmentation features are primarily managed by Cisco switches and not by Fortinet FortiGate firewall.
The effects of SD WAN integration on remote users and application performance are very positive, as we integrate all traffic through Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN and aim for configurations that enhance efficiency across locations.
We have been using SD WAN with Fortinet FortiGate for more than five or six years.
Fortinet FortiGate Unified SASE is effective in providing security policies across multiple locations, incorporating zero touch provisioning that is very impactful and beneficial in managing network problems.
The effects of SD WAN integration on remote users and application performance are very positive, as we integrate all traffic through Fortinet FortiGate SD WAN and aim for configurations that enhance efficiency across locations.
With Fortinet FortiGate, the SD WAN feature is included with no additional costs, which stands in contrast to other products like Cisco and Palo Alto, which charge extra for similar features.
I would rate this review an eight out of ten.
Unified security has protected diverse environments and supports consistent policies everywhere
What is our primary use case?
I used to work with Fortinet FortiGate and I am using Fortinet solutions as well. I still use Fortinet FortiGate. Everything regarding Fortinet FortiGate, I was working in a telecom operator who was a partner to Fortinet FortiGate and we were reselling Fortinet solutions to our enterprise customers. Plus, Fortinet has a lot of solutions for telecom network operators as well. So we have deployed a Fortinet solution for protecting our infrastructure as well. In my current role also, we are using Fortinet solutions as security operation center tools.
So we were using SD-WAN of Fortinet FortiGate as well and we used to sell Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN to our enterprise clients as well, and the feedback is pretty good. The box is quite good, especially on the throughput. So usually for other vendors and the market leader vendors, whenever SD-WAN is activated on the box, the throughput of the box reduces while in Fortinet FortiGate boxes, the throughput remains consistent and you can turn on and off the features as you want, and it is quite intuitive to use Fortinet FortiGate solutions.
So we use Fortinet FortiGate data center firewall and with IDPS functionality. FortiAI is the add-on on top of Fortinet FortiGate firewall. So we use those solutions which help us to protect our setup from cyber attacks and in near real time it gives a lot of visibility using machine learning and helps us remediate the incident in near real time basis.
I work with other solutions such as VMware, Cisco, and a few more SD-WAN vendors.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate has started as a firewall solution for branch locations and protecting a smaller branch of say 50 or 100 users to start with. Then Fortinet FortiGate has enhanced their offerings and now they are offering solutions for protecting data centers, branches, head offices, cloud infrastructure and everything. So Fortinet is one of the players who is having the full bucket of solutions for protecting applications across the deployment locations, being a branch or a head office or a data center or in the cloud as well.
Regarding Fortinet FortiGate, one of the key fundamental principles they are following while creating products is affordability. Second one is a uniform software code which they use for creating products and the interoperability with the Fortinet ecosystem. So as I said, Fortinet has started as a firewall vendor and then now Fortinet is offering SD-WAN, software-defined LAN, Wi-Fi, plus a lot of solutions for protecting cloud-based deployments and applications. I understand that I am using a few of the solutions which are required for running a managed security service provider setup and security operations center. So those products are also quite promising. To summarize, one is affordability and the efficacy of solutions. Plus I understand Fortinet keeps on investing high in their R&D budget. So that's where they are able to bring a lot of innovation and they make their product quite contemporary in that sense.
Regarding the effectiveness of Fortinet unified SASE, it provides necessary uniform security policies across multiple locations, being in the cloud or in a branch location or in some data center or anywhere in the world actually. So that's where SASE plays a pretty important part and Fortinet has achieved that objective very well.
Regarding the experience with the unified agent in Fortinet unified SASE, it impacts our operations mostly positively. That helps us reduce our overhead for managing the endpoint deployment. With the agent, it is a single agent that does multiple jobs. And this agent signals very well with Fortinet FortiGate SASE deployments and the overall experience is pretty good. It is easy to deploy, easy to manage, and most effective.
Regarding the dynamic segmentation feature, it is a very fantastic feature and one has to have that feature for protecting the lateral movement of cyber threats or maybe when hackers are trying to orchestrate the larger cyber attacks. So this dynamic segmentation really helps us provide a segregation of the application landscape as well as ensuring that the cross talk between the applications does not go uncontrolled. Secondly, if any malware is deployed somewhere, it helps us protect those malware implications within a certain segment only and not span across the data center.
Regarding DDoS protection for managing data center traffic, I understand Fortinet has solutions for DDoS but I do not see those being used in the market. The market is controlled, rather dominated by two or three vendors, and I guess Fortinet is not a preferred vendor for having DDoS solutions.
What needs improvement?
I would say 8 out of 10 regarding the stability of Fortinet FortiGate. It requires a lot of bug fixing and what I understand, Fortinet is fast enough to provide bug fixes and patches, but usually I suggest Fortinet should do thorough testing of their releases and software releases and once probably they can reduce the frequency of new releases but make it stable. That's what my recommendation is.
As far as the core objective of Fortinet FortiGate is concerned, I think they are meeting the targets but I guess for rolling out new features and new updates, they are doing a bit of hurry just to cope with the market dynamics. But possibly, I understand that they are compromising on the quality of the software and stability. So over there they have to improve. Rest of the aspects, I guess they are doing pretty good. We are happy.
Regarding my experience with Fortinet FortiGate in comparison to maybe some other vendors such as CyberArk, Fortinet is in the top three and they give a lot of competition to their nearest peers in the market. But I guess Fortinet is really struggling in software-defined LAN, Wi-Fi, and FortiSwitches space. So they have to make their products more affordable in Forti-switching and Forti-WiFi space. They are not able to compete effectively with the nearest competitor HP Enterprise and HP Aruba.
For how long have I used the solution?
Around now it's almost 18 years that I've been working specifically with Fortinet FortiGate.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Regarding technical support from Fortinet, whenever the bug has been reported or stability issues are reported, we see the support provided by Fortinet is good. But again, rather than controlling damage, I guess they should be working more towards preventing the damage rather than controlling the damage.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding scalability for Fortinet FortiGate, my experience says for branch networking, the product is excellent and it supports the scalability of 2X or 3X at times. But for data centers, one has to size the components and size the solution very carefully because these components are deployed one time and remain in life for at least five to seven years. So one has to keep in mind, it is not so easy to replace the boxes. For Fortinet cloud solution, I guess they have achieved the required elastic scales. One has to only upgrade the licenses and go for a higher tier of subscription and then the scalability is achieved in a very seamless way. But for hardware products, especially in data center and head office environments, one has to carefully size the products because they are not so elastic actually. One has to size it well.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate them seven.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I work with HP to some extent.
How was the initial setup?
Regarding deployment process, Fortinet has a component called FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer. So these two platforms are providing many templates to automate workflows and achieve zero-touch provisioning. So that way deployment is pretty straightforward and easy.
What about the implementation team?
I have deployed a lot of Fortinet solutions on AWS cloud using FortiManager's FortiAnalyzer, Manager, and FortiGate virtual appliances on the AWS Marketplace.
What was our ROI?
This is clear good ROI wherever Fortinet is used as a security product, but not in the Forti-WiFi and Forti-Switching products for sure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's quite affordable for Fortinet FortiGate. It's quite affordable for branch networking for sure. For core security components such as firewall, IDPS, and all those things, they are pretty affordable. That's why they won the market and are now market leaders. But some solutions, such as running SOC tools, Fortinet SIM, or Forti-WiFi and Forti-switches, they are coming on a higher side. They're more expensive than their better competitors.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Unified security management has simplified data center protection and optimized branch connectivity
What is our primary use case?
The key use case that we and our clients work with Fortinet FortiGate is mainly the firewall part, the management part, and monitoring. These are the three aspects on which we are using Fortinet FortiGate.
We are using SD-WAN with Fortinet FortiGate, and it works pretty well. Multiple branches are connected to the head office.
We utilize Fortinet FortiGate data center solutions in most of the data center. Most of our clients are using data centers, so we use Fortinet FortiGate in the data centers.
On a regular basis, we help our clients to deploy the security fabric because compliance governance and audit come into the picture, and responsibility has to be decided.
What is most valuable?
In my opinion, the unique or most useful functions of Fortinet FortiGate are that it has a pretty simple deployment. It does not have any complex plugins or anything. It is very straightforward for configuration purposes. All of the configuration parameters are there in a single dashboard. Depending on your licenses, you can just configure them and then they are ready to go. The testing part is pretty easy. It is not more difficult than other firewalls.
My impression of the effectiveness of Fortinet Unified SASE is that it is pretty good, and all the products of Fortinet FortiGate are available in a single dashboard. There is less complexity for that.
I have experience with the Unified Agent in Fortinet Unified SASE. Most of the time, it is used with Unified Forti. We have multiple devices which we can connect through that. Most of the time when we deploy this, we have to deploy the agent. The agent has less overhead on the systems. Performance does not degrade for the end users. That is beneficial.
What needs improvement?
In my opinion, a potential area of improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is that while it has a pretty good dashboard, which is not an issue as such, when we talk about hardware parameters, sometimes the hardware gets pretty heated up. Given the amount of traffic going through it, that is fine. However, the heat of the hardware has to be looked into. Fortinet FortiGate firewall is good, but other products like the switching part and all that fabric, in handling very audio-video traffic, sometimes it struggles on the switching part, but on the routing part, it is fine. On the firewall part, it is good; there is no issue as such up till now.
Additionally, I suggest that Fortinet can add software which is in a controlled way, particularly regarding AI and ML. It should not happen that the AI/ML takes certain decisions which are not beneficial for the organization. The control should remain with the team members who are responsible for configuring this firewall.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for more than 10 years, probably around 13 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For Fortinet FortiGate stability, I can say nine. It is pretty stable.
How would you rate stability?
Positive
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding scalability, the ability to expand, I also rate it as nine. It is easily scalable.
How would you rate scalability?
Positive
How are customer service and support?
Regarding technical support from Fortinet vendor support, I would place it at nine.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have been with Fortinet for a pretty long time and with Sophos, as I mentioned previously. If I compare Sophos and Fortinet, I would consider Fortinet FortiGate for critical segments and Sophos for small and medium segments.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Fortinet FortiGate is pretty simple.
What about the implementation team?
We are partners with Fortinet, and I can confirm that we are not just integrators, but we are also resellers for Fortinet.
We sell the product directly for the vendor, not through some marketplaces; we sell directly to our end users.
What was our ROI?
In my opinion, the main benefits that end users receive from Fortinet FortiGate are that the return on investment is good. Whatever money we invest in Fortinet FortiGate product, we get it back in two years' time. It is pretty secure, having very robust hardware and software. Updates are pretty good, and in the event of an issue, updates are pretty quick. It is a pretty solid product, with the amount of money we are paying out there.
The dynamic segmentation feature in Fortinet FortiGate is working fine. We have used it, and it is pretty good. The configuration timelines have reduced because of this particular product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of pricing, I would say it is pretty good, so we can say ten for that.
I confirm that it is reasonable money for that solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Regarding the integration of SD-WAN with Fortinet SASE on application performance for remote users, right now we are not using SASE from Fortinet FortiGate.
What other advice do I have?
We will recommend Fortinet FortiGate to other users. It is totally up to the client requirements. I rate this review overall as nine.
Comprehensive security has simplified multi-site deployments and protected remote users
What is our primary use case?
I have worked on multiple products including Fortinet FortiGate VM, Fortinet FortiGate firewalls of different models, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiADC, FortiWeb, FortiAuthenticator, and some other products as well.
I have been working on Fortinet FortiGate and Fortinet FortiGate VM for around five or six years. I have deployed it as a perimeter firewall, as a data center firewall, and as a campus firewall in many banking sectors, commercial sectors, and oil and gas sectors. Most of my clients have deployed Fortinet FortiGate firewall on-premises to protect their services.
What is most valuable?
The ease of use and the user-friendly interface are the beauty of this firewall. The UI itself and the documentation are completely available on the internet. The UI is very easy, and you can easily understand the implementation. The product itself has very strong deep features and security features including IPS and malware protection to prevent and save against cyber attacks.
I have very good hands-on experience and very good deployment experience with Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN. Fortinet FortiGate SD-WAN allows you to use multiple internets and multiple interfaces separately to load balance your internet and to load balance your services between multiple service providers. This is a very good feature in this firewall that you cannot get as a free default feature in other brands.
The network performance after enabling SD-WAN is very smooth and very efficient. I recently deployed this in forty commercial sector sites with stores that previously had MPLS circuits. With the MPLS circuit, they had a very high cost for private connectivity between sites and branches. After deploying SD-WAN, the operational cost was cut down around fifty to sixty percent because of this implementation. All MPLS costing was wiped out from their IT budget and is now dependent on internet circuits, which are normally standard internet connections.
SASE is a very good feature. For example, I recently deployed this for a customer with users in remote locations. The issue was that they wanted users to remain connected and keep monitoring systems after office hours with no malware installed on the laptop while staying protected. The use case of SASE involved implementing the POP itself on the cloud. The users, whether remotely at home or anywhere in the world, are connected to and keep connected with POP. They access the internet securely with secure company policies as defined by IT. They are not allowed to go directly to the internet without IT policies as defined on SASE POP. There is very good integration from SASE to Fortinet FortiGate firewall to access private access.
What needs improvement?
For improving sectors, they need to focus on technical support and work on the technical part. Although it is good, they need to onboard these things and improve the technical part of the support factor. Although it is good, it needs much more improvement to get more business and a bigger footprint in the market. Second, AI in the market and malware detection exist. Fortinet FortiGate already has these features in the Fortinet FortiGate sandbox features with built-in AI features. I prefer that they work on more features that they can provide in Fortinet FortiGate firewall.
I would rate this product ten out of ten. For example, when comparing it with Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate, I can provide a very good point. In Palo Alto, some features must be purchased separately. In Fortinet FortiGate, it comes with the Wi-Fi controller built-in. Features that you need to buy a separate license for in Palo Alto do not require additional licenses in Fortinet FortiGate as they are built as complimentary features in this firewall.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The network performance after enabling SD-WAN is very smooth and very efficient.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is the same, and I would rate it ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support can be marked as ten out of eight. There is some lag, but you can find documentation and all things over the internet. They can provide support, and I would rate it eight point five to nine.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What about the implementation team?
My technical team are all technically expert in deployment of Fortinet FortiGate firewall.
My team has around five or six people who are all technically sound in Fortinet FortiGate firewalls.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
If we are talking about Check Point, Cisco, and Palo Alto, these are the top-tier firewalls and top-tier vendors for providing firewalls. Following the Gartner report, Palo Alto and Fortinet are at the top in the Gartner report. Because of that, Fortinet FortiGate firewall itself does not require management centers as required in Cisco and Check Point. Fortinet FortiGate firewall cannot be managed by a management center. In Fortinet FortiGate case, there is no requirement for these prerequisites to configure or implement Fortinet FortiGate firewall without a management center. We can deploy Fortinet FortiGate firewall without any management center. It is a very web-based firewall and you can access the firewall GUI from the website, and we can easily deploy it without any management center. In Check Point or Cisco cases, a management center is required. In Cisco case, the Firepower Management Center is required to get the advanced features. But in Fortinet case, it does not require these things. This is a very beauty of this firewall.
I suggest buying Fortinet instead of buying Palo Alto, Cisco, or Check Point. I will definitely recommend Fortinet.
What other advice do I have?
Fortinet FortiGate has different models of firewalls which are high capacity and high variant firewalls that you can deploy as data center firewalls to protect your data centers, your server farms, and your services which are hosted inside a data center.
Fortinet FortiGate has embedded services, these FortiGuard services which have machine learning-based and artificial intelligence-based malware analysis. These services analyze malwares and next-generation malwares that are not easily identified by signature-based detection. They have the capability to analyze malware by AI-based methods and can identify zero-day attacks. Before they exploit as a zero-day, they prevent this signature and stop this attack to prevent that this is an attack. Those services are hosted in my data centers, web applications, storage, and SaaS. All are protected by those cyber attacks.
Regarding pricing, we cannot compare it right now because pricing matters based on business size and the business deal. We cannot say whether it is high or low. Sometimes we can easily compete with any brand, and in some cases we cannot compete. For example, if we have a big deal, we can get good discounts from Fortinet team. In some cases, the deal is not big, so we cannot get enough good discount. Deployment from FortiSASE to your Fortinet FortiGate firewall over SD-WAN is very easy. Fortinet gives you multiple connections from SASE POP to your Fortinet FortiGate firewall. They have fully redundant connections on SASE POP if you have the same redundant connections with ISP connection on your Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. They have the secure SPX tunnel from FortiSASE to Fortinet FortiGate firewall. You can easily access from Fortinet FortiGate firewall to SASE applications and SASE users who are connected on SASE POP can access local services from SASE POP to Fortinet FortiGate and access the local services.
My overall rating for this product is nine out of ten.
Unified security fabric has enabled centralized control and has simplified multi-site protection
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use Fortinet FortiGate to implement it as a perimetral firewall solution because Fortinet FortiGate are next-generation firewalls. I use it to protect internal network customers and configure remote access, firewall policies, internal access websites, web filtering solutions, IPS, and IDS configurations.
I implemented it approximately one year ago in an Italian manufacturer producer. My perspective on the effectiveness of the unified SASE in providing consistent security policies across multiple locations is that it is very similar to Fortinet FortiGate, so if you know how to manage Fortinet FortiGate firewalls, it is easier and very easy to implement and configure FortiSASE.
For Fortinet FortiGate, it is very easy because it is very near to zero-touch provisioning. You need to install the box and if we speak about hardware appliances, you just need to install the boxes on the infrastructure and connect the cables to connect Fortinet FortiGate firewalls to the internet routers or MPLS routers, and configure basically the main IP address to have the connectivity. Next, you configure policy firewalls and it is very easy and very fast.
You can implement Fortinet FortiGate for small, medium, and large enterprise because it is very suitable for small and medium enterprise. For one to five or six firewalls on different branches or different sites, you can manage it manually and independently. But if you need to scale or have a large enterprise deployment, you can manage all Fortinet FortiGates directly in one panel with the FortiManager solution. There is a dedicated orchestrator delivered by Fortinet in hardware or VM solution, and with FortiManager you can manage all Fortinet FortiGates in one platform. For example, two years ago, I used to manage around 500 Fortinet FortiGates with FortiManager. It is very scalable with the correct solution and the other things you need to manage large deployments.
What is most valuable?
What I appreciate the most about Fortinet FortiGate is that it has a very large integration using Fabric, which they call Fabric Connectors. With Fortinet FortiGate firewalls, you can manage not only the perimetral firewalls but also all the internal infrastructure. For example, you can connect access points of Fortinet for wireless and Wi-Fi and manage them directly on Fortinet FortiGate. The same applies for switches and other Fortinet appliances that can be managed directly from one single dashboard.
What needs improvement?
Fortinet has developed the firmware for Fortinet FortiGate extensively. They change the operating system continuously and very often. Sometimes they introduce many features or new features or change the commands or the method you need to use to implement something or some configuration. The fact is if you develop always or very often the firmware, you need to study every release to see if there is a new feature or something changed. Sometimes it is difficult to remain aligned with the new firmware and the features.
You need to maintain alignment with Fortinet FortiGate. For example, in Europe, we have many policies and regulations, so you need to check, tune, and configure your firewall in the correct manner and maintain alignment with the policy of the European Union. You need to always check, improve, and maintain the firmware of Fortinet FortiGate up to date.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for seven to eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Sometimes I experience stability issues, but sometimes they are related to hardware not functioning properly or related to a software bug. Sometimes I have encountered this type of situation using Fortinet FortiGate. But in those specific cases, I opened a ticket and worked directly with Fortinet to resolve the issue for the customer.
How are customer service and support?
I have worked with the technical assistance of Fortinet for my seven to eight years of career with Fortinet, and I have opened tickets with different departments of the TAC. For example, the FortiSASE team is very effective. If you open a ticket, you have very good engineers to interact with, and they help in a correct manner. The flow is very clear to understand and resolve the issue. The only problem I have encountered in the last years with Fortinet is that if you open a support ticket for the main solution of Fortinet, for example, Fortinet FortiGate, FortiManager, or FortiAnalyzer, the support is not delivered directly from Fortinet but from partners of Fortinet. If you need to speak directly with the main core solution of Fortinet and you open a ticket, initially you are followed by a partner of Fortinet. But if you escalate to a more specific support, next you can go through a real Fortinet engineer. But sometimes this step extends the duration of the ticket and the analysis. I would give a score of 7.5 to 8 for the support of Fortinet FortiGate.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The first time that I deployed Fortinet FortiGate depends on the size of the customer. For a small to medium customer, I think three days for the initial setup and to configure some firewall rules is appropriate.
What about the implementation team?
If you are a junior network engineer, you need to be followed by a middle or senior engineer in the backend that helps the junior to implement and test the solution. But for a middle or senior engineer, one person is adequate for deploying Fortinet FortiGate.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not follow the finance perspective directly, but what I know about Fortinet FortiGate pricing is that it is very affordable compared to, for example, Palo Alto Networks. I have observed that some people see and speak about the price of the Fortinet solution as very convenient.
What other advice do I have?
I am a system integrator in Italy. Previously, until three months ago, I worked for one of the main partners in Italy called Maticmind SPA. Now I work for another system integrator, and we are a lower partnership, but we manage and install Fortinet FortiGate appliances for our customers. My overall review rating for this product is 8 out of 10.
Centralized policies have simplified branch security while low-cost deployment protects SMEs
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate is commonly used by many customers in my region requiring a low-cost and better solution. Fortinet offers antivirus, next-generation antivirus feeds, DLP, application control, URL filtering, and IPsec VPN. These are the common use cases that many customers use, including IPsec, SSL VPN, URL filtering, DNS filtering, video filtering, and application filtering.
What is most valuable?
A useful feature of Fortinet FortiGate is its firewall capability because when I create and implement a rule, it is simple to execute. I just need to select the incoming interface, outgoing interface, and apply the source and destination, and that is all. This is the simplest way to implement the policy, and I can easily create a simple rule in this manner, which I consider one of the best features in Fortinet FortiGate.
When considering the effectiveness of Fortinet Unified SASE in providing consistent security policies across multiple locations, I find there is a very good positive response from many customers and from my side as well, as it provides centralized, verified policy creation. For many locations, I can create a simple policy from a centralized location without any difficulty, simply by putting one Fortinet FortiGate in the branch and creating a central policy from my head office.
What needs improvement?
I would like to improve the application filter aspect of Fortinet FortiGate, similar to other solutions that offer a simple click to select categories. If I do not want to block an entire category, there should be a provision to just enter the website or application, which I believe would be a beneficial improvement.
Regarding how stable and reliable Fortinet FortiGate is, I find it reliable as far as the rule implementation is concerned, and I can rely on the simple way of creating the rule. However, one feature that I cannot rely on is the application filter, which requires tedious steps compared to other solutions like Check Point and Palo Alto, where creating the application filter rule is simpler. In Fortinet FortiGate, I need to create and edit the profile and add websites according to my list, making it a bit cumbersome.
For how long have I used the solution?
For around two years I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate as a partner, and I have deployed the Fortinet FortiGate firewall at more than twelve to thirteen customer locations.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In general, I think that Fortinet FortiGate is mostly used by small to medium enterprises, as it offers a low-budget option for security. Fortinet is the best choice for small enterprises because it provides security as per their requirement and comes under their budget, making the pricing very acceptable for medium-level and small-level enterprise customers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My experience with the initial setup and deployment of Fortinet FortiGate is that it is very easy, as I just need to open the box and power on the appliance. I can register the appliance on a portal from the firmware, and within half a day, I can make Fortinet FortiGate live in any office setup with a simple policy.
How are customer service and support?
When rating the technical support from Fortinet, I can say that I am personally not happy with it, so I would rate it at a six out of ten.
My frustrations with the technical support come from the need to log a ticket for issues with Fortinet firewalls and FortiSwitches, as I have to create separate tickets for each, which increases my workload and delays issue resolution since I must manage multiple tickets for the same problem.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I have integrated SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate when multiple customers have two ISPs, as it provides ISP redundancy failover with simple configuration. I have integrated with SD-WAN as well.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Comparing Fortinet FortiGate with similar tools in the firewall area, I find that Fortinet FortiGate does better in pricing for small to medium businesses, as they offer a good deal compared to other OEMs.
What other advice do I have?
The last time I worked with Fortinet FortiGate was two to three days ago when I assisted a customer in migrating from Check Point to Fortinet.
I have not worked on a Fortinet FortiGate data center solution currently, as I have mostly deployed for medium branches and small offices.
These are all the improvements that I would like to suggest for Fortinet FortiGate.
My customers usually prefer deployment on-premises for Fortinet FortiGate.
My experience with integrating Fortinet FortiGate with third-party tools involves LDAP, which integrates very easily by entering the LDAP ID, username, password, and port number, making the experience fairly good.
I would rate this review an eight out of ten.
Unified security has improved border protection, boosted SD-WAN performance, and simplified VPNs
What is our primary use case?
My clients use Fortinet FortiGate in the boundary and border gateway as a border firewall, positioned between the internet and the company. We also use it for VPN and IPsec VPN to connect remote office sites. Additionally, I have a use case for MES in high technology where it blocks malware in machines such as those used for producing semiconductors.
I have used Fortinet FortiGate's data center solution, specifically the FortiGuard service, which is included in every Fortinet FortiGate deployment. In the data center, we use Fortinet FortiGate to block server farms from the internal LAN due to its performance, which is higher than other products. We consistently use it in server farm environments.
What is most valuable?
The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is its SD-WAN capability, which is included and differs from other products that require an additional license.
With SD-WAN capabilities, I notice a significant impact on network performance. The E series offers good performance, double that of the D series. If a new series is released, it always performs well. For example, if my customer uses the 200D model, the new 100E model can serve as an upgrade.
My experience in integrating SD-WAN capabilities with Fortinet FortiGate indicates that the integration is not difficult. We simply incorporate user ID and user account, and we have not encountered other challenges.
The main benefits that my customers see from Fortinet FortiGate include low cost and the integration of switches, APs, and Fortinet FortiGate, which reduces management overhead.
What needs improvement?
I have not used the Unified SASE capabilities in Fortinet FortiGate.
I do not have the AI or ML enhanced FortiGuard with machine learning or AI.
My impression of the dynamic segmentation feature in Fortinet FortiGate is that while some customers use it, I believe it is not granular enough. It can separate VLANs, but it cannot separate individual users. We use it with FortiSwitch or AP to expand Fortinet FortiGate ports to every switch port.
Regarding stability, I have experienced performance issues with Fortinet FortiGate. Sometimes it does not work correctly in certain situations, such as DNS or URL categories, where it might block incorrectly.
When it comes to scalability, I find Fortinet FortiGate somewhat scalable, but not highly scalable because we usually replace it. We always buy a larger model to replace the old one. For better scalability, Check Point performs best as it offers products that allow for adding more firewalls to expand performance or bandwidth.
In assessing the performance of the hardware-assisted DDoS protection in Fortinet FortiGate, I think it does not work effectively in critical events, as DDoS protection is challenging due to the number of attackers.
In the future, I would like to see improvements with Fortinet FortiGate, especially as all firewalls emphasize AI or machine learning. I do not see significant use of AI in Fortinet FortiGate, whereas I can see how AI improves functionality in Palo Alto.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate for approximately twenty years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Regarding stability, I have experienced performance issues with Fortinet FortiGate. Sometimes it does not work correctly in certain situations, such as DNS or URL categories, where it might block incorrectly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When it comes to scalability, I find Fortinet FortiGate somewhat scalable, but not highly scalable because we usually replace it. We always buy a larger model to replace the old one. For better scalability, Check Point performs best as it offers products that allow for adding more firewalls to expand performance or bandwidth.
How are customer service and support?
I would evaluate Fortinet's customer service and technical support teams with a rating of nine.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I mainly work with firewalls from Palo Alto Networks.
Apart from Palo Alto, I have worked with Check Point, but I used it very minimally.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate is not difficult for me.
What about the implementation team?
I have a business relationship with Fortinet as a reseller and system integrator.
What was our ROI?
I am aware of investment regarding ROI, but I need clarification on what type of investment you mean. The cost is the main concern of my customers, and Fortinet FortiGate offers the future we need.
What other advice do I have?
I use Fortinet FortiGate primarily as a physical appliance; the VM deployment is minimal. My impression of the dynamic segmentation feature in Fortinet FortiGate is that while some customers use it, I believe it is not granular enough. It can separate VLANs, but it cannot separate individual users. We use it with FortiSwitch or AP to expand Fortinet FortiGate ports to every switch port.
Regarding stability, I have experienced performance issues with Fortinet FortiGate. Sometimes it does not work correctly in certain situations, such as DNS or URL categories, where it might block incorrectly.
In assessing the performance of the hardware-assisted DDoS protection in Fortinet FortiGate, I think it does not work effectively in critical events, as DDoS protection is challenging due to the number of attackers.
My clients use Fortinet FortiGate in the boundary and border gateway as a border firewall, positioned between the internet and the company. We also use it for VPN and IPsec VPN to connect remote office sites. Additionally, I have a use case for MES in high technology where it blocks malware in machines such as those used for producing semiconductors.
In the future, I would like to see improvements with Fortinet FortiGate, especially as all firewalls emphasize AI or machine learning. I do not see significant use of AI in Fortinet FortiGate, whereas I can see how AI improves functionality in Palo Alto.
I mainly work with firewalls from Palo Alto Networks.
Apart from Palo Alto, I have worked with Check Point, but I used it very minimally. I would rate this review with an overall score of nine.
Centralized security has simplified remote site protection and reduced staffing needs
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Fortinet FortiGate is for VPN and its appliances and for securing all of our remote locations.
A specific example of how I use Fortinet FortiGate to secure my remote locations is that we set rules on each of our locations about what traffic can and cannot go in, so we can allow certain connections for our partners such as Frontiers.
What is most valuable?
The best features Fortinet FortiGate offers are the built-in security functions, which I think are very nice.
We find the built-in security functions most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate, particularly web filtering, as it is all hands-on. Web filtering is our standout feature, and I don't want to add anything else about the features.
Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by centralizing the way to access all of our network firewalls.
What needs improvement?
I wish Fortinet FortiGate's UI updates would be done in a more simplified way to improve it.
I choose nine for my rating because I think there's always room for improvement, and I think some of the things in the UI need to be adjusted so they're a little bit more simplified and not overcomplicated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for at least three and a half, maybe four years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Fortinet FortiGate is very stable, and it has been quite consistent during times of downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate's scalability has been keeping up well with my organization's growth or changes, as each location gets larger and we feel the need to put a Fortinet FortiGate in each one.
How are customer service and support?
We have had to reach out multiple times to Fortinet engineers for customer support, and it has been great every time; they always seem to get to the bottom of it within one to two calls.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did use a different solution before Fortinet FortiGate, but it has been so long that I cannot remember who it was; it may have been Palo Alto.
What was our ROI?
I believe we have seen a return on investment in terms of fewer employees needed, but otherwise, it is outside of my scope.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I was not directly involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiGate.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did consider other options before choosing Fortinet FortiGate, but it was a straightforward decision, and I am not quite sure what the other options were.
What other advice do I have?
I do not have anything that is unique to us about how we use Fortinet FortiGate in our setup.
We do not utilize Fortinet FortiGate's data center solution, and we do not feel the need to consider AI and ML enhanced FortiGuard services within Fortinet FortiGate.
I would advise others looking into using Fortinet FortiGate to make sure that they get their configurations right from the start, as that means they have less of a need to get support involved. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Secure connectivity has improved branch-to-cloud protection and supports future-ready defenses
What is our primary use case?
I have experience working with Cisco, Catalyst SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiGate, and Juniper technologies. We have a multi-range of vendors including Cisco, Juniper, VMware, and Palo Alto. We use Palo Alto firewall and Fortinet FortiGate firewall for wireless security and network security, including proxy and next-generation capabilities.
Most vendors are providing almost the same functionalities in terms of firewalls. Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Juniper are all offering similar capabilities, but they have a wide range of services or products such as SD-WAN and SASE. Currently, we are a big enterprise and one of our products is Fortinet FortiGate.
What is most valuable?
Fortinet FortiGate has reasonable pricing and is easy to operate. It is efficient and represents the future for security, including cloud security and branch-to-cloud security.
We have threat intelligence detection, response, and action capabilities. Fortinet FortiGate products are stable, and they offer a wide range of security capabilities.
What needs improvement?
We did not use Fortinet SASE, and I do not remember if our data center team utilizes it. Currently, I think Fortinet should enable more cloud, virtual, or unified solutions. One point against them is that their solution lacks a unified approach. Sometimes the licensing is not clear, and when you purchase a product, you find that you need certain licenses or additional products. There is not one comprehensive solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Fortinet FortiGate is stable. We have been using it for three years and did not face any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have been using Fortinet FortiGate for three years and did not face any scalability issues.
How are customer service and support?
I do not have good visibility about Fortinet FortiGate's tech support because it is similar to other vendors. There is tech support available, and if there is an operational issue, the operations team opens a ticket with tech support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We work with local companies and local partners. Both the vendor and official channels work with local partners for implementation.
How was the initial setup?
I do not remember there being challenges or complexity in the deployment of Fortinet FortiGate.
What about the implementation team?
We work with local companies and local partners. Both the vendor and official channels coordinate with local partners.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Fortinet FortiGate's price is reasonable compared with other vendors.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Fortinet FortiGate is in a good position. In Gartner, they are leaders, but they may come after Palo Alto and are better than Cisco in the firewall field.
What other advice do I have?
We are deploying micro-segmentation technology and methodology in our cloud and private cloud deployment. I can assess that Fortinet FortiGate is good overall. My review rating for this product is eight out of ten.
Unified security has improved perimeter protection and optimized multi-link WAN performance for cloud workloads
What is our primary use case?
Fortinet FortiGate serves as our perimeter network firewall for our internal needs, and we also use SD-WAN to combine several internet service providers. I have experience with integration of SD-WAN capabilities, and I can explain my feedback on this.
What is most valuable?
The impact of SD-WAN on my network performance is clear, and if we speak about Fortinet Unified SASE, it is effective for me. My experience with this unified agent brings some examples to mind.
What needs improvement?
There are some areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate, including some small challenges I have faced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Fortinet FortiGate for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I do not work with Fortinet FortiGate Data Center solution, and in general, Fortinet FortiGate is stable. I never see any crashes or downtime; it performs fine overall, but I wonder if it is also scalable or if there may be some limitations, possibly regarding cost to scale.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I never see any crashes or downtime; it performs fine overall, but I wonder if it is also scalable or if there may be some limitations, possibly regarding cost to scale.
How are customer service and support?
I would give technical support from Fortinet nine points as well, noting that only the licensing model could be a bit improved, and all the rest is fine.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it.
How was the initial setup?
Since implementing Fortinet FortiGate, I have not seen significant changes in ROI, but what I can share about deployment is that Fortinet FortiGate is easy to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
I deploy the solution on the cloud.
What was our ROI?
Since implementing Fortinet FortiGate, I have not seen significant changes in ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In terms of pricing, the solution is a bit expensive, but I think it was a better option than Checkpoint, which is why I replaced it.
What other advice do I have?
I am working with Fortinet FortiGate as a customer. I purchased the product from Fortinet directly, and if we speak about integration of SD-WAN with Fortinet FortiSASE, it has a positive impact on application performance in my case. For SD-WAN, I am not using it, so I would rate my overall experience with Fortinet FortiGate as nine out of ten points. I don't want to see new features included or new integrations for now.